Pioneering Women Public Relations in Canada

Dr. Jahansoozi was awarded a Research and Professional Development grant for a research project examining the impact of gender on senior Canadian women public relations practitioners.

This collaborative study has focused on how gender has shaped Canadian public relations career experience and the public relations occupation. Gender and public relations research typically has focused on women and men’s salary disparity and over-representation of men in leadership positions (Aldoory, 2009. 2005; Grunig, 1988, 2006), but it tends to make blanket assumptions about the difference gender makes to professional practice and identity. Our research has asked what is the experience of senior Canadian women practitioners working on Vancouver Island, and how are experience and perceptions of gender constitutive of occupational and organizational identities and practice?