An excellent letter from the estimable Sam Smith in the FT today on the subject of the gender pay gap.
The CEO of FinnCap and all-round good egg begins: “At a time when calls for diversity across society as a whole have never been greater it’s disappointing that this is not being reflected on FTSE boards.”
Progress has been made, she notes, but not enough.
This must be an issue for the PR industry too (and I daresay, the press).
If I were being mischievous, every time a PR firm’s name was on the bottom of a press release about gender or racial diversity, I’d be asking for the facts and figures from that PR firm before I took its posturing seriously.
A recent piece in PR Week was headlined: “Yes, PR has a racism problem.”
It quotes stats from the CIPR which has just 8% of PR professionals as anything other than “white”.
At a senior level, the statistics are even worse.
I think the PR industry sincerely wants to be part of the solution on this issue. It probably needs to move a bit faster before it can be seen as a force for good.
