Right now I’m smack in the middle of working towards a Master of Arts in Communications and Technology. Lucky for me, much of my learning and studies are applicable to my job, for example, the consulting course I am enrolled in. For one of our assignments, we were required to select a chapter from our text and write a discussion paper about the content. I chose to look a chapter about women in consulting. I thought this was an interesting topic because of the growing number of women in the public relations field (over 70% now).

The author of the chapter suggests that women are particularly good at consulting because we understand the value of relationships and emotions. Now, that’s not to suggest that men aren’t good at consulting or that they don’t understand the value of relationships and emotions – simply that women tend to come by this more naturally. Women are biologically hardwired to want to make connections with people and build relationships on trust and mutual respect, an important skill in consulting.

The chapter also suggested that women are well suited for PR because they are able to balance work and home life by recognizing that we wear both hats, all the time. We are able to look at our lives as a whole and realize that we can’t exactly just break off pieces whenever we choose. This is also important because work and family life teaches us effective multitasking, allowing us to apply work strategies at home and home strategies at work. Ever worked out a critical path for your week including dinner, after work events, cleaning, grocery shopping etc etc? I have.

And the last very important point I enjoyed in the chapter was the value of women learning from other women. In the consulting world, because there are so many women now, there is an opportunity to learn from lots of amazing, strong and smart women. So in my opinion there really isn’t a better place to meet these women, observe them and learn from them!