Keywords

Introduction

Stereotyping in advertising can be considered both “mirror” and “mold”, reflecting and shaping the values of its target audience. However, research shows a large gap between portrayals of women in advertising and the changing roles of women in society. Although the financial, social, and educational status of women has evolved significantly over the decades, one research stream shows that there have been few changes in female portrayals in advertising, and stereotyping has in fact become worse (Ganahl, Prinsen, & Netzley, 2003; Milner & Higgs, 2004; Plakoyiannaki & Zotos, 2009; Tsichla & Zotos, 2013). On the other hand, another research stream shows improvement in female portrayals in keeping with female status improvement in society (Furnham & Mak, 1999; Wolin, 2003).

Gender stereotypes in advertising have also been used to promote products (Courtney & Whipple, 1983; Furnham & Mak, 1999). However, a study shows that 91% of female consumers feel that advertisers do not understand them. Furthermore, 7 in 10 women say they feel alienated by advertising (The Guardian). According to the study, 59% of women feel misunderstood by food marketers; 66% feel misunderstood by health care marketers; and 74% feel misunderstood by investment marketers. A survey conducted by SheKnows found that 52% of female respondents said they purchased a product because they liked how a brand and its ads portrayed women. However, female portrayals in advertising seem disconnected from female roles in society as well as the interests of female audiences. The study of female portrayals in advertising has attracted scholarly interest for the past 60 years. However, the connection between stereotyping of women in advertising and marketers’ profiling of women has not yet been explored. To address the issue, this study provides meta-analysis of research on gender stereotypes in advertising and content analysis of “how to market to women” in practical marketing guidelines and academic research. The stereotype of women in contemporary advertising will be linked to the marketer’s perception of female consumer profiles.

Literature Review

Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes are beliefs that a set of attributes differentiates women from men (Ashmore & Del Boca, 1981). Deaux and Lewis (1984) suggest four independent dimensions of gender stereotypes: trait descriptors (e.g., self-assertion, concern for others), physical characteristics (e.g., hair length, body height), role behaviors (e.g., leader, taking care of children), and occupational status (e.g., truck driver, housewife). Each dimension has masculine and feminine versions, which are strongly related to gender types. For example, the masculine role includes the notions of authority, leader, and decision-maker while the feminine role includes traditional and decorative roles such as caretakers and subordinates.

Gender stereotypes might lead to expectations and judgments that restrict life opportunities for one gender. For example, stereotyping physical characteristics of women such as weight and skin color can lead to body dissatisfaction and reduced self-confidence. Stereotyping role behaviors of women as supportive and caring might lead to harm-promotion opportunities for women. Gender stereotyping provides a dichotomous model, which thinks and speaks of women in comparison to men (Tuchman, 1979).

The “Mold” versus “Mirror” Debate

Scholars have long discussed the interaction between advertising and society. There are two opposite points of view: the “mold” and the “mirror” (Holbrook, 1987). The “mirror” camp suggests that advertising reflects dominant values in a culture. The underlying rationale is that there are environmental factors that shape the value system in a society. Advertising is a representation of the existing value system; it has no significant impact on that value system (Holbrook, 1987). Thus, female portrayals in advertising are shaped by dominant beliefs about gender roles in society (Zotos & Tsichla, 2014b).

In contrast, the “mold” argument states that advertising has a significant impact on the values held by its target audience (Pollay, 1986, 1987). People learn from media. Gender stereotypes in advertising create, shape, and reinforce the audience’s perceptions about society. Gradually, advertising changes people’s attitude and behavior (Ganahl et al., 2003). Gender stereotypes in advertising are incorporated into people beliefs about gender. Advertising creates gender identity, the stereotyped iconography of masculinity and femininity (Schroeder & Zwick, 2004). Female portrayals in advertising model lifestyles and forms of self-representation that female consumers use to define their gender roles (Plakoyiannaki et al., 2008).

Scholars speculate that the truth lies in the continuum between the “mirror” and “mold” arguments (Graua & Zotos, 2016; Zotos & Tsichla, 2014a). Advertising both reflects and shapes the value system in society (Hall, 1980; Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996).

Female Portrayals in Advertising Review

Scholarly interest in female portrayals in advertising dates back six decades. Content analysis has been widely used to study whether gender stereotypes exist, identify specific types of stereotypes, track whether the degree of stereotyping changes when gender roles in society advance, and identify factors that moderate stereotypes. This interest started in America, but recently scholars have also studied female portrayals in advertising in cultural contexts around the world (Nam, Lee, & Hwang, 2011; Milner, 2005; Morris & Nicholas, 2013). Studies have also spread across media types, including print advertising, radio commercials, television commercials, and online advertising. Research also found that the stereotyping of female images in advertising varies with the advertised product categories (Frith, Cheng, & Shaw, 2004). Furthermore, the audience toward whom the advertising is directed also determines how women are represented in that advertising (Nam et al., 2011).

