Investigation of How Women are Represented in the Media
Formulation of Investigation
I have decided to investigate how women are represented in the media. I particularly chose the advertising area of the media because although I feel that women have striven for equality in all other areas of the media, that advertising is the last arena womankind have to conquer. In the advertising world women are still treated like 'sex objects'. They are still portrayed as being 'the little housewife'. The woman who does all the housework, food shopping, and caring for the kids, but still manages to get her husband's dinner on the table when he comes home from work without having a hair out of place, or having to reapply her lipstick! I want to discover just how patronising these adverts are to women, and if there are any exceptions to the male chauvinistic attitudes seen in modern advertisements. Also, I wish to determine if there is a difference in the way women are used to advertise different products, e.g. men's aftershave and cars compared to household cleaning products. I think it will be interesting to discover the difference in the way women are portrayed in different advertisements, aimed at different demographic groups. I will do this by collecting and studying newspaper, magazine and television advertisements.
Methodology
In my investigation I will use mostly secondary information, and content analysis of advertisements, as I will not be able to use participant or nonparticipant observation, as I cannot watch adverts being made. It would also be impractical for me to try to find out the psychology behind the making of the adverts. This is a pity, because finding out how aware the advertisers are that they are creating these stereotypes would be very interesting. As well as this, questionnaires or interviews would be of no use, as the public can only tell me their opinions, and I need facts to draw my conclusions from. Case studies would also be of no use, as I am working with facts to produce my results, not people's lives or opinions. I will use similar investigations in my analysis anyway, to compare and contrast my study with others like it. The problem with secondary information is that articles, papers and books on this subject tend to be written from a certain point of view, and so I will have to ensure I remain unbiased by the author's viewpoint if I am to look at the subject objectively. Alternatively, I could use articles which put both sides of the argument forwards. I will use mostly text books and the Internet to find examples of past studies and theories, and I will look at TV, magazine and newspaper ads. I have decided to analyse the content of these adverts, which means I will examine the adverts, and count how many times a stereotypical image occurs, and whom the product is made by, what the product is, and which demographic group it is aimed at. This is the most suitable method of collecting results for my investigation. I will recognise that the only purpose of adverts is to sell, and that they are often biased, depending on what they are trying to sell and who they are trying to sell it to. To make sure I get a fair overall view of advertising to analyse, I will use adverts from both prime time and daytime TV, and I will ensure I use advertisements from a wide selection of magazines and newspapers so that all areas of the media are represented.
I will record adverts from TV, for 60 minutes per channel which features advertising ( channels 3, 4 and 5), It is necessary to record 60 minutes to ensure I record advertisements, and not just programmes. This will mean I end up with 180 minutes of TV analysed in my table, 90 daytime, and 90 prime time.
I will use one copy of each magazine, as using a dated copy would give me unreliable results. I will use three magazines, 'Cosmopolitan', aimed at young professional women ( aged 20 - 30) and 'FHM' which is aimed at young professional males, (also aged 20 - 30). I will also look at 'Woman's Weekly' which is aimed at older women, mainly housewives, (aged 30+).
I have chosen to use three newspapers, as with the magazines, I saw the importance of using recent copies of each newspaper, and so to ensure reliability I will buy each newspaper on the same day. I will use a copy of 'The Sun', 'The Times' and 'The Daily Mail', because I want to cover all areas of the newspapers, I will use 'The Sun' to represent the tabloids, for the broadsheets 'The Times' and 'The Daily Mail' which is approximately half way between the two.
* I will design a table to assist me with my content analysis of advertisements. I will write my notes in rough on scrap paper, then produce my results on a computer. I decided the questions I need to ask about the adverts are;
* Where is the advert from?
* Which company is the advert made for?
* What product is it advertising?
* Which demographic group is it aimed at?
* What is the woman portrayed as being?
* What is the woman's appearance? ( Clothing make-up etc.)
* Is this image stereotypical?
* Is there a voice over on the advert?
* Is the voice over male or female?
I will now collect and analyse my results. These can be seen on the following pages, along with some examples of magazine advertisements.
Where is the ad. from?
Which company made it?
What ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
* What product is it advertising?
* Which demographic group is it aimed at?
* What is the woman portrayed as being?
* What is the woman's appearance? ( Clothing make-up etc.)
