Assessing the Managerial Roles of Black Female Public Relations Practitioners Using Individual and Organizational Discriminants

These buzz words of the 80s have provided insight into the changing communications industry and have prompted researchers and media professionals alike to analyze the fact that women are, in increasing numbers, taking over previously male-dominated fields. Demographically, the representation of women in the U.S. workforce has increased steadily during a 10-year period beginning in the 1970s. Women (18 years and older) comprised roughly 38% of the workforce in the 1970s. By 1980, that percentage had increased to more than 42% (Davis, 1980; Grossman, 1982). Two thirds of all public relations practitioners were projected to be women by 1990 (Dozier, Chapo, & Sullivan, 1983). While women have been making gains in the workplace, they have also had an impact in the nation's journalism classrooms. In 1984, nearly 73% of the students studying public relations were women (Peterson,