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Connecting women and opportunity

Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity.

Connecting women and opportunity

Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity.

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Women in public relations shifting the diversity debate and challenging by doing – Gill Webber, Executive Director for Communications and Outreach at the Royal Institute of British Architects

Capitol Hill

Gill Webber is Executive Director for Communications and Outreach at the Royal Institute of British Architects, where she is responsible for all communications, marketing, library operations and awards, including the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture. She has previously worked in roles at the British Library, the General Medical Council and the BBC. She studied Politics at the University of Leeds and is a lay governor of Leeds Beckett University.

Gill Webber
Gill Webber

 “…Always remember there is more than one approach – you don’t have to be an alpha male to be successful and deliver great outcomes, you can do it your way and the board will be better for it…”

Gill, please can you tell us about your career history to date and what got you interested in communications and marketing?

I’ve been really lucky to do some very interesting things in my career, although I always meant to be a journalist and haven’t quite got round to that yet! As part of my degree at Leeds I spent six months working for a Congressman on Capitol Hill in Washington DC and because of my interest in journalism I was assigned to work with the Congressman’s Press Secretary.

I had never even heard of PR before this but I absolutely loved it and it seemed to combine the things I liked about journalism – writing and interviewing – with a broader range of skills, so from that point on I was hooked. When I finished my degree I was lucky enough to get a place on Edelman’s graduate training scheme which gave me a really broad range of experience as I worked in a different department every three months while also completing the CAM [Communications, Advertising and Marketing Foundation] Certificate.

British LibraryThe experience I gained on Capitol Hill and with Edelman set me up – I still use skills I learned there every day. I’ve been very lucky to do some really interesting, if at times high pressure, roles including being press officer for Panorama and Question Time at BBC News, Head of Communications for the BBC World Service and the British Library, and now Executive Director for Communication and Outreach at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

My current role is much broader than comms and marketing and I am responsible for the British Architectural Library – the national architecture collection of 4 million items; our exhibition and events programmes and our awards programme which includes the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture. But I think my comms and marketing skills are key to the success of delivering these broader programmes so it’s a great background to have for all sorts of wider roles.

Why is gender balance such a key issue in the industry and why is the CIPR’s (Chartered Institute of Public Relations’) work so important in this area?

There is of course an irony that in an industry dominated by women we still don’t have gender equality. Quite simply if we don’t achieve gender balance the industry is missing out on 50% of the talent available. That’s a huge waste not only from the individual’s point of view but from the employer’s point of view as well. A diverse workforce at all levels of seniority brings different perspectives and better outcomes.

The CIPR is right to focus on this issue and I think it has been doing a great job. However I think we need to move the debate on from issues around childcare and flexible working to business issues; we need to change the narrative. Childcare and flexible working are of course important – but they are important to both men and women and should be seen as such.

At a recent Women in Business conference I attended, the panel debates were dominated by discussions around flexible working whereas in the coffee breaks women were talking about how to get on the board, how to achieve their business goals. I believe we will achieve greater equality by providing support and focussing the debate on this.

Recent CIPR research states that gender has the third biggest possible influence on an individual’s salary in PR, even after factors such as length of service, seniority, parenthood and the higher prevalence of part-time work amongst women are accounted for. What can practically be done to address this?

Congrats to the CIPR for doing this research. It is essential to have a clear evidence base for addressing the issue. The £8,000 pay gap between men and women in PR has to reflect levels of confidence and negotiating skills in women as well as the attitudes of employers. So again I believe focussing on supporting these business skills will address this issue in the most effective way.

How can membership organisations like the CIPR and RIBA share knowledge and learning around gender balance and diversity?

Modern architectureLike the CIPR, RIBA has a huge focus on diversity and equality, an issue that is being championed by our next President, Jane Duncan. Architecture has even more of a mountain to climb than PR: 44% of architecture students are women but only 18% of fully qualified architects and 13% of partners in architecture practices.

We recently launched a RIBA Role Models project which celebrates the diversity of people within the profession with the aim of encouraging others to succeed in architecture. We plan to continue to campaign on this important issue.

What are your tips for women, regardless of sector, looking to progress to board level roles?

Boards need your advice and expertise! So if you want to be on the board, go for it. Act confident whether you feel it or not. I have found the experience of being a governor at Leeds Beckett University hugely valuable in my day job – it has given me a broader perspective and experience of a different sector and different approach.

Always remember there is more than one approach – you don’t have to be an alpha male to be successful and deliver great outcomes, you can do it your way and the board will be better for it. The only time you should act like a man is in applying for the role in the first place: A Hewlett Packard study found that men will apply for roles that they only feel 60% qualified for, women only apply if they feel 100% qualified. So just go for it.

How can the public relations industry help other industries challenge outdated perceptions of the sort of jobs women can do?

PR gives you a great skill set to move into many other roles – I have friends who have moved from PR into business growth coaching and consultancy, sustainability, academia, journalism, general senior management and of course running their own business in all sorts of different sectors. So we are already challenging by doing.

We should encourage young women into the industry and show the full range of what they can achieve – I have run a PR / marketing graduate training scheme at both the British Library and RIBA and those graduates have gone on to some fantastic roles in a wide range of sectors. It would be great if more employers would do this.

What projects do you have coming up at RIBA?

It’s a really exciting time at RIBA – we opened a new Architecture Gallery last year and our free exhibition programme has gone from strength to strength – our recent show on Charles Rennie Mackintosh attracted nearly 40,000 visitors and our current installation on The Brutalist Playground is encouraging 2,000 people a week to come and play.

We are launching a new RIBA International Prize for Architecture at the end of the year and our re-launched website architecture.com is fast becoming the destination for anyone interested in good design either as a cultural interest, or, through our Find an Architect service, on a more practical level.

 

http://www.architecture.com

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https://www.facebook.com/RIBAarchitecture

https://www.linkedin.com/company/riba

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