Sarah Hall writes …
Through the fantastic response to last Friday’s #CIPRCHAT and recent coverage in PR Week, The Drum and Communicate Magazine, I know many of you are fully up to speed with the CIPR’s commitment to tackle equal pay and gender balance in PR.
In terms of an update, work is pushing on apace, with a view to more information being available following the CIPR Council meeting in April.
Some great work is also being carried out elsewhere. In the course of this last week PR Week has opened up entries to its Top 150 Consultancies guide and consultant editor Claire Murphy has confirmed that they are asking entrants to say how many female board directors they employ.
Although the question is optional, the aim is to gather a picture illustrating which agencies are actively promoting women into leadership positions and it is hoped there will be enough responses for the results to be statistically significant. Recent PR articles etc. from theMarketingblog.
Claire said: “There’s been a variety of pieces of research looking at the effect of gender diversity on corporate performance and most conclude that having women on the board is associated with elevated profits. This Credit Suisse report in particular has a nice, clear conclusion, that having at least one woman on the board means higher average returns on equity and lower gearing than those companies with no women on the board.”
The deadline for submission for the Top 150 is close of business on Wednesday 9th April. I hope all those who enter take the chance to respond in full and if not, commit to looking in depth at why they feel unable to.