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30 December 2020
Call for book proposals: Women, Economics and The Labour Relations

Emerald book series Women, Economics and the Labour Relations
Series Editor: Martina Topic, Leeds Beckett University, UK

This series aims to publish monographs and edited collections (in the region of 70,000-90,000 words) that tackle the position of women in the economy as well as explore labour relations. By labour relations, it means studying human relations in work in its broadest sense and analysing how labour relations affect social inequality with particular reference to women. In terms of social inequality, this series particularly welcomes analyses of women and class and broader analyses of labour relations.

The series will publish perspectives from around the world and thus the series fits into the understanding of labour relations through both work relations in a Western sense and non-Western forms of labour. The series is also interested in studies of the position of women in worker’s unions, stance on women’s affairs within workers unions, and the position of women and women’s affairs in labour movements.

Both historical and contemporary perspectives are welcome. Studies in industrial and economic sociology are particularly welcome. The book series aims to publish books from a variety of perspectives. Also, the book series will accept case study perspectives on women working in various industries, particularly the position of women in working-class positions, e.g. factory workers, supermarket workers, etc. Studies on women in feminized industries (e.g. nursing, teaching, PR) and masculine industries (construction, business, finance) are equally welcome.

More info & submissions
9 March 2020
Call for Papers for Facta Universitatis: #METOO Movement

Call for Papers for a special number of the journal Facta Universitatis
#METOO MOVEMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND WHAT NEXT?
Guest editor: Dr Martina Topić, Leeds Beckett University
Deadline for paper submissions: September 1

Following 6th International Conference on Women’s Studies (Leeds, January 2020), a special issue is being prepared. EUPRERA members and colleagues are invited to submit papers for the call.

#metoo movement has gained prominence in 2017 with Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse case, which triggered many celebrities to accept the hashtag and tweet about their experiences of sexual harassment. Ultimately, this spread to the general public and many women started to openly tweet and talk about harassment and abuse they endured during their lifetimes. The movement soon achieved international recognition and became a truly global movement of women talking about harassment and fighting the prejudice from the post-feminist argument of all battles being won.

However, the term was originally created by a Black woman Tarana Burke in 2006 who started to tweet using ‘me too’ words to warn about harassment and abuse. Thus, #metoo hashtag movement has both raised an important issue and created awareness of harassment women face in their everyday life whilst, at the same time, creating a bitter feeling because it feels as if the movement has been hijacked from Black women whose equality plight is intersectional and fundamentally tied to their race and not just gender.

While the importance of movement and its positive impact is unquestionable, the question is how do we continue from now on and how do we make sure that all voices get heard? How do we teach about #metoo movement? However, these questions are relevant to the West. In other parts of the world, #metoo had a different context and was experienced differently, which again raises an issue, what next?

Therefore, this special issue tackles some of the problems outlined above. The proposed structure of the special issue is divided into two sections:

  1. section on problematising #metoo movement
  2. teaching about #metoo movement

An introductory article will outline a timeline of the movement, its impact and some issues and debates that arose, and then discuss these against articles in the special issue.

The research papers (max. 40.000 characters with spaces)
should be submitted in English by September 1, 2020.
For more details and instructions for authors please go to the
full Call for Papers
8 March 2020
Women in Public Relations: Should Organisations Review How They Treat Women?

This blog post has been written by Dr Martina Topić and is based on EUPRERA project report on Women in Public Relations (EUPRERA report Vol. 1, No. 1) co-authored by Martina Topić, Maria João Cunha, Amelia Reigstad, Alenka Jelen-Sanchez, Audra Diers Lawson, Mirela Polić, Ángeles Moreno, Belen Zurbano Berenguer, Beatrice Damian-Gaillard, Paloma Sanz, Cristina Fuentes Lara, Nataša Cesarec Salopek, Eugenie Saitta, Carla Cruz, Nataša Simeunović Bajić, Hanne Vandenberghe, Leli Bibilashvili and Natia Kaladze.

Key Findings
  • women in public relations continually report inequality, stereotypes and bias withing public relations organisations
  • women feel confined to technician positions and unjustly deprived of opportunities and recognition
  • women feel they have no power in public relations organisations
Implications for Public Relations

In four decades of research, women continually reported inequality and an unsatisfactory position within public relations organisations, based on bias and stereotypes. Public Relations organisations should review equality policies in organisations and consider to what extent are promotions grounded in old stereotypes about women not being fit for the job to increase staff satisfaction and workforce morale and contribute towards equality of men and women.