* Is this image stereotypical?
* Is there a voice over on the advert?
* Is the voice over male or female?
I will now collect and analyse my results. These can be seen on the following pages, along with some examples of magazine advertisements.
Where is the ad. from?
Which company made it?
What product is advertised?
Which demo. group is it aimed at?
What are the woman portrayed as?
Woman's appearance
Is this image stereotypical?
'The Times'
Toyota
Avensis (car)
middle-aged men
old women dancing in a ballroom
thin, jewellery, nicely dressed
no
'The Times'
Allders
blue cross sale
women, 25+
housewife/ mother
thin, young, blonde, pretty
yes
'The Times'
Magnet
half price sale
women 25+
housewife
young, thin, blonde, pretty
yes
'The Times'
Wickes
50% off sale
women 25+
business women/ mother 'at breakfast' and a teenager
both are young, thin and pretty, the mother is blonde, the daughter has brown hair
yes
'The Sun'
British Telecom
free UK calls
young people 20+
football fan/ sex object
young, slim, pretty, blonde
yes and no woman is portrayed as a footy fan but appear. is stereo.
'The Sun'
Freeserve
one month free trial
young and middle aged
'flower power loving hippy'
pretty, young, slim, brunette
yes
'The Sun'
Furniture land
half price sale
women 25+
housewife
pretty, slim, young brunette
yes
'The Sun'
Premier Line
insurance
men 20+
phone answering receptionist/ sex object
pretty, young, slim blonde
yes
'The Sun'
Autofinance
car credit
families aged 20+
mother
pretty, plumpish, brunette, young
yes and no, the woman is just a mother, but she is not as thin as all other women on tv
'The Sun'
Direct Car Finance
car credit
men 20+
phone answering receptionist/ sex object
pretty, young, brunette, slim,
yes
'The Sun'
Yes Car Credit
car credit
women and men 20+
sign holder/ sex object
pretty, blonde, young, slim
yes
'Daily Mail'
Paradise Group
holidays
middle aged women and men
holiday maker, wife ( with her husband )
pretty brunette, young, slim
yes
'Daily Mail'
Mc Carthy and stone
retirement homes
older men and women
retired woman
blonde, plumpish, pretty, old
no
'Daily Mail'
Barrat Homes
new homes
young men + women
housewife
young, slim, blonde, pretty
yes
'Daily Mail'
Jacqueline collection
wigs
middle aged men and women
housewife/ sex object
young, slim, brunette, pretty
yes
'Daily Mail'
Shearing
holidays
older men + women
wives/mothers
slim, pretty, blonde
yes
'Daily Mail'
Magnet
half price sale
young men + women
housewife
slim, pretty, brunette, young
yes
'Daily Mail'
Esso
60p off fuel
men and women of all ages
housewife/mother
slim, pretty, blonde young
yes
'Daily Mail'
D.F.S
Last day of sale
young men + women
sex object
slim, pretty, blonde, young
yes
'Woman's Weekly'
Poise
protective underwear
older women
sex object
slim, young, pretty
yes
'Woman's Weekly'
Daxon
clothing catalogue
older women
sex object/ housewife
slim, young, pretty, blonde
yes
'Woman's Weekly'
Vileda
multi purpose cleaner
housewives
sex object/ housewife
slim, young, blonde, pretty
yes
'FHM'
Dolce and Gabbana
designer clothing
young men
sex objects
slim, pretty, young, mixture of hair colours
yes
'FHM'
Daniel Hechter
designer clothing
young men
sex object
slim, pretty, skimpily dressed, young, blonde
yes
'FHM'
Ikon
streetwear
young men
sex object
slim, pretty, young, blonde
yes
'FHM'
Interflora
send valentine's day flowers
young men
sex object
naked, slim, pretty, young, brunette
yes
'FHM'
Pierre Cardin
designer clothing
young men
sex object
slim, young, pretty, brunette
yes
'FHM'
Rover
car
young men
sex object
slim, young, pretty, brunette, skimpily dressed
yes
'FHM'
Diesel
clothing
young men
sex object
slim, young, pretty, blonde
yes
'FHM'
Tommy Hilfiger
designer fragrances
young men
sex objects
young, slim, pretty, blonde
yes
'Cosmo.'