Content analysis studies have used coding categories based on Goffman’s scale. Goffman (1979) explains how advertising frames social reality. Advertising selects and highlights certain aspects of social ideals. Goffman (1979) investigated gender stereotype through the hands, eyes, postures, and movements of advertising models. He classified gender stereotypes into six categories:

  • Relative Size: women are exaggeratedly shown as smaller and shorter than men

  • Feminine Touch: Women are shown caressing objects or touching themselves as delicate and precious objects.

  • Function Ranking: women have the subordinate role when cooperating with men.

  • Family Scenes—Women are depicted as mothers and caretakers while men are portrayed as protectors of the family

  • Ritualization of Subordination: Women are more likely to be shown lying down, often in flirtatious or childish poses, even when it is not appropriate.

  • Licensed Withdrawal: Women remove themselves physically or psychologically from the situation at hand. They are distracted or not involved in their surroundings.

Kang (1997) added two categories to Goffman’s original scale (1) Body Display: women are shown in revealing clothes and (2) Independence/Self-assurance: the overall impression of independence and/or self-assurance by showing a poker face, a straight and confident gaze and a space-occupying posture.

Another research stream focuses on female role stereotypes. Female role stereotypes are classified under four themes: (1) women in decorative roles, where they are portrayed as sex objects in pursuit of beauty and physical attractiveness; (2) women in traditional roles, where they are depicted as dependent on a male’s protection, as good wives, and as belonging at home; (3) women in non-traditional roles, where they are career-oriented or engaging in activities outside the home (e.g., sport); and (4) women portrayed as equal to men (Belkaoui & Belkaoui, 1976; Lysonski, 1985; Mitchell & Taylor, 1990; Zotos & Lysonski, 1994).

Both “mirror” and “mold” arguments claim that female portrayals in advertising are connected to gender-related development. Several studies have examined whether the degree of stereotyping has varied given social changes and transformation. All research found that gender stereotypes still exist in advertising. However, some studies claim that the degree of stereotyping has slightly decreased (Wolin, 2003). Women are shown less in traditional roles and settings and more in modern roles as well as outside settings (Furnham & Mak, 1999). In contrast, several studies stress that female images in advertising have gotten worse. Recent studies found that women are more frequently portrayed in traditional roles in recent years, compared with results from studies in the nineteenth century (Ganahl et al., 2003; Milner & Higgs, 2004). What makes it worse is the fact that with contemporary social changes promoting women’s roles in our society, increasing gender stereotyping in advertising widens the gap between female portrayal in advertising and women’s experiences in uplifting their social, financial, and educational status.

Spear and Amos (2014) found that traditional female images in advertising portraying women as housewives, nurturers, and comforters are relatively consistent over time. During times of societal distress and crisis, the prevalence of these traditional female images intensifies. Advertisers choose to stick with popular viewpoints about females during crisis periods. In prosperous and peaceful times, advertisers try to choose riskier, emerging ideas. Modern and emergent female roles are shown more in boom times. Their study explains the contradictory results of research on trends and the direction of female portrayals in advertising.

Methodology

Meta-Analysis

To answer the first research question, a qualitative meta-analysis named the thematic synthesis (Thomas & Harden, 2008) is used. Qualitative meta-analysis consists of a secondary analysis of the primary, original, studies addressing the same research questions (Timulak, 2014). In this study, the topic of the qualitative meta-analysis is how females are portrayed in advertising.

The search for studies for inclusion in thematic synthesis is purposive, not exhaustive. It is not necessary to identify all available primary studies. Studies are selected depending on their contexts, concepts, and divergence. The sampling process ends when data is saturated—that is, when there is no new theme emerging from new data (Thomas & Harden, 2008).

I searched extensively for studies focusing on female images in advertising. The first step was to use a simple electronic search of a database. Next, I spend a considerable amount of time screening titles and abstracts. I was searching for variety in terms of advertising media from magazines and radio to websites. I also considered variety in terms of product categories and cultures. At last, references in the chosen articles were searched and screened as above. This study is interested in female portrayals in advertising since 2000. Only studies that collect advertisements published in and after the year 2000 were selected. This results in 26 studies included in the pool.

Content Analysis

A content analysis of “how to market to women” is used to explore the female consumer profiles created by marketers. Qualitative content analysis is a method for systematically assigning the meaning of qualitative data (Schreier, 2014). This method reduces data related to the research question through coding, categorizing, and abstracting to find emerging themes.

