More than half of PR professionals with caring responsibilities regularly experience burnout, according to new research from Women in PR, as a new campaign film featuring comms leaders from across the North and across the UK shines a spotlight on the industry’s “invisible workforce”.
Four Northern PR leaders feature in the campaign film to share their experiences, including Kellanova’s Corporate Affairs Director Alison Last, Evri’s Head of Communications Lauren Pogson, Quansah Consulting founder Claire Quansah and Lucky Start founder Ben Brooks-Dutton.
The film launches Women in PR’s Invisible Workforce campaign, highlighting the realities of balancing careers in PR with parenting and caregiving responsibilities, which the organisation says continue to affect career progression, wellbeing and retention across the industry, and ‘disproportionately’ impacts women.
Research conducted by Opinium on behalf of Women in PR found caregivers are under significant pressure, with the Invisible Workforce ‘maxed out on capacity’, working an average of 91 hours a week when paid work, unpaid overtime and caregiving are combined. While 83% of women in PR say caregiving has affected their progression, significantly higher than the national average of 45%.
Despite this, 76% say they have hidden or downplayed their caring responsibilities at work, with seven in 10 (70%) PR professionals reporting they do not know the proportion of colleagues in their organisation who have caregiving responsibilities.
The research also found:
- More than half (55%) regularly experience burnout
- 68% say they have reduced their hours or changed roles to accommodate caring responsibilities
- 43% have considered leaving the PR industry altogether
- Some have reported more extreme consequences, including being sacked while pregnant, bullying and rigid requirements designed to exclude caregiver
The campaign is led by Leeds-based Women in PR committee member Katie Eborall. She said: “Therapy appointments, hospital corridors, making lunches, remembering homework, sick children and school pickups are the lived reality that caregivers juggle around work every day. When you add the average day in PR – deadlines, the expectation to always be on, touchpoints with every part of business, pace, requirements in unsociable hours – it’s easy to see why this is such a challenge specifically in our industry. The truth is that caregiving while holding down a career in PR is hard and messy.
“Added to this, women are disproportionately impacted yet make up two thirds of our workforce, meaning we have a bigger challenge than some industries. Our research shows how women are not only overloaded, but they are also quietly taxed on their progression, mental health and ambition.
“Invisibility only reinforces structural and engrained industry rituals that create barriers to women advancing a career in PR. This campaign is designed to boost awareness, create conversations about innovative working practices and reduce resentment and stigma.”
The research from Women in PR was conducted by Opinium with a sample of 209 PR professionals as well as an additional survey of 2,000 UK adults between 2nd – 22nd June 2026.
The research also found many of the biggest barriers facing caregivers are systemically built into the daily reality of working specifically in PR, from networking and industry events outside working hours (71%) to expectations to always be available (65%), being present in person (53%) and travel requirements (51%).
But results from the research also highlights the value caregivers bring to the industry: nine in ten (91%) say caregiving has made them more resilient, while respondents also report becoming better at multitasking (87%), remaining calm under pressure (82%) and better time management (77%).
The campaign and film aim to create discussion about the practical changes organisations can make, with respondents identifying flexibility, supportive managers and workplace cultures where people can openly discuss caring responsibilities as the changes most likely to help.
Ginny Paton, President of Women in PR, said: “The lived realities in this film expose the worrying trend that the sector is collectively overlooking and underestimating the challenge of building workplaces that foster the talents and skills of caregivers – and this doesn’t have to be the case.
“By keeping the invisible invisible, the sector is actively self-selecting the same leadership, deprioritising caregivers unless they make serious sacrifices – to their health, their caregiving responsibilities or to their finances.
“This is part one of a long-term campaign in which we are calling on the sector this summer to look at caregiving in a different light, to reconsider the value of the Invisible Workforce and their unique skills, and break the invisibility cloak of caregiving. By opening up this important conversation, we want to showcase the unique talent and skill female caregivers can bring to help make the industry more inclusive and our ambition is to create solutions and actions for the industry looking into next year.”
Through the campaign, Women in PR will be sharing content for individuals and employers on LinkedIn to navigate the critical summer period, where annual leave across organisations and caregiving reach a natural peak in intensity, and the organisation is calling on the sector to engage and share their best practice models and experiences, which will be included in the next stage of the campaign moving into 2027.
