Women in Public Affairs launches pledges to raise standards in the industry

Women in Public Affairs is calling for the public affairs industry to raise standards and support the progression of women working within the public affairs industry

9 March 2020

To coincide with this year’s International Women’s Day, Women in Public Affairs has launched three industry pledges to support women working in both agency and in-house public affairs roles.

The pledges have been announced following Women in Public Affairs’ 2019 survey of women in the sector, which found that 1 in 4 (27%) women have experienced sexual harassment at work and that nearly two-thirds (60%) of women feel their company is not transparent about progression and pay.

Women in Public Affairs is calling for the industry to act in three ways:

1. Publish pay bands. Data shows that lack of transparency on pay disproportionately disadvantages women. In August 2018, the UK Government recommended that employers should clearly communicate the salary on offer to encourage women to negotiate their salary and introduce transparency to promotion, pay and reward processes to reduce pay inequalities. 

2. No more all male panels. We are asking all public affairs professionals to commit to not appearing on or holding events involving all male panels.

3. Publish sexual harassment policies and point of contact. Just 4% of survey respondents rated the industry as good at protecting and helping women deal with sexual harassment. As a starting point, it is vitally important that companies signpost to sexual harassment internal policies and support services.

The pledges have been informed by conversations with senior leaders across the industry, and are backed by the industry body, PRCA.

Laura Sainsbury, Chair of Women in Public Affairs, said:

“The new industry-backed pledges aim to raise industry standards and address some of the issues raised in our survey last year.  We hope that as many businesses as possible support us in driving positive behaviour and shining a line on best practice across the industry. 

“We will review the pledges and business uptake in six months, and will continue to work with senior leaders to drive women empowerment in the workplace.”