You see that picture, the pink one? That dear reader, is how I see the world, for I am a girl. Being a girl, I of course grew up playing with Barbie, changing the nappies of plastic babies, and serving plastic food to my male relatives from a toy kitchen island of girliness.
That was when I wasn’t working strenuously on developing my essential life and career skills – applying make-up, learning to walk in heels and – let us not forget – shopping.
This is all lies of course. I tried to drown my Barbie doll, cut all the hair off my make-up plastic head and demanded to paint my room black. Yes, I’m sure there are girly girls out there, and that’s fine, the world needs girly girls. What the world doesn’t need is this message being sent to the younger generation: “to be a successful girl in the workplace, you need to conform to this stereotype”.
Wrong.
But maybe I’m wrong*, apparently, there are 12 things PR women can’t live without, a list which includes make-up, and high heels.
PR has had a reputation for being the domain of “fluffy bunnies”, and I thought this was changing. I don’t know any senior woman in PR that could, in any way, be described as fluffy.
Women looking to enter the industry need to look towards these female leaders for inspiration and mentorship. They need to know how to communicate, rather than obsess about shoes and make-up. If women need anything in PR it’s the mentorship of those who have come before them.
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* no, I am not.
4 Comments. Leave new
Why on earth would PR Daily even publish that tripe? The single reason I can think of is for link-bait reasons. They knew it would stir people up. Aside from the high heels and make up, the entire article is patronising in the extreme. Poor girl probably thought she was doing her career a favour by getting that published. Would you hire her?! Nice response, Gemma.
Thanks Paul. I find it especially ironic that PR Daily posted a blog post about the sexist Children’s Place t-shirt yesterday.
The main thing I’m worried about is that someone, somewhere is teaching PR students this codswallop.
It’s curious that the article was written for a field that’s 70% female. I wonder if it would be more or less insulting if it was “Female Firefighters” or “Women in Space.” I’m sure Sally Ride needed her heels and blazer on the space station.
Thanks for the comment Amanda.
Some people are commenting that these are good tips for women that work in fashion or entertainment PR….I don’t know…I still think it’s a tad on the patronising side. I guess I’m still annoyed that it would be posted on a big industry blog.