Collecting Materials

Keyword searches for “marketing to women”, “targeting,” “female consumers,” and “advertising to women” were used on a number of databases and internet search engines (e.g., Factiva, Google, EBSCO) to finds articles from industry related to the topic “how to market to women.” Only materials dated since 2010 are selected. The sampling process was purposive, not exhaustive. The sampling process ended when data was saturated. There were 50 articles included in the pool.

Findings

Female Portrayals in Advertising Since 2000

There still exist gender stereotypes in advertising. Gender stereotypes exist in all cultures from Asia, Africa, Australia, Eastern and Western Europe as well as in the Americas. However, the degree of gender stereotypes varies across cultures.

Age. Female central characters are more likely portrayed as young while male central characters are in the middle age and older age segments (Prieler, Ivanov, & Hagiwara, 2015). Women are also shown as unmarried while men are more likely to be portrayed as married. Young and unmarried women are perceived as attractive. The stereotype emphasizes the physical attractiveness of female youth. Seniority, by contrast, is associated with knowledge and power. The lack of aging women shows that women are valued primarily because of their youth and attractiveness, not for their knowledge and power (Prieler et al., 2015; Kim & Lowry, 2005; Gerbner, 1998). Asian women are shown as younger than Western women (Nam et al., 2011).

Sexism. Significant gender differences in the degree of dress and strong associations between gender and type of dress were found in many studies (Eisend, 2010; Kim & Lowry, 2005). Males are more likely to be fully dressed than females while women are often seen partially dressed or nude. Female central characters are also portrayed with a more feminine touch. They are shown as childlike, pouting, or cute and smiling (Nam et al., 2011). All these portrayals create ideal images of females as sex objects, triggers for seduction and desire, and displays of physical attractiveness. Western women are shown as more sexually provocative than Asian women (#4). They are more likely to show body shape and nudity than their Asian counterparts. Women are more often portrayed as sexually attractive in ads targeting male audiences.

Roles. Women are significantly portrayed in decorative roles and traditional roles. Women are seen as beauty objects or sex objects in their decorative roles. They are using products to obtain beauty and attractiveness when the ads target a female audience. However, when the ads target a male audience, the images of beautiful and attractive women are used as the reward for buying products. Male consumers are portrayed as using products to obtain attractive women (Baker, 2005).

Women are also popular in traditional roles such as housewife, nurturer, and comforter. They are shown cooking, cleaning, and doing other housework or relaxing at home (Nam et al., 2011; Plakoyiannaki & Zotos, 2009). Women are often shown in dependent roles, not having any “voice of authority,” but rather asking or listening to advice. Although this portrayal varies depending on social condition (whether the society that produced the advertisement is in crisis or prosperous), women are rarely portrayed in non-traditional roles (Spear & Amos, 2014) as professional, authorities, experts. Women are more likely to be seen as central characters in advertising of cosmetics/toiletries, household goods, and simple or unimportant products. Men, however, are more often seen in advertising for technical products such as cars or high-tech devices (Valls-Fernández & Martínez-Vicente, 2007; Kim & Lowry, 2005). Women are less likely to be seen as professionals, executives, and high-level workers. They are seen as homemakers, or as unpaid or low-paid workers. They are often seen nurturing children and doing household chores (Milner & Higgs, 2004).

Female Consumer Profiles

While the advertising industry relies heavily on gender stereotyping to promote products, marketers have recognized its pitfalls. Plenty of “how to” guides on marketing to women point out the mistake of stereotyping female consumers. Overly simplistic or stereotypical characterizations do not do much for brand loyalty and can actually damage brand reputation (Zbooker, 2019). Content analysis of materials from industry provides the following themes related to female consumer profiles.

Heterogeneity. One of the main themes emerging from the data is that the female market is very diverse. It includes multiple segments of different life stages, various lifestyles, diverse values, and commitment to several causes. Thus, it is no surprise that 45% of respondents participating in Kantar’s “Getting Gender Right” survey report that advertising is based on stereotypes and that women are portrayed in outdated ways. Stereotyping treats women as if they are all the same, which risks insulting a marketer’s target audience.

Multiple Roles. It is undeniable that women often serve as primary caregivers, as stereotyped in advertising. However, caregiver is only one of their roles. Globally, women are in the labor force more now than ever before. They account for about 39% of the workforce globally, and about 46% in the US (Catalyst). In fact, although the ratio remains small, women have already joined the C-suite. About 7% of Fortune 500 companies’ CEOs are women. Women account for nearly a third of senior managers. Women even earn more higher-education degrees than men do. Women get married at older ages. Japanese women are increasingly opting out of marriage entirely. More women are choosing not to have children. These demographic trends drive the world’s female populations into multiple roles not only at home but also in public. At different life stages, certain roles emerge as dominant ones that shape female consumers’ decisions.

