Advertising, Gender and

For parents, teachers, and gender studies scholars, a primary concern about print advertising is its stereo-typical representation of males and females. As a part of the broader category of media, advertising plays a role in the socialization of its viewers. Children and teens, attempting to figure out who they are, are more susceptible than adults to the socialization powers of the media. Advertising in both print and television media can influence the self-images of youth and adolescents and can shape their views of the appropriate social roles for males and females.

Although some studies were conducted before the 1970s, research in the area of advertising stereotypes and effects grew rapidly in the 1970s. In 1979, Goffman pointed out that, in print advertisements, women were usually portrayed in submissive roles, family roles, or lower-status positions than men were, and they were likely to be depicted as sex objects. In print ads of the 1970s, women were usually housewives in decorative roles. They were rarely shown as professionals or in activities away from the home, and they primarily advertised products for home use.

Studies conducted since the 1970s have found that not much has changed. Although Sullivan and O'Connor (1988) found changes in women's social and occupational roles, they also found an increase in portrayals of women in decorative and sexualized roles in ads in general interest magazines such as People, Newsweek, and the New Yorker. A study of Vogue, Mademoiselle, and McCall's from 1979 and 1991 produced similar results. More recent studies have compared advertising in different types of magazines. Linder (2004) found that ads in the fashion magazine Vogue depicted women more stereotypically than did the ads in Time. An analysis of ads in white women's magazines showed women in roles and with characteristics that suggested dependency and submissiveness, whereas ads in magazines targeting black women portrayed women as independent and dominant. White women were more objectified than black women. Mastin et al. (2004) looked at the products advertised in The Ladies Home Journal and Essence and found that most related to appearance, children, and home. The authors noted that women's magazines continue to subject women to traditional images of women's lives.