Binaries, continuums, and intersections: Women public relations professionals’ understandings of gender

Abstract

This qualitative study of 45 women public relations professionals explores how the essentializing of gender shapes the public relations industry. The focus on the meaning-making of women practitioners proposes a more complex understanding of gender in public relations and speaks to gendered tensions experienced among other communication professionals. Responding to feminists’ call for gender to be explored in more holistic ways, I posed the research question, How do women public relations practitioners define gender? Participants defined gender as a binary construct, a social construct, and a phenomenon linked to age, race, and ethnicity. Findings suggest that some women public relations professionals are cognizant of gender scripts present in the industry, yet are vocalizing and enacting sexist stereotypes about women and gender. This study complements previous feminist theorizing by illustrating gender as relational and discursive as well as intersectional and ‘situated knowledge’.