A Struggle for Legitimacy: Russian Women Secure Their Professional Identities in Public Relations in a HyperSexualized Patriarchal Workplace

This qualitative study seeks to understand a process of identity negotiation by female public relations practitioners in the workplace in transitional hyper-sexualized societies, such as Russia, where public relations is a relatively young field. Using a framework of positioning (Davies & Harré, 1990) and concepts of multiple identity negotiation (Berger & Luckmann, 1966) and body disciplining (Trethewey, 2000a, b), the study reveals how female public relations practitioners in Russia engage in a constant process of securing their professional identities, specifically disciplining their bodies and controlling their physical presence. The results demonstrated that dress code self-enforcement helped to underscore the professionalism for female public relations practitioners. Disciplining contributed to specific negotiating strategies women utilized to emphasize advantages that, according to the participants of this study, female public relations practitioners have over men when they engage in public relations practices in Russia. Further analysis, however, suggested that these strategies might lead to reproduction of stereotypical understandings of the role and place of women in a hyper-sexualized, patriarchic environment, such as the Russian workplace.