Nivea Visage
anti-wrinkle cream
young women
mother
young, slim, blonde, pretty
yes
'Cosmo.'
California Raisins
Raisins
young women
sex object
young, slim, blonde, pretty
yes
'Cosmo.'
Maybelline
foundation (make-up)
young women
sex object
young, slim, brunette, pretty
yes
'Cosmo.'
John Frieda
frizz ease hair product
young women
sex object
young, slim, blonde, pretty
yes
'Cosmo.'
Astor
foundation (make-up)
young women
sex object
brunette, slim, pretty, young
yes
'Cosmo.'
Kelloggs
Special K
young women
sex object
only wearing underwear, very slim, pretty, brunette, young
yes
'Cosmo.'
Walkers
Low fat crisps
young women
sex object
slim, pretty, young, brunette
yes
'Cosmo.'
Rimmel
lipstick
young women
sex object
slim, blonde, pretty, thin
yes
'Cosmo.'
Movida
hair dye
young women
sex object
slim, brunette, pretty, young, perfect hair
yes
'Cosmo'
Lancome
skin cream
young women
sex object
slim, pretty, brunette, young
yes
'Cosmo'
Emporio Armani
perfumes
young women
sex object
slim, brunette, pretty, young
yes
'Cosmo'
Garnier
Fructis shampoo
young women
sex object
slim, pretty, young, brunette, successful television presenter
yes
'Cosmo'
MeLalland
cheddar cheese
young women
sex object
slim, pretty, blonde, young
yes
'Cosmo'
Chanel
perfume
young women
sex object
slim, blonde, pretty, young, wearing only a piece of sheer material
yes
I will now analyse the advertisements I collected from television.
Which company made the ad?
What product is being advertised?
Which demo. group is it aimed at?
What is the woman portrayed as?
Woman's appearance?
Is this image stereotypical?
Does the ad have a voice over?
Is the voice over male or female?
Learn Direct
learning advice
young people
commuters and normal people
not skimpily dressed, not overly thin
no
yes
male
Yes car credit
car loans
middle aged men + women
sex object
thin, pretty, young, blonde
yes
no
N/A
Boots
3 for 2 offers
women
no picture of a woman
N/A
no
yes
female
Royal + Sunalliance
insurance
middle aged women
housewife
smartly dressed, slim, pretty, blonde, young
yes
yes
male
Doll collectors
doll magazine
young girls
housewife/ mother
smart clothes, make-up is minimal, blonde, young, slim, pretty
yes
yes
male
Kia
Rio
middle aged men and women
housewives/ mothers
slim, pretty, young mothers
yes
yes
male
Renault
Laguna
men + women 20 +
housewife
slim, skimpily dressed, young, pretty, blonde
yes
yes
male
Flash
wipes
men and women 20+
housewife
slim, brunette, stupid, young, pretty
yes
yes
male
Parazone
cleaner
men and women 20+
housewife
slim, blonde, young, pretty
yes
yes
female
Matalan
sale
women 20+
sex objects
slim, young, stupid, tartily dressed, blonde, pretty
yes
yes
male
Halifax
overdrafts
young men + women
sex objects
slim, skimpily dressed, young, pretty
yes
yes
male
Nivea Visage
anti-wrinkle cream
young/ middle aged women
sex objects
slim, young, pretty, blondes and brunettes
yes
yes
female
Nestle
whole grain cereal
middle aged men + women
housewife
smartly dressed, not particularly pretty, slim or young
no
no
N/A
Andrex
toilet roll
young women
sex object
thin, pretty, young, brunette
yes
yes
female
DFS
sale
young men and women
sex objects
skimpily dressed, dancing, slim, young, pretty, blonde
yes
yes
male
Wella
Vosene
young women
housewife
young, slim, pretty, blonde
yes
yes
male
Ultralase
laser eye treatment
middle aged men + women
housewife
slim, pretty, blonde, smartly dressed, young
yes
yes
male
Walkers
light crisps
young men + women
sex object
skimpily dressed
yes
yes
male
Baines + Ernst
debt solutions
middle aged men + women
housewives/ mothers
slim, pretty, young, brunettes/ blondes
yes
yes
male
Dove
de-odourant
young women
sex object
thin, pretty, brunette, young
yes
yes
male
Storey
carpet sale
middle aged men + women
sex object
thin, pretty, tartily dressed, young
yes
yes
male
Safestyle UK
windows
all sexes and from 20+
sex object
skimpily dressed, slim, blonde, young, pretty
yes
yes
male
Lenor
Downy
both sexes from 20+
housewife/ mother
well dressed, smart, lim, blonde, young, pretty
yes
yes
male
Aqua fresh
toothpaste
all sexes from 20+
housewife
well dressed, smart, young, slim, pretty, blonde
yes
yes
male
Johnsons
baby wipes
women aged 20+
mothers
thin, pretty, young, smartly dressed
yes
yes
male
British Telecom
internet anytime
all ages + sexes
mother
thin, attractive, young, blonde
yes
yes
male
Shoe tailor
catalogue
middle aged women
professional woman
slim, older woman, pretty, brunette
no
yes
female
Parazone
cleaner
men and women 20 +
housewife
slim, blonde, young, pretty, smartly dressed
yes
yes
male
Baines + Ernst
debt solutions
middle aged men + women
housewives/ mothers
slim, pretty, young, brunettes + blondes
yes
yes
male
Poundstretcher
special offers
middle aged men + women
housewives/ mothers
slim, pretty, young, brunettes + blondes
yes
yes
male
I can now look at the results I have collected and draw conclusions from them.
