Professionals highlight typical female characteristics such as empathy
and sensitivity in dealing with the public as an explanation for the phenomenon
Contrary to other sectors of the communication market in Brazil, the PR or public relations market is dominated by female professionals. Businesswomen and partners, CEOs and other executives from the management level predominate in the teams of large, medium and small agencies (the latter, better known as boutiques).
And what would be the explanation for this female dominance in public relations? We believe in a few factors, one of which is that the nature of work in public relations is historically linked to female characteristics, such as communication, empathy and sensitivity to deal with different audiences and situations, says Bia Azevedo, partner at Marqueterie along with Teresa Westin and Debora Carvalho. Teresa emphasizes the female gift for managing teams. Generally, female leadership favors a more collaborative management style in a segment where teamwork is fundamental, which needs to unite disciplines and very diverse areas of action. These behavioral skills in balance with technical skills are valued and essential for a good performance in our market.
In the PR market for 17 years, Marqueterie can be classified as a medium-sized agency in the sector. Serves several segments, such as the financial market,
technology, food, beverages, education, architecture & design, real estate, civil construction and agribusiness, among others. Its multidisciplinary team is made up of 30 communication professionals from different disciplines: journalism, social media, advertising, graphic design and public relations, who work in the areas of PR, content, influencer marketing, media and creation.
The three Marqueterie partners have a common professional background in communication: Bia and Teresa are journalists and Dbora is an advertising professional. Dbora explains that the convergence of goals brought them together. Each one of us had individual motivations to get here, but we converged on the same goal. Using this leadership to manage an agency that genuinely makes a difference to the business of each of its clients and at the same time promotes a healthy and prosperous environment for its employees. Our Mission and Values, created in 2005, are very clear and state this: to make communication and relationships a valuable and strategic business tool in our clients’ daily lives, based on values such as quality, ethics, competence, transparency and efficiency.
Feeling
Journalism is also the professional origin of Ana Zambon, CEO of Tastemaker, a PR agency that, since it emerged in 2003, has served more than 390 clients. She has worked in fashion publications as a reporter and editor. I didn’t imagine having a business like today. After a season in Europe working at agencies in Milan and Paris, I learned that there was a keen eye to presenting brands and creating relationships with people. That was in 2002. When I returned to Brazil to organize my move, some brands approached me. When I realized, I already had CNPJ and clients. I started the image consulting format, and over 20 years the business has developed, but the beliefs are the same: communicating brands to people, regardless of who they are.
Ana believes that the female predominance in the area of public relations happens because the activity requires keen intuition to know and understand what will actually work well, a good dose of feeling to organize people and their egos, and also the condition to carry out various activities. at the same time without neglecting the smallest details. All of these, she adds, are attributes that women instinctively carry. We tended to be less explosive, more listening, points that put us in more strategic and less operational positions.
Fernanda Tchernobilsky, co-CEO of the PROS Comunicação agency, has a similar opinion. I believe that one of the main reasons is because, to act with PR, a lot of attention to the current context is needed and women have a greater sensitivity to capture these messages and transform them into powerful narratives. We also noticed a female ability to consider several points of attention at the same time (holistic vision) and an ease of dealing with people, working with flexibility and kindness, essential characteristics in our market.
Almost an exception among her career colleagues, Fernanda graduated in engineering, but claims that her orientation has always been communication. After a few years in production, it decided to move into fulfillment to be close to the end-to-end brand strategy. With a solid performance in the market of live marketing, brand experience, PR activation, branded content and influencer marketing, he has more than 25 years of experience, with passages in large agencies such as BFerraz, Rock, Hands among others, and accumulates great cases and awards – among them, the best customer service professional at the Ampro Globes Awards.
Fernanda’s colleague at PROS, co-CEO Daniela Graicar started early in the PR area: she opened her first agency at the age of 19. Today, she is the holster of a team of 120 professionals at the PROS agency. She is also at the forefront of the Aladas Movement, in support of female leadership and entrepreneurship, and is one of the directors of the WOB-Women on Board seal. I started in the world of PR while still in college, aged 17. I soon realized my vocation and passion for building brand reputation. At the age of 19, I decided to open my first PR agency and, from then on, I kept a curious eye on adopting creative strategies in each solution. Being able to serve the most diverse sectors of the economy and building strategies that mix delivery formats is what keeps the mind of a PR always renewed and my desire to continue growing in the sector, she says.
PROS serves the accounts of Grupo Boticrio, Grupo Petrpolis, Bauducco, Mercado Livre, Huggies, Intimus, Vibra, Porto and 20 other clients, with cases that mix content production, activation, influence marketing and a solid relationship with the press to amplify big ideas. It has a team of more than 120 employees.
Prejudice
Not everything is rosy on the path taken by PR professionals. Working in the sector for 13 years, businesswoman Denise Delalamo, owner of the agency focused on architecture and design that bears her name, remembers a phrase from the film Tringulo da Tristeza, a satire of customs that competes for three Oscar statuettes this year, to synthesize a reality that still persists in the labor market as a whole. There is a very interesting quote by one of the characters, a model agent: the only market where women earn more than men is fashion.
She says that women deal with a series of reflections of structural misogyny even today. Even in the communication, see how long it took for a woman to be promoted to the post of anchor on a television news program, for example, it only happened in 1976, in the USA, with Barbara Walters. And salary equalization is still a controversial discussion in this segment, as in almost all others.
Denise believes that female predominance in PR happens because it is a job that requires more than technical knowledge and diplomacy. It requires delicacy in dealing and a lot of flexibility to manage crises. Although these predicates are not exclusively feminine, we were conditioned, precisely to overcome previously insurmountable barriers, to overcome ourselves in these aspects, she says.
About what led her to join the PR activity, Denise says that she chose to work with communication out of passion. I’ve always liked people and brands. I started by advising an architect, which was a springboard for my entry into an agency specializing in the area of architecture, decoration, design and construction. I studied and made many connections and after eight years at that agency I decided to open my own, Denise Delalamo Comunicação. I started in my room, at my parents’ house, and as I always cultivated relationships, I soon got two very important brands and little by little I grew and formed a team. This trajectory is a little over 20 years old and I believe that the most important point is the need to reinvent oneself, to be open to change and to learn.
Read the full story in the March 6 issue