A study by Insight Marketing reveals that 91% of female respondents do not feel that marketers effectively target them. Female consumers want to tell their stories, which are related to women’s own situations, with a female voice. Gender stereotyping in advertising cannot connect to female consumers.

Causes and Values. Ernst and Young’s Groundbreakers report revealed that women reinvest 90% of their income into their families and communities. Women hold on and commit to their values, whether those involve the environment, equity, inclusion, health, or spiritual life. They want companies to be good corporate citizens. They want to see companies contributing to and taking substantial action toward social causes that matter to them and their community.

Feeling Empowered and Becoming More Active. In a recent survey conducted by the website SheKnows, 71% of female respondents said that brands should promote positive attitudes to women and girls. Nike, Adidas, Gatorade, Under Armour, and Twitter are among the few pioneering brands who promote images of female athletes, active women, and powerful female leaders in their ads. Gender stereotypes of subordinate and decorative female roles are wildly outdated images that are no longer connected with female consumers. Recently, movies such as Hidden Figures, Wonder Woman, and Moana have authentically and massively connected with female audiences. It is evident that women want to be seen as strong, assertive, and active, not passive.

Discussion and Conclusion

This study shows that gender stereotypes are still prevalent in advertising. Women are portrayed in traditional roles as homemaker and decorative objects. Women are shown to be younger than men are. They are also seen as sexually provocative. Meanwhile, some marketers present more realistic female images. The female market is heterogeneous. Women play multiple roles in daily life, and traditional roles are just a few among many. Female consumers are strong, assertive, and active. They join the labor force and gain higher social, financial, and educational status. They support social causes that matter to their communities and the societies in which they live.

A possible explanation for outdated gender stereotypes in advertising is the gender imbalance in the field. Advertising, as a creative industry, is male-dominated (Gulas, McKeage, & Weinberger, 2010). Advertising is structured around White, male norms. Thus, female images in advertising are created from one point of view: the view of the White male.

Today, women are raising their voices about diversity. They are trans women, women of color, Black women, and LGBT women. They are single moms, traditional stay-at-home moms, athletes, and CEOs. Gender stereotypes in advertising disconnect brands from their target audience. A survey conducted by the website SheKnows found that 52% of female respondents purchased a product because they liked how a brand and its ads portrayed women. Negative, gender-biased depictions of women in advertising may have adverse effects on the reputations of the companies that use those advertisements. Studies have found that women are critical of advertising using female images that are not consistent with their gender orientation (Ford et al., 1997).

Beyond potential damage to companies’ bottom lines, advertising has a powerful impact on the value system of society (Zayer & Coleman, 2015). Gender stereotypes in advertising can affect women’s self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy (Gulas & McKeage, 2000; Zayer & Otnes, 2012). The focus on female roles as traditional homemakers, the emphasis on their contributions to unpaid work, undermines women’s aspiration to join the labor force. The images of women in subordinate roles may prevent them from aiming for higher positions. Focus on physical beauty can lead to eating disorders and unsafe use of cosmetic surgery. Furthermore, the rigid dichotomy between male and female excludes other segments—notably, LGBT consumers.

Chapter Takeaways

  • Research shows a large gap between portrayals of women in advertising and the changing roles of women in society.

  • Gender stereotypes are beliefs that a set of attributes differentiates women from men. Four independent dimensions of gender stereotypes are, (1) trait descriptors, (2) physical characteristics, (3) role behaviors, and (4) occupational status. Each dimension has masculine and feminine versions, which are strongly related to gender types.

  • When considering the interaction between advertising and society, there are two opposite points of view: the “mold” and the “mirror”. The “mirror” camp suggests that advertising reflects dominant values in a culture. The “mold” argument states that advertising has a significant impact on the values held by its target audience.

    • Both “mirror” and “mold” arguments claim that female portrayals in advertising are connected to gender-related development.

  • There still exist gender stereotypes in advertising. Gender stereotypes exist in all cultures from Asia, Africa, Australia, Eastern, and Western Europe as well as in the Americas. However, the degree of gender stereotypes varies across cultures.

  • While the advertising industry relies heavily on gender stereotyping to promote products, marketers have recognized its pitfalls. Content analysis of materials from industry provides a variety of themes related to female consumer profiles, including heterogeneity, multiple roles, causes and values, feeling empowered and becoming more active.

  • Today, women are raising their voices about diversity. They are trans women, women of color, Black women, and LGBT women. They are single moms, traditional stay-at-home moms, athletes, and CEOs. Gender stereotypes in advertising disconnect brands from their target audience.

  • Gender stereotypes in advertising can affect women’s self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy. The focus on female roles as traditional homemakers, the emphasis on their contributions to unpaid work, undermines women’s aspiration to join the labor force.