Extended Project: Gender roles and the position of genders in advertising.

Transcription

1 Extended Project: Gender roles and the position of genders in advertising. Abstract The aim of this research was to investigate gender position and gender roles in advertising in the present day in order to not only distinguish the role of genders today, but also to compare it with the findings of other researchers from previous periods, to distinguish if the position of men or women has changed. The hypothesis was that the position of women in the media would have moderately improved, with there being a decline in the amount of offensive advertisements since Men will still however be portrayed as playing a more significant role than women, and women will dominate advertisements set in the private sphere of the home. The method involved using content analysis and thematic analysis in order to distinguish which types of adverts males and females were dominant in, and how each gender is portrayed. The findings were that females greatly dominate advertisements in an indoor setting and a home and family life setting. They are also more frequently used as sex symbols than Males. Males largely dominated advertisements in an outdoor setting, and at work. Men were shown as playing a more significant role than women in 1/3 of the advertisements analysed. The hypothesis was therefore correct, as this was predicted. This was similar to the findings of Courtney and Lockeretz, who s research found women were shown as domestic providers and sex objects. However, my research showed that women are not as strongly used as sex symbols as they were in the research of Courtney and Lockeretz. A correlation was also found between Buss s research into evolutionary gender psychology and my own research, as the characteristics that the figures in the advertisements that I analysed possessed, were the same as the characteristics that Buss suggested genders place high importance on. The implications for these findings are also relevant when considering Eagly and Wood s Social Roles Theory, as if the media continues to enforce gender roles in this way then social roles of men and women are being reinforced. Introduction This research was conducted into Gender, more specifically, gender roles and the position of both genders in advertising today. The term Gender Roles simply means the position of males and females in the advertisements analysed. Literature Review/Previous Research: Courtney and Lockeretz conducted one of the most well acclaimed research studies into the topic of Gender position in advertising in Their study involved looking at eight American general interest magazines and analysing the roles of male and females within the advertisements. Their research concluded that from the general interest magazines they looked at, women are portrayed as domestic providers who do not make significant decisions, are dependent on men, and are essentially sex objects (1).

2 Since their work, many other replications have occurred. Such as Venkatesan and Losco in 1975, and Wagner and Banos in 1973, who both found that offensive ads had declined, but that woman were still seen as belonging to the private sphere of the home. Venkatesan and Losco, and Wagner and Banos were further support for Courtney and Lockeretz s findings. A similar method was used in this research, and to gain data representative of the media currently around us, general interest magazines were also used. The Biosocial theory, developed by Money and Ehrhardt (1972), states that social labelling and differential treatment of males and females interact with biological factors (hormones, such as exposure to testosterone) when a male or female is born. This theory integrates the influences of nature and nurture, suggesting how the development of a male or females development. Buss also conducted evolutionary psychology research on human sex differences in mate selection. He conducted a large cross cultural study, concluding from the findings that men place a high importance on youth and women desire an older mate with good financial prospects. Aim: The aim of this research, is to not only evaluate the position of gender roles in the media today, but to also recognise whether or not it has changed. This will be done by comparing findings of my study to that of previous researchers, such as Courtney and Lockeretz. Hypotheses: The position of women in the media will have moderately improved to that of the 1970 s and the 1980 s, due to the empowerment of women in the last thirty years. However, women will still dominate advertisements that are Indoors and in a domestic setting, where as men will dominate advertisements that our outdoors and to do with work. Both men and women will be used a sex symbols, but advertisements with women as sex symbols will appear more frequently. Men will be seen as playing a more significant role than women, much more than women will be seen as the more dominant gender. By significant I mean that the gender (male or female) expresses a more important meaning in the advert, or could be perceived as being more relevant or superior to the other gender. Method: I decided that the best method of gathering an accurate representation of the portrayal of both male and female genders in the media today was to look at Sunday supplements, and Sunday supplement style magazines. This is because they are considered gender neutral in that they don t target their reading towards a particular gender. For example, looking at a fashion magazine would contain advertisements being marketed directly towards women, and therefore would probably contain a different set of adverts targeted towards one gender, and therefore an uneven representation of roles in the general media today. Men s fashion, Car and motoring magazines would also probably contain advertisements directed towards males. Using Sunday supplement magazines gives a more representative look at the way men and women are portrayed in the media today to all genders, not just how one is portrayed to the other.

