Measuring career commitment among male and female Indiana public relations practitioners

This thesis examined the concept of career commitment and its relationship to certain demographic variables, including gender, to determine if a positive relationship existed. The purpose of this research was to address from a different perspective the perceptions identified in previous research that female public relations practitioners lack managerial motivation and a willingness to sacrifice family needs for work, to see if there might be some refutation or support for these perceptions.One hundred and eighty three Indiana public relations practitioners completed a 39-item telephone survey questionnaire. The findings in this study revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female practitioners in work commitment, and there is no relationship between certain demographic variables, including gender, and work commitment.The findings that female public relations practitioners are just as committed to their careers as their male colleagues indicates that, at least in Indiana, there is simply no basis for the sex-role stereotypes that have been identified in previous research.Department of JournalismThesis (M.A.