Just in time for Women’s History Month, the PR Council announced a new initiative, The SHEQUALITY Project. The project was designed to help women executives rise in the ranks of public relations agencies. The initiative, which was sparked by female board members of the PR Council, is committed to seeing more women achieve success by sharing the tools, knowledge and pathways to help them reach career goals.
The SHEQUALITY Project’s official launch took place at the Museum of Public Relations’ first annual event curated by Shelley Spector, founder of the museum. On March 9 at 6pm, a panel discussion entitled “PR Women Who Changed History” featured Anne Bernays, novelist, teacher, and daughter of Doris Fleischman Bernays, wife of Edward Bernays; Muriel Fox, co-founder and PR director, National Organization for Women; Meg Lamme, professor, University of Alabama; and Karen Miller Russell, professor, University of Georgia. The panel was emceed by Renee Wilson, president, PR Council.
SHEQUALITY’s mission is to create a consistent pipeline of strong female leaders, mentors and allies, to engender more women leaders, and to achieve equality in the top positions at PR firms of all sizes.
The initiative was sparked by female board members of the PR Council committed to seeing more women achieve success by sharing the tools, knowledge and pathways to help them reach career goals.
The SHEQUALITY Project from PR Council on Vimeo.
DIVERGE talked to Sara Ghazaii, Vice President, Communications at PRWeek and Maureen Lippe, CEO of Lippe Taylor and Head of the project committee for The SHEQUALITY Project:
Where did the idea for SHEQUALITY come from? The SHEQUALITY Project was sparked by female board members of the PR Council committed to seeing more women achieve success by sharing the tools, knowledge and pathways to help them reach career goals.
Why is it needed/significant? It’s crucial that women empower other women, and help create a consistent pipeline of strong female leaders, mentors and allies, to engender more women leaders, and to achieve equality in the top positions at PR firms of all sizes.
How was the first event? The first workshop, “Acing Operations & Financial Management” Financial management and operations for rising female executives will take place in May, hosted by Barri Rafferty, Partner & President of Ketchum.
What do you hope this project will accomplish? The hope is that The SHEQUALITY Project builds women’s skills, advocates for an environment of equality regarding gender pay, opens career opportunities and financial backing/funding, as well as creates more champions for women in the PR workforce.
Future plans? We will host two additional workshops in 2017 – “Owning & Navigating the Room” and “Chasing Your C-Suite Seat.” We encourage those interested to sign up here http://prcouncil.net/shequality/ for more information and full details.
We will also be hosting networking dinners across the country. We are convening agency leaders in different markets – Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas/Forth Worth, Washington DC, Chicago, New York, Boston, calling on women to host dinners in their area, to spark conversation and thought leadership.
Will this help improve diversity and inclusion in PR? Absolutely. That is a guiding principe of the SHEQUALITY Project.
Who is the team behind this:
Members of the SHEQUALITY Project committee are:
- Karen van Bergen, CEO, Omnicom Public Relations Group
- Dale Bornstein, M Booth
- Jennifer Cohan, President, Edelman New York
- Virginia Devlin, Founder & President, Current Marketing
- Sandra Fathi, President, Affect
- Gail Heimann, President, Weber Shandwick
- Maureen Lippe, CEO, Lippe Taylor
- Barri Rafferty, Partner & President, Ketchum
- Barby Siegel, CEO, Zeno Group
- Renee Wilson, President, PR Council
- Tonya Veasey, President of OCG PR
