Public relations industry in Turkey: Career experiences of women public relations professionals

There are resources in the literature on the historical development of public relations, the contributions of women professionals and academics in this process, and the years of institutionalization of public relations, but the information about the professionalization process of the field and and women professionals, which we can describe as the second generation in this process, is limited. For this reason, it is aimed to contribute with the findings obtained from this thesis study. In this context, information about the public relations profession in Turkey can be obtained when one has an understanding of the experiences of women professionals who both make up the majority of workforce in Turkey's public relations industry and make great contributions to the understanding, development and advancement of public relations. In the study, interviews were conducted with a total of twenty-five female professionals, eleven agency heads and fourteen mid-level managers, in order to reveal the professionalization process of public relations and its changes, the effects of a feminized field on the profession, and the reflections of the concept of gender on the public relations practices of professionals. The findings obtained as a result of the interviews were revealed by interpreting with descriptive analysis. In the light of the findings, women professionals prefer to stay away from definitions related to gender in their definitions of the profession and sector of public relations and when defining the characteristics and job descriptions that public relations professionals should have; that public relations is a profession that should be carried out on the axis of analytical thinking on a scientific basis; they define professionalism as a separate concept from women's identities; they present active and passive empowerment strategies when they encounter negative situations due to being a women.