Analysis
From my results I deducted that 92.5% of adverts are stereotypical to women, and that women are unlikely to be portrayed as a non-stereotypical character, (e.g. business woman). They are mostly shown as sexual objects. Women are more than 4 times less likely to record a voice over than men, (82.2% are male). This is because women are seen as being not as 'professional' as men, or not as qualified to talk about things, therefore, if a man tells you about a product, people are more likely to believe the advert. When women do appear in a non-stereotypical role, they are often advertising products aimed at women, or products for the elderly. My graphs on the following three pages clearly illustrate these trends, and prove that the majority of advertisements are stereotypical, and use women as a sex object to sell their product. This is commonplace in advertisements, cars have scantily clad women draped across them, yoghurt products have the image of the perfect, yet semi-naked woman bathing in their product, and toothpaste commercials have women walking around in their underwear. The older woman is frequently shown as a housewife or mother, but although older, is still this unattainable vision of beauty which, apparently, we must all strive towards. These adverts feed on people's insecurities, and scream to the consumer, 'If you buy this product you will look like this, you will have this lifestyle, and you can be her!' The saddest thing is that these adverts successfully sell the lie to the customer, and make millions of pounds each year. From my research I found that 48.8% of ads portray women as sex objects, 29.5% are portrayed as housewives and 14.8% are mothers. Non-stereotypical images make up only 7.9% of advertisements containing women. A sorry state indeed!
From a sociological point of view, I believe that this is because women are portrayed as housewives + mothers in all areas of live, when they are young, they are given cooking toys, and dolls to prepare them for motherhood, and it is expected that this is what they will be when they are older. The image of the career woman is more widely accepted now, but if she decides to keep her job after she has had children, she is frowned upon, 'A mother's place is in the home' seems to be the ideal most people conform to. Men are encouraged to play sports, be active, have a more exciting life, and go to work. Adverts sole purpose is to sell, and by using these images they appeal to people's insecurities, they play on the fact that humans constantly find fault in ourselves, and make us thing that if we buy this product we will no longer be too fat, thin, tall or short, but the image of the perfect woman, and have the perfect life. Advertising agencies use this primary socialisation, which our families programme us with at an early age, (that all women eventually want from life is to have a family and raise children), to make us think we need their product. 'If you buy this baby product you are a good mother' or 'If you go to this place, you will look as good as this model'. I believe I have proved my theory, and I will now analyse a similar study by another sociologist, to compare it to my results. I found an investigation, quite similar to mine on the Internet. The study is comparing sex-role stereotyping in television commercials, done on five continents, and over 25 years. It includes statistical data which I will compare to mine in order to discover if my results are similar to those of Furnham, who wrote the investigation I found. I chose to compare his results from America, as, I decided that it has the most similar culture, society, social norms and expectations to the UK than other countries he uses in his essay, such as India or China. He also found that males are more frequently depicted in 'professional' roles, e.g. interviewer/narrator, and women are much more likely to have 'dependant' roles, (90% of narrators or voice overs were male in 1988), meaning that without the aid of the man in the advertisement, the woman would be useless. As I have previously explained, this is because men are seen as being smarter than women, and so if a man tells you to buy the product, he is more likely to persuade people to buy the product than a woman is. This correlates with my results, and I will continue to look for further comparisons between our investigations. In a later study in the UK, 70% of voice overs were male, and in Australia (1992), only 14% of advertisements had female voice overs. It seems that the opinion males are more professional is a world wide opinion. As I also found, most females are young, and of all ages are used in advertisements. The only exception to this rule, is that women who are elderly were used to advertise products aimed at the 65+ age group. Women are much more likely to appear in a commercial