Last year, I launched a project for EUPRERA on women in public relations in collaboration with colleagues from several European countries.
In the first phase of the project, we conducted an extensive literature review on everything that has been published on women in PR. It was quite an effort but ultimately the research produced some good results.
The first report of the project has been released in September 2019 and it contains an extensive literature review analysis, as we as all units of the analysis.
We analysed the literature review using thematic analysis approach and we have found that the highest number of articles has been published in the past decade.
The thematic analysis was conducted for all decades (1982 -1989; 1990-1999; 2000-2009; 2010-2019) and we conducted a thematic analysis for all periods separately, and this data was then compiled to one final thematic analysis graph (see below).
Thematic Analysis: Main Literature Themes (1982-2019)
The analysis revealed that the position of women in PR has reached a full circle in four decades of research and returned to the discriminatory work environment, as even though the position of women has significantly been improved since the early days, the reality is that many women still can’t progress in their careers.
The full report can be downloaded from Leeds Beckett
Reference
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. Retrieved from: http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/6138/12/EupreraReportPV-TOPIC.pdf
Martina Topić
Dr Martina Topić is a Senior Lecturer in Public Relations in Leeds Business School and a founder of the Centre for Research in Social Sciences and Humanities. She is also a project lead for EUPRERA Women in PR project. You can find out more about her work at her personal website or at the Leeds Beckett website