3 In aggregate I took 30 advertisements from 10 Sunday supplement magazines. This number of magazines was large enough to be able to generalise my results to the media today, and was influenced by the fact that many previous researchers in this area of Psychology used a similar amount of publications in their studies. The experiment involved both qualitative and quantative research. The first part of the experiment (Fig 1) involved using content Analysis as a level of measurement. Content Analysis is used to evaluate media, most commonly books and television, but also magazines. Using content analysis allowed me to collect quantative data. As a form of qualitative research, for the second part of the experiment I used thematic analysis and coding units to categorise the advertisements into pre existing themes (Fig 2). Each of these themes represented a different idea or angle on gender position. This allowed me to collect qualitative data despite not having physical participants of any kind. For each advertisement collected the same procedure was followed. Firstly, it was scored in a table under various categories (Fig 1). For example, if the advertisement showed a woman walking through the desert it would be tallied in the female column under Outdoors. Next it was tallied in a table of themes (Fig 2). For example if the advertisement showed a woman serving a man, then a tally would be scored under the theme Men seen as playing a more important role than woman. There were no ethical considerations to take into account during the research, as I was not using any participants, and all of the information was taken from the public domain, and therefore no permission was needed to use it. Content Analysis: Figure 1. Sex Symbol Home/Family Life Work Women Men Outdoors Indoors

4 Figure 2. Keyword Women as sex symbols Women in a domestic setting Men seen as playing a more important role than women Men as sex symbols Analysing Characteristics Key Terms Checklist Male Women Fit / In shape Glowing / Good Skin Youthful / Young Unfit/ Unhealthy Appearance Old/Elderly

5 Summary of Results: Figure Male Female Indoors Outdoors Work Home/FL Sex Symbol The results show that females greatly dominate advertisements in an indoor setting, and adverts to do with home and family life. They are also more frequently used as sex symbols than Males. Males largely dominated advertisements in an outdoor setting, and at work. Figure 2. Men were seen as playing a more important role than women in 1/3 of the advertisements looked at in this experiment. Women were depicted in a domestic setting in 8/15 advertisements, and women were portrayed as sex symbols in double the amount of adverts as men. Figure 3. Out of all of the 30 advertisements looked at during the experiment, none were found to contain men or women that were unfit or elderly in appearance. There were more youthful women in the advertisements than men, and more women were considered in shape as opposed to men. Discussion: Review of the Findings: The results show that the position of both Males and Females in advertising has not significantly changed since the research of Courtney and Lockeretz in Women still dominate advertisements in the private sphere of the home, whilst men dominate work and outdoor advertisements. One of the most notable findings was that in one third of the 30 advertisements analysed, men were portrayed as being more significant than women. I defined the keyword of

6 significant as the gender (in this instance male) expressing a more important meaning in the advert, or could be perceived as being more relevant or superior to the other gender (in this case female). The results essentially support Courtney and Lockeretz s research, and confirm that a similar pattern of gender roles can be found in the general media advertisements of Limitations of the research: A limitation of the research is that a Pilot study was not carried out. A pilot study would have highlighted any problems before the research was carried out. For example, were there particular Sunday supplement magazines that should be avoided due to the fact they are targeted towards a particular gender, or were the same advertisements being repeated over and over again in different magazines, meaning that the research was not a representation of a large chunk of the British Media, but of a few individual companies advertising across several magazines. A modification that could have also been made would be increasing the amount of magazines Implications of this research The implications of this research are very significant when considering the effect that the differences in the portrayal of men and women in the media will have on our society. Advertising in today s media is in effect causing a reinforcement of Gender roles. The implication of this research is important when considering the biosocial approach to gender development and biosocial explanation of the division of labour. Gender, is ultimately characteristics (whether these characteristics are biologically or socially influenced being constantly argued in Psychology) which are defined as male or female. Women describe themselves in more rational terms and gravitate towards jobs that reduce inequalities, where as men focus on tasks and connections with large groups and gravitate towards jobs that enhance inequalities, such as soldiers and firemen. This has led to a division of labour, where men are seen as the breadwinners and women are often in the role of homemaker and the one who cares for the children. This research therefore suggests that our society still, even in 2012, demonstrates gender roles and a division of labour. Money and Ehrhardt (1972) developed the following Biosocial Theory: Biological male or female is born. Social Labelling. Interact with Biological Factors (hormones) Differential Treatment.

7 Their biosocial theory emphasises the importance of social labelling and differential treatment. The implications of my research are therefore crucial, as my research suggests that the media and advertising today are only adding to the division of gender roles and social labelling (such as women should stay at home with the children, as my research found that women dominated the advertisements in the private sphere of the home). I would like to suggest that this may be also be a causation of differential treatment, as social labelling and media representation of men and women being heavily stereotyped has encouraged this current generation to raise children in accordance with these social labels, leading to differential treatment between men and women from a young age. Girls are positively reinforced to wear pink, and play with dolls, and would be negatively reinforced to climb trees. Boys are positively reinforced to tackle in football matches and would be negatively reinforced to play with toy irons (Lytton 1991). Eagly and Wood (1999) developed the following Social Role Theory, describing Social Constructivism, which is the theory that sex differences are the product of arbitrary socialization experiences. Evolved physical differences between men and women. Men are assigned social role of hunter and women are assigned social role of homemaker. Psychological differences then emerge from these social role assignments. In light of this theory, implications of my research are incredibly significant. My findings of heavily stereotyped male and female roles in the media, which are representing men as the more important and dominant gender, and secluding women to the private sphere of the home, are only reinforcing these social roles than men and women are assigned. Social roles will always continue to develop in this way if the public domain and the media continue to reinforce them. In order for the position of women to change not only in the roles of home life, but at work and in all areas of society, these roles need to stop being reinforced so strongly, and with such strong stereotypes. For a moment let us take the social constructivism approach (as shown in the social role theory above) where it is stated that sex differences are the product of socialization. My research suggests that the media today is still heavily stereotyped and that distinct gender roles can be found in many advertisements gracing the pages of our public interest magazines. If this is a fair representation of the position of genders in today s advertising, which I believe it is, and therefore a representation of genders in today s society, then the socialization of our current population, and future generations, is surely never going to change. Constant reinforcement of these gender roles, is only going to lead to greater sex differences, and a greater division of labour. Eagly and Wood also argued that hormonal differences in men and women may be an outcome of the social roles we are assigned, rather than a cause. For example, testosterone as a result of Men engaging in more competitive activities. If these social roles continue to be reinforced (and my