advertising body products, or domestic products. Men are used to sell more cars, holidays etc, serious products. I suggest that this is because women are thought to be capable of deciding whether or not to buy a new hair spray, but, a male has to be involved in any large decisions. Men are also involved in more business type advertisements, e.g. lawyers, loan agencies, banks etc. Furnham's study also backs this theory, as in the UK (1997), 35.45% of adverts selling body products contain women, compared to 10.5% of men. Once again, Furnham's findings back up mine, in showing that in the UK (in 1997) 7% of auto/sports products contain men, compared to only 2.1% containing females. Something which I deducted from looking at my results, is that women are more likely to appear as a sex object, if they are appearing in an advert aimed at younger people. As the demographic group the ad is aimed at ages, so does the image of the woman, from sex object, to housewife, mother and then O.A.P. (Old Age Pensioner). Furnham used a previous study (Neto & Pinto 1998) to deduct that males are more likely than females to act as the authority of a product, which means males are much more likely to be the main driving force in the advertisement, rather than women. This is still visible today, in the Flash Wipes commercial where the male is so clever, and the female so stupid that she does not realise he is using Flash to clean the bathroom, and thinks he is working away when he is actually sleeping in the bath. Furnham's investigation turned out very similar results to mine, sadly, I could not compare this essay to mine any further, as Furnham goes on to analyse several different studies from different countries, and from different time periods, which would be extremely interesting to investigate myself, but I do not have enough time to study them in enough detail.
Evaluation
I believe my investigation has produced reliable results, and proved my theory. Content analysis and using secondary information were the only methods available to me, as facts and previous studies in this area were all I needed. It was not necessary to include surveys, interviews or other contact with the public as opinions were of no use to me. The strength of this, is that my results are accurate and clear, as content analysis is difficult to misinterpret, I simply analysed the information I saw. The downside to this is that I only received one person's opinion about the advertisements, my own. A person from a different social background may have had contrasting ideas about what is, or what is not stereotypical to women. I remained unbiased throughout my investigation, but, I would've also liked to have a much larger sample of advertisements, from television and a wider range of newspapers + magazines to produce more reliable results, There is no missing information in my study, and seeing as I chose a broad range of TV advertisements ( by recording both daytime and prime time TV), newspaper and magazines, my information is not biased in any way. My secondary information is........
There are only 3 ways I could have improved my investigation, I will explain what they are, and how they would have aided my investigation.
* Improving the size of my sample, I would have liked to analyse a larger sample of adverts than I was able to do. This was because I only had a limited period of time available to me. This would have made my results more reliable.
* Improving the range of my sample, to cover many more newspapers + magazines. Once again, I was unable to do this because I only had a small amount of time, and this would have also improved the reliability of my results.
* Improving my results by using more people to analyse the adverts. This would have also shown me different views on gender stereotyping, from different people, and it would have been interesting to use people from different social backgrounds. Also different age groups and different sexes, (to get the male perspective)would have been interesting, particularly to see if their opinions contrast. I could not do this due to lack of time.
* I would have liked to compare my investigation to more sociologists results, and see if there were further correlations or contrasting points which I could investigate.
For an extension activity, I would have liked to study advertisements from the past, to see if they have changed in their stereotyping of women over the decades. I expect that while the stereotyping has improved, advertising is still not an equal area for women. I would have enjoyed proving or disproving this theory.
Bibliography
Research
The Internet
Secondary Information - used in analysis
The Internet (Furnham's investigation)
Newspapers - used for content analysis
'The Sun'
'The Daily Mail'
'The Times'
Magazines - used for content analysis
'FHM'
'Cosmopolitan'
'Woman's Weekly'