Gender and Public Relations Critical Perspectives on Voice, Image and Identity Routledge New Directions in PR & Communication Research Series

Although there is a small body of feminist scholarship that problematizes gender in public relations, gender is a relatively undefined area of thinking in the field and there have been few serious studies of the socially constructed roles defining women and men in public relations.

This book is positioned within the critical public relations stream. Through the prism of ?gender and public relations?, it examines not only the manipulatory, but also the emancipatory, subversive and transformatory potential of public relations for the construction of meaning. Its focus is on the dynamic interrelationships arising from public relations activities in society and the gendered, lived experiences of people working in the occupation of public relations. There are many previously unexplored areas within and through public relations which the book examines. These include:

• the production of social meaning and power relations
• advocacy and activist campaigns for social and political change
• the negotiation of identity, diversity and cultural practice
• celebrity, bodies, fashion and harassment in the workplace
• notions of managing reputation and communicating policy.

In extending the field of inquiry, this edited collection highlights how gender is accomplished and transformed, and, thus how power is exercised and inequality (re)produced or challenged in public relations. The book will expand thinking about power relations and privilege for both women and men and how these are affected by the interplay of social, cultural and institutional practices.

Winner of the Outstanding Book PRide Award, awarded by the National Communication Association (NCA).

Foreword Introduction. Gender and Public Relations: Making Meaning, Challenging Assumptions 1. Surface Effects: Public Relations and the Politics of Gender 2. Caring about Public Relations and the Gendered Cultural Intermediary Role 3. Interrogating Inequalities Perpetuated in a Feminized Field: Using Critical Race Theory and the Intersectionality Lens to Render Visible that which should not be Disaggregated 4. Gendered Performance and Identity Work in PR Consulting Relationships: A UK Perspective 5. Mothers, Bodies and Breasts: Organizing Strategies and Tactics in Women's Activism 6. Celebrity, Gender and Reputation Management at the BBC 7. Campaigning for 'Women, Peace and Security': Transnational Advocacy Networks at the United Nations Security Council 8. Gender, Culture and Power: Competing Discourses on the Philippine Reproductive Health Bill 9. 'I want to Voice out my Opinion': Bringing Migrant Women from beyond the Margins into Union Work 10. 'Mammography at Age 40-49 Saves Lives, Just not enough of Them': Gendered Political Intersections in Communicating Breast Cancer Screening Policy to Publics 11. Ex-Journos and Promo Girls: Feminization and Professionalization in the Australian Public Relations Industry

Christine Daymon is Associate Professor of Communication Management at Murdoch University, Australia. She is co-author of the successful Routledge book Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications, now in its second edition.

Kristin Demetrious is Associate Professor in Public Relations at Deakin University, Australia. Her first book is Public Relations, Activism and Social Change: Speaking Up (Routledge, 2013).