8 research suggests that they are being reinforced in advertising) then these hormonal differences may also continue, causing the division of labour to continue in the way that is has, with men being the breadwinners and women being the homemakers. The implications of my research are also especially important when considering the evolutionary approach towards explanations of gender roles, and the division of labour. Firstly, by looking at Buss s evolutionary psychology research on human sex differences in mate selection. He conducted a large cross cultural study across 37 cultures, examining 10,047 individuals. His findings were that Men placed a high importance on youth, suggesting this was because of the fertility cues that youth gives away. He also found that women desire an older mate with good financial prospects, hypothesizing that this may because of the social status an older man has achieved, this leading to greater protection to her and her offspring. Buss s research greatly supports the evolutionary approach. Eagly and Wood s research then followed, and by using a gender empowerment measure their findings were that when women had a higher status (so that their status is more equal to men), mating preferences become less pronounced. They therefore concluded that social roles are a driving force in psychological sex differences. Figure 3 in my results suggests that these predictions about evolutionary psychology are correct. My research into analysing the characteristics of the figures in the advertisements essentially supports Buss s approach to evolutionary psychology, in that it shows the characteristics described by Buss to be desired by men or women were prominent in the advertisements, and therefore men or women with these particular characteristics were chosen to be in the advertisements. Dominant figures in advertisements would be chosen to appeal to readers, either males or females, and therefore this is an interesting correlation between the characteristics Buss suggested were desired by the opposite sex and the characteristics the figures in the advertisements possessed. Implications of my research stretch further to the world of work, where the consequences for women are high as a result of gender roles and gender stereotyping, which I would suggest is being maintained, if not added to, by media reinforcement. The women of today, despite incredible progress in the past two or three decades, and indeed in the last century for women, are the victims of a glass ceiling, a term used to describe the invisible ceiling stopping women reaching top positions in companies and firms by many economists. However, this one experiment only focuses on ten general interest magazines in the UK, and therefore cannot necessarily be generalised to other cultures. It would be interesting to conduct further research into the position of genders in advertising and the media in non-western cultures, where ideologies and gender roles might be different. If this experiment was repeated in collectivist cultures rather than an individualist culture, it would be important to see if the findings were different. It would also be interesting to look at advertisements that were published after periods of empowerment for women. For example, after the first and second world wars, where the division of labour temporarily shifted. Woman were called upon to work on the land, something previously done by men, and for the first time were encouraged, and informed it was socially acceptable not to stay at home and look after the house and children. Woman took on masculine roles, and labour

9 previously dominated by men, such as mechanics, engineers, tank drivers, building ships, plumbers and driving fire engines. Ideas for further research: Further research could also be done into other areas of media. It is impossible for me to analyse the effect of media as a whole on gender roles and the division of labour, as my experiment concentrated particularly on magazine advertisements. It would be interesting to repeat the same experiment on other areas of media, such as radio and television. It would also be interesting to also replicate the experiment on a larger scale, as a limitation of my research is that it was only using ten magazines in one country. If the amount of materials was greatly increased, would the results still be the same?

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY: INTERNET SOURCES (1) Scott A. Lukas, The Gender AD s project. Available from : (2) Susan De Young and F.G.Crane, Vol , Females attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising. Available from : BOOK SOURCES (3) Charles Crawford, Dennis Kerbs, The foundations of evolutionary psychology, 2008, Psychology Press; 2 edition (4) David Buss, 2005, The Handbook of evolutionary psychology, John Wiley & Sons; First edition (5) Nelson Thornes AQA Psychology A, 2009

11 Appendix Content Analysis -Charts Figure 1. Male Aggregate Female Aggregate Indoors I 1 IIIIIIIII 9 Outdoors IIIIIIII 8 III 3 Work III 3 I 1 Home/Family Life IIII 4 IIIIIIII 8 Sex Symbol II 2 IIII 4 Figure 2. Keyword Women as sex symbols Women in a domestic setting Men seen as playing a more important role than women Men as sex symbols IIII IIIIIIII IIIII II Analysing Characteristics Key Terms Checklist Characteristic Male Female Fit/In shape IIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Glowing/good skin IIIII IIIIIIIII Youthful/Young IIIII IIIIIIIII Unfit/ Unhealthy appearance Old/Elderly