Women have done, and continue to play a large role in the aspect of consumerism. They are used to promote and advertise many products, as well as being the object of many marketing campaigns. Effectively a woman is “a saleswoman and wares in one” (Walter Benjamin, 1978). It was quite clear, from the early 1900s, that women were a major target for consumer orientation. It was Veblen (1899), an important critique of social and cultural dimensions of mass