PR pros mark International Women’s Day

For International Women’s Day, many organizations are looking to celebrate the work of their female colleagues—and the PR industry is a focal point.

For communicators and the groups they work for, female empowerment can strike close to home. Although women outnumber men in PR roles in the U.S., men are still more likely to draw higher salaries than women.

Kimberly Eberl, owner of The Motion Agency in Chicago, says the pay gap is due to a disparity in who gets promoted.

“Gender parity in the PR and communication space really is in management,” she says. “I used to work at other agencies—and even in my current agency—there is [and would be] a plethora of female PR practitioners and communications professionals. But then as people rise through the ranks and go through their careers, some women don’t always have a leadership stake.”

Eberl points to a telltale sign.

“It’s always a headline when there are women in management, like someone has made it that has never been there before in this certain organization,” she explains. Though happy that these successes are celebrated, she hopes one day they’ll be less newsworthy.