PR Council Launches The SHEQUALITY Project to Promote Workplace Equality and Propel More Women into Leadership Roles at PR Agencies

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The PR
Council is proud to announce a new initiative, aptly named The
SHEQUALITY Project, designed to help women executives rise in the
ranks of public relations agencies. SHEQUALITY aims to create a
consistent pipeline of strong female leaders, mentors and allies, to
engender more women leaders, and to achieve equality in the top
positions at PR firms of all sizes.

The initiative was sparked by female board members of the PR Council
committed to seeing more women achieve success by sharing the tools,
knowledge and pathways to help them reach career goals. The SHEQUALITY
Project committee is led by Maureen Lippe, CEO of Lippe Taylor, who said
“This started out as a desire to bring top women leaders together to
network and has turned into a powerful and relevant program for
executive women in the PR industry. We are all very excited and
committed to making this new program a great success.”

The SHEQUALITY Project’s official launch took place during
Women’s History Month at a Museum of Public Relations’ first annual
event curated by Shelley Spector, founder of the museum. On March 9 at
6pm, a panel discussion entitled “PR
Women Who Changed History” featured Anne Bernays, novelist, teacher,
and daughter of Doris Fleischman Bernays, wife of Edward Bernays; Muriel
Fox, co-founder and PR director, National Organization for Women; Meg
Lamme, professor, University of Alabama; and Karen Miller Russell,
professor, University of Georgia. The panel was emceed by Renee Wilson,
president, PR Council.

The SHEQUALITY mandate is to build women’s skills, advocate for
an environment of equality regarding gender pay, career opportunities
and financial backing/funding, as well as to create more champions for
women in the PR workforce. Specific activities under The SHEQUALITY
Project’s umbrella are regional networking dinners, workshops and events
and content creation to raise awareness and educate others on the topic
including a video produced by the film team at Weber Shandwick. Three
workshops planned in 2017 include:

• “Acing Operations & Financial Management” – May 2017
  Financial
  management and operations for rising female executives

• “Owning & Navigating the Room” – August 2017
  Perception of
  women in leadership, personal branding and unconscious bias

• “Choosing Your C-Suite Seat” – November 2017
  Strategic
  networking, executive coaches and women who inspire

Members of the The SHEQUALITY Project committee are:

• Karen van Bergen, CEO, Omnicom Public Relations Group
• Jennifer Cohan, President, Edelman New York
• Virginia Devlin, Founder & President, Current Marketing
• Sandra Fathi, President, Affect
• Gail Heimann, President, Weber Shandwick
• Maureen Lippe, CEO, Lippe Taylor
• Barri Rafferty, Partner & President, Ketchum
• Barby Siegel, CEO, Zeno Group
• Renee Wilson, President, PR Council

If you would like more information on The SHEQUALITY Project and
how you can get involved, please contact the PR Council at sghazaii@prcouncil.net
or register here
to receive news and information on the initiative.

The PR Council is the trade association of America’s leading
communications and public relations firms. Its membership represents the
premier global, mid-sized, regional and specialty firms across every
discipline and practice area. The Council’s mission is to advocate for
and advance the business of communications and public relations firms by
building the market and the value of firms as strategic business
partners. For more information about the Council, visit prcouncil.net.

Contacts

Media:
PR Council
Sara Ghazaii, 973-248-7005
Vice
President, Communications
sghazaii@prcouncil.net