{"id":138678,"date":"2022-03-08T15:18:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=138678"},"modified":"2022-03-08T15:33:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:33:47","slug":"iwd-2022-pr-and-comms-leaders-support-breakthebias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/iwd-2022-pr-and-comms-leaders-support-breakthebias\/","title":{"rendered":"IWD 2022: PR and comms leaders support #BreakTheBias"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from the team at Hotwire Global<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the theme for this year\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day 2022<\/a>. We spoke to a number of PR and communications professionals in the industry to ask about their experiences and shed light on how we can all play our part to spark lasting change.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Taylor-Cottle, Head of Communications, EMEA at Citrix<\/a><\/span><\/strong>
\n\"Rebecca‘As communications professionals, we have a significant amount of influence within our businesses. With the right planning and dedication, we can use this influence to elevate women\u2019s stories, sponsor women, and raise their profiles both internally and externally. In a former role, I did an audit of the people who represent our business in the media and found them to be just 3% women. I then looked for ways to improve things, running more media training for women, introducing new narrative arcs, and simply elevating women\u2019s voices on social media. A year later, 30% of our media coverage had a female spokesperson. By acting as a sponsor for women, I created a much more representative view of our business from a media standpoint, and helped some of those women develop and grow in their roles. We may not be in charge of who is hired, but Communications teams can still have a huge impact on women\u2019s careers.’<\/p>\n

Melanie Coffee, PR and Media Relations Director at Crayon<\/a><\/span><\/strong>
\n\"Melanie‘I\u2019ve been a storyteller for over 20 years and am always on the hunt for a good story to share. We often hear about the lack of women in the IT space, but there\u2019s certainly not a lack of stories about us. It\u2019s just a matter of taking a brief moment to look and listen for them.<\/p>\n

‘When I find out about a cool project, I like to talk to individual team members, not just the person leading it. In doing so, you will often get different insights that strengthen your story, and it is more inclusive for the whole team.<\/p>\n

‘When it comes to working to #BreaktheBias, early in my career I was fortunate enough to work with some incredibly powerful women who showed me the different ways in which they \u201cowned their space\u201d and they were unafraid to stand up for what they thought was right. I carry those lessons with me and try to pay it forward through supporting women and young people in their careers.<\/p>\n

‘This can happen through providing feedback 1:1 on their recent presentation, taking a few minutes to push them to \u201cown their space,\u201d combating feelings of imposter syndrome, and my personal favorite: Stop telling yourself no.<\/p>\n

‘Sometimes we talk ourselves out of an idea before we even propose it. That\u2019s telling ourselves \u201cno.\u201d We need to stop doing that and instead push forward. And if we \u201cfail\u201d then make sure we \u201cfail\u201d forward.<\/p>\n

‘It\u2019s also being transparent in my own work and life. How I have failed forward, how I struggle to balance family and work. I am hopeful that by being open and honest with others I can help them learn along the way.’<\/p>\n

Natasha Gay, senior account director and UK Hotwire Ignite Possibilities Programme (HIPP)<\/a> lead, at Hotwire Global<\/a><\/span><\/strong>
\n\"Natasha‘As an industry, we must do more to restore the diversity balance through actions, in order to shift the narrative. It all starts with people, and it can’t be done in a tokenistic way.<\/p>\n

‘We can\u2019t yet consign to history the idea PR is only for young, white women. According to the most recent PRCA census<\/a>, 74% of those working in the industry identify as white British and the average is 38.<\/p>\n

‘We should be actively looking for ways to increase the diversity of our workforce. This extends beyond recruitment – it starts at an education level. It\u2019s about recognising and understanding why the industry has not diversified like other sectors. This is something that we at Hotwire feel very passionate about and, as a start, we are working with organisations like 10000 Black Interns<\/a> to help address this.’<\/p>\n

Vic Miller, VP PR & Communications at GWI<\/a>:<\/span><\/strong>
\n\"Vic‘The term ‘PR girl’ should be banished for eternity. Now in my 40s I rarely get ‘girl’ but the concept is still the same – the presumption that there is a woman who does PR and she’s at your service. This completely removes the understanding that PR and comms is a strategic role that often needs to set the strategy as well as deliver on it.’<\/p>\n

For more on how the UK PR industry is marking IWD 2022, check out our blog here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from the team at Hotwire Global.\u00a0 Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":138685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,3725],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138678"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138693,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138678\/revisions\/138693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}