[Commlist] Women's Work in PR: Call for Papers

We would like to invite you to submit a chapter abstract to:

*_Women's Work (in PR): An edited collection_*

*/Contacts:            Liz Bridgen, Sheffield Hallam University 
((e.bridgen /at/ shu.ac.uk) <mailto:(e.bridgen /at/ shu.ac.uk)>)
                                                 Sarah Williams, 
University of Wolverhampton ((sarah.williams /at/ wlv.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(sarah.williams /at/ wlv.ac.uk)>)/*

*/Submissions and  queries to be sent to: (WomensWorkinPR /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(WomensWorkinPR /at/ gmail.com)>/*

This edited collection prioritises women's experience and histories in 
the public relations workplace. The experience of women’s everyday lives 
in public relations roles across the world is often under recorded and 
while the body of knowledge of this area is growing, this collection 
aims to use academic writing and research as a way to further 
 highlight, record, and understand the experience of a constitutive 
part of public relations that is usually unseen or hidden - that of the 
working lives of women in public relations roles across the world.

The aim of this edited collection is to demonstrate the breadth and 
range of feminist public relations study on women's work, taking a step 
(or more) away from the management-based writing on public relations and 
towards a space where marginalised voices and the lived experiences of 
women at all stages in their career are considered and foregrounded.

Public relations defines itself as a strategic management function – 
that is how it wants to perceive itself, and that is how it wants others 
to see it. However, what this collection does is shift the gaze of 
public relations scholarship in order to forefront the women who 'do' 
this (and other) public relations activities both in the office and when 
placed in a domestic environment by COVID-19 restrictions. It places 
centre stage the experiences not just of the 'typical' young public 
relations professional but those who are often ignored in public 
relations research.  This can include older practitioners, freelancers, 
and those working in marginalised occupations (such as the sex industry 
and for 'unethical' causes such as tobacco) and those working in 
non-western countries.

But this book aims to be more than just the sum of women's work in 
public relations; it also tells the story of the 'backstage' of public 
relations and the women who simply /get the job done/ and navigate the 
problems and contradictions in everyday life.

The 'turn' towards a more critical style of public relations scholarship 
over the last two decades has increased the number of articles, papers 
and book chapters exploring the experience of individuals in public 
relations but quantitative research dominates in key public relations 
journals and therefore overlooks individual experience or that which 
cannot be explained in numerical form - such as ethnicity, class, 
gender, sexuality and difference.

Through developing this collection and inviting submissions we are not 
trying to be ‘objective’ and to present a totality of experiences of 
women's experiences in public relations; something like that would be 
impossible anyway. We are simply looking to document and prioritise the 
experience of women working in public relations - either in their own 
right or through Tetreault’s (1985) multifocal lens where, through an 
exploration of the relationship between women and men, human experience 
is reconceptualised. Grunig (2006) developed this further suggesting 
there was an integrative phase in feminist research which acknowledged 
the holistic nature of women's lives which can include work, childcare, 
caring for the elderly, community commitments, etc. and that is also an 
area which could be developed.

We envisage this collection as containing around 12 academic essays 
(chapters) of c. 3,000-6,000 words but within the format there would be 
room for some shorter practitioner stories (c. 300-1,000 words each) 
which explore practitioner personal experience and are written in the 
first person. No payment from authors/APC is required.

We would aim for 2023 publication.

*Timescale*

·Call for abstracts – issued April 2021

·Deadline for abstracts- July 2021 *Please send abstracts to 
/(WomensWorkinPR /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(WomensWorkinPR /at/ gmail.com)>/*

·Decision on abstracts – September 2021

·Completed essays submitted to editors – April 2022

·Comments to authors - July 2022

·Revised essays submitted to editors September 2022

·Book MS delivered to publishers – Winter 2022/3

·Publication - 2023

*Potential themes - these are not designed to provide a limitation but 
are for inspiration*

  * Communicating COVID-19 – the role of the communicator and the
    pressures experienced
  * Working during a national lockdown: combining work and domestic roles

·Forty years on from the Velvet Ghetto report

  * Race and identity

·Women's work in public relations in specific countries/international voices

·Women's work in particular disciplines, e.g. internal comms, financial 
PR, etc.

  *   Diversity and public relations

·Exploitation in the workplace

·Online behaviours

·#MeToo and male behaviours

·Female opposition and activism in the workplace

·Belittling of the experience of women's work in PR and opposition to it

·Marginalisation of women in the workplace

·The experience of older women in the workplace

·Experience of young professionals

·Freelancing and women-only companies

·Flexible working

·Experiences of graduates/work placements

·Class and gender

·Women in PR in fiction / the arts / TV / film

·Women in PR academia

·Women working in marginalised occupations (e.g. sex industry, tobacco, 
extremist politics)

·Working women and childcare/caring


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