ABSTRACT
This chapter pursues an understanding of emotional labour performed through gendered interactions in the workplace. Drawing on an interdisciplinary review of literature relating to gender, I argue that the feminisation of public relations is a more complex phenomenon than it at first might seem. While the over-representation of women at the lower and middle levels of PR agencies is widely acknowledged by scholars, less acknowledged in the PR literature are the social processes that construct gendered institutions and organisations. These processes include decisions and procedures on who is included/excluded in terms of gender roles, the gendered discourses of the profession, as well as gendered performance and identity construction through PRP-client interactions. The gendered discourse of the PR professional project suggests parallel struggles: a struggle on the one hand towards professional legitimacy, in relation to other professions; and a more subtle gender struggle within the ‘pink ghetto’ through PRPs’ day-to-day relationships. Postfeminist analyses and an understanding of gender as performativity enable an interrogation of this ‘gender regime’ in PR. Finally, digital emotional labour - another area of gendered work - should be understood as the focus of PRP effort as online relationships increasingly define PR practice.
