The impact of a powerful Black Female figure in the Public Relations Industry

(Left) Judy Smith, (right) Kerry Washington, Photo credit from HandleItWithJudy.com

(Left) President H.W. Bush, (right) Judy Smith, Photo credit from JudySmith.com

Chania Crawford
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(Kent, Ohio) - Public relations is a field currently dominated by powerful women who own their practices and have made a name for themselves in this industry. While this is a positive for women who had to fight for their rights to be able to hold such prominent positions in the workplace today, we still see a need for racial diversity. 

According to Data USA, an online comprehensive visualization of U.S. public data, in 2021, 64.2% of public relations professionals were women, and only 35.8% of the workers were men. Out of all the professionals working in 2021, only 8.85% identified as Black or African-American.

This poses a major problem in the field: without proper representation of various cultures, how are future aspiring public relations professionals of different cultures supposed to see themselves in the field? 

As a Black-American woman growing up, I didn’t know much about what a public relations professional did. Like others, I had many misconceptions about what a public relations professional does. Most of my knowledge was from the hit ABC TV show “Scandal.” 

The TV show is about a Black-American public relations professional, Olivia Pope, and her crisis management firm in Washington, D.C. Pope was previously a media and communications director to the President during his campaign and first years in the White House before she decided to change directions and open up her firm. She was often referred to as a “fixer,” as Pope and her team manipulated and blackmailed their way through crises for their high-profile clients. While the show presents a Black woman in a leadership role, it doesn’t often discuss the issues she faces being a woman of color in an almost all-white space and community. 

After researching the show's origins, I learned about Judy Smith, the inspiration behind Pope’s character. Smith is a world-renowned Black-American crisis manager, lawyer and author. She is the founder and CEO of Smith & Co, a crisis and strategic communications firm, and has worked with several high-profile clients ranging from politicians to celebrities. Smith also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Press Secretary to President George G.W. Bush in the White House. Smith is well known in media circles for being a “fixer” in a more ethical and truthful way than her character portrayal. 

Smith majored in Public Relations at Boston University and then went on to attend law school at American University, where she was the first Black woman to serve on the executive board of the Law Review.

Influential women like Judy Smith are the reason I decided to major in Public Relations. Seeing her with her own firm with high-profile clients, writing books and being a renowned public relations professional allowed me to feel like I, too, can achieve success and reach new heights while working as a public relations professional. 

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