Once again, I whole heartedly agree with you, thanks for bringing up another fascinating topic.

When I was in college, I took classes in both the male-dominated business school, and the female-dominated communication school- and the schools were very different. It is very interesting why there is such a discrepancy.

I think the schools look at “communication” fundamentally different. Though practices in each school change, I have come to learn that academia has been pretty stagnant.

For example, business schools have been teaching macro-managment, cooperation, while communication schools are teaching two-way communication and collaboration: neither way is wrong or right, but different. And from that perspective, I think for some reason, males feel more comfortable with the former message than the latter.

Either way, something needs to change.

I agree that it’s not recent, but thought it was interesting to call out as a truth. I don’t think that it’s beneficial to have a work group that doesn’t at least moderately represent the diverse publics that we’re communicating with. While we rightfully talk about racial diversity, we don’t ever talk about gender diversity.

As Kelly brought up in the first comment on this post, I wonder if digital PR/social media will help attract more guys going forward.

I think there is a lack of interest from young males that begins in college. I studied Communication at GW and was one of the few guys that did. I liked PR and thought that Comm was the track for me. I knew a few guys at GW who liked PR but preferred marketing and the business track.

The divide began there, and with entry level salaries being what they are, more guys are staying close to their major and choosing to go to corporate marketing positions.

In addition to the need to address salaries, there also needs to be a bigger sell of the PR work that is tied to business and central to the success of a company.

Basically, the same argument where making to business execs about the power of and need for PR needs to be made to college students in our efforts to recruit and better the industry.

I’m a recent grad and could go on about this for a while, so if you’re interested, feel free to contact me: james.walker@prprescriptions.com

I agree that Hollywood has been part of the problem. So does Steve Cody. When I was drafting this post last night and ran a search on it, Steve’s post popped up. He goes into detail on why Hollywood’s take on PR people is turning young men away. Here’ a link. http://www.repmanblog.com/repman/2008/07/you-can-blame-t.html

I also agree that new media could be a way to get more young men excited about PR. It appeals to the natural tech-love affair most men have with gadgets and toys.

The field of PR has been glamorized and feminized by movies and shows like Sex and The City but the it extends far beyond party planning and publicity…

I think the increasing influence of new media is attracting more male involvement in the field.