A study of gender imbalance in public relation training at Daystar University

Abstract

Public relation (PR) is a field dominated by females in both the industry and academic programmes. Whilst scholars have expressed concerns on the implications of the gender imbalance on the industry, there is still inadequacy of literature on the reasons responsible for the occurrence especially for the causes for the low number of male students in PR training.Based on the reviewed literature for this research, most of the existing studies on gender in PR have greatly focused on the issues affecting female practitioners and advocated for the need to address such concerns.To fill this gap the study sought to find the reasons for the low number of male students in PR training at DU.The study employed descriptive research design and used questionnaires and interviews as the communication medium between the research objectives and study respondents.Both probability and non probability sampling methods were used to select respondents.Based on the constructs of the social cognitive theory (SCT) the study established that personal interests,self efficacy beliefs, perceptions,gender stereotypes and outcome expectations were major determinants of career choice among communication students.The findings reviewed that male students choose other concentrations over PR due to their lack of interest in PR and the perception that female students are better communicators.Further, the findings indicated that male respondents had low efficacy beliefs leading to their lack of confidence in their ability to perform well in PR hence the low number of male students in PR training in DU.The researcher recommends that in order to bridge the gap in PR training, the career counsellors and PR educators at DU should mentor and guide male students in selecting their communication majors and promote PR as a career that suits both genders.