BusinessReport.com

It’s a good time for handlers.

Public figures, politicians, companies, athletic teams, universities, even churches have found that keeping a media whiz around is an essential part of doing business.

Who can blame them? Say or do anything your audience finds offensive, and it’s potentially exploited by a spiteful YouTuber typing away in his mother’s basement.

This bodes well for women, long drawn to public relations. Their numbers currently dominate the field, and that’s not changing anytime soon.

In a 2005 member survey, the Public Relations Society of America found that 69% of its more than 20,000 members were female, up from 60% in 1997. The survey also noted that members who have been in the industry for up to five years were more likely to be women, 83% versus 17% men.

The trend is true in the public sector as well. In March, the National Association of Government Communicators’ Trends and Salary Survey revealed that two out of every three government communicators are female.

“The iconic position in our industry is the White House press secretary,” said NGAC President Gene Rose, noting Dana Perino’s place at the podium. “Based on our survey results, we should be seeing several more examples of women holding major spokesperson roles in government.”

The PR employee pipeline is also overwhelmingly stocked with women. This month, 40 students will graduate in public relations from LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, and only four are men.

Women historically entered PR because of the stereotype that they excel at event planning, writing and building relationships, says Delia Taylor, president of Taylor Media in Baton Rouge and a Manship School adjunct professor.

“What I tend to find is that women either are better, or they’ve been told they’re better, at English,” she says.

The written word remains an essential task, says Taylor, who teaches a media writing class, but she adds that doesn’t mean just churning out news releases.

“The wrong information can be around the world in no time,” she says. “The ability to communicate fast is so much more important today than it was.”

Younger staff members, practiced at the texting and blogging arts, are naturals for the fast pace. They’re well-positioned to help companies develop a presence on social networking sites and to use other new media.

Female students also don’t feel confined to traditional subspecialties, says Danny Shipka, assistant professor of mass communication at the Manship School.

“Women are really branching out,” he says, adding that two students recently landed paid internships with the NFL’s New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.

Many younger women who select a niche also see the value of supplemental training or additional degrees. Recent Manship School graduate Daci Spielberger, 23, has spent the last year working in public relations at Zehnder Communications in Baton Rouge, but she will pursue a graduate degree in public health this fall. A love of writing drew her to PR, and now she wants to use it to promote prevention and good health.

“I’ve become passionate about health, and I want to find ways to get the message out about healthy behavior,” she says.

Still, with all the changes that have given PR more heft, Taylor says the profession has room to hone its definition and to distinguish itself from other fields.

“As an industry, we’ve not done a good job of what we are and what we can be,” she says, adding that a recent emphasis on accreditation is encouraging high standards and consistency.

But the current climate does make it an easier sell, says Taylor, who recalls when the PR expert played second fiddle to the lawyer and accountant.

“The bottom line is that jobs and dollars can be affected by an inability to communicate,” she says. “Anyone entering the field should know that what we bring is powerful and marketable.”