Abstract

While journalism traditionally is considered a ‘masculine’ domain, it is said that public relations are a ‘feminine’ profession. The legitimation for this gendered coding of two professions are so-called gender different characteristics. The aim of this article is to show how the differentiation of professional roles in journalism and journalism-related fields goes hand in hand with processes of gender differentiating ascriptions on the symbolic and discoursive levels. Additionally, the communication research reproduces these binary codes in context with gender codings. The history of professions shows that gendered practices of ascription are arbitrary and only needed to legitimize gendered positionings in the professional field. A closer look at the gendered positioning of the two professions journalism and public relations shows that both have primary and secondary job markets, horizontal and vertical segmentation, and gender-based differences in pay. The gendered positioning – existing on two levels between journalism and public relations as well as within both professions – is not the product of gender different characteristics but of gendered ascriptions of meaning to different job positions. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze both the gendered practices of ascription on the symbolic and the discoursive levels, as well as the gendered positioning in the relationship of journalism and public relations and within both professions. Finally, the consequence for the main/malestream research in the relationship between journalism and public relations could be that the ‘feminization’ of public relations leads public relations researchers to underestimate the power of public relations.