Summary

The research presented here was conducted on the academic literature published between 1982 and 2019. Academic studies analysed have been written based on interviews and focus groups with PR practitioners, thus providing an overview of the situation for women in the PR industry in the analysed period. These studies show the true situation in the field of public relations, better than any PR conference or associations’ meeting could provide because interviewed women express their view anonymously and thus without fear of repercussions.

An analysis of research conducted on women in four decades of research shows that the discrimination of women has reached a full circle and that women’s issues in the public relations industry are marked by bias against women and unfavourable position in organisations. The issues change over the time, and thus while women experienced bias in the 1980s of not being ambitious enough and thus prone to leave work to move away with their husbands, in the period between 2010 and 2019 a new bias emerged, this time claiming women have lower organisational skills and communication skills not always fit for the role.

For example, a thematic analysis of research has shown that women, during the 1980s, reported work discrimination (consisting of the glass ceiling, pay gap, being only offered technician positions and having PR degrees but still suffering from inequality against men with degrees mostly in journalism) and bias against women (consisting of covert discriminations of promotions where new positions were being invented for men, chauvinism, stereotypes against women being more inclined to look after families and move when their husband moves for work and the rise of women in the industry was seen as feminization with fears being raised of PR as a profession being under-valued). In the 1990s, however, new issues emerged and scholars started to report the issues of power, work experiences and work satisfaction and again glass ceiling and the pay gap. This period also brought criticism of liberal feminism as unhelpful for women and their plight for equality due to its failure to address issues below the surface, e.g. not just that the pay gap exists but why it exists. In the next period, 2000-2009, reports were made about professionalism (with particular reference on women still being confined to technician positions and lacking power in organisations) whilst the last period (2010-2019) was marked with a turn towards the beginning of the debate, and scholars reported concerns of women practitioners about work discrimination (consisting of issues such as women being confined to technician positions, pay gap and glass ceiling, but also lack of diversity and masculinities in work culture, which historically benefits men rather than women) and bias against women (consisting of issues such as stereotypes about women lacking organisational and teamwork skills, stereotypes about women’s communication skills and women lacking power in the organisations).

The project now continues with interviews with women practitioners in Europe.
First reports are due in summer 2020.
Citation

Topić, M.; Cunha, M.J. Reigstad, A.; Jelen-Sanchez, A.; Diers Lawson, A.; Polić, M.; Moreno, A.; Zurbano Berenguer, B.; Damian-Gaillard, B.; Sanz, P.; Fuentes Lara, C.; Cesarec Salopek, N.; Saitta, E.; Cruz, C.; Simeunović Bajić, N.; Vandenberghe, H.; Bibilashvili, L.; Kaladze, N. (2019). Women in Public Relations – A Literature review (1982-2019). EUPRERA Report Vol 1., No. 1. Leeds/Brussels: Creative Media and Communications Research Ltd. & EUPRERA. ISSN 2633-2353

Bio

Martina Topić is a senior lecturer in Public Relations at Leeds Beckett University, UK. She is a former journalist and entrepreneur and her research interests include journalism practise and women’s studies (with a particular interest in the position of women in journalism, public relations, marketing and advertising).

@martina_topic

9 September 2019
New ebook: Women in Public Relations – A Literature Review (1982-2019)

The body of knowledge now also counts this brand-new publication, titled Women in Public Relations – A Literature Review (1982-2019) and co-authored by 18 colleagues.

From the introduction

In order to meet the goals of the project Women in PR, the project team firstly conducted an extensive literature review of works written on women in public relations so far. In that, we looked at all works available to get a comprehensive picture of the situation and to identify trends in the literature and the research gaps. The majority of academic work analysed is produced following interviewing or surveying practitioners, and thus analysed work presents a good overview of trends in the public relations industry.

In the subsequent part of this report, we are therefore presenting the method used for analyzing the literature, literature analysis and discussion on further research. In addition, the appendix contains all units of the literature analysed to enable other scholars to analyse literature from a different angle and to provide a teaching resource to lecturers who teach public relations and/or women’s studies modules in higher education institutions.

ebook
(495 pages)
About the project Women in PR

The project Women in Public Relations led by Martina Topic aims to investigate the position of women in public relations, focusing on the challenges and opportunities for women in public relations, bloke-ification as a process, and women’s preferences in regards to the work environment and senior management structure. The project also aims to deconstruct the underlying structures that impede equality of women.

The goals of the project are:

  • To compare and contrast the position of women in Europe, by conducting comparative analysis among European countries and elsewhere in the world.
  • To show the issues that women practitioners in Europe are concerned with and inequalities of women practitioners.
  • To discuss the specific issues that affect the work of women public relations practitioners within each country represented in the project.
More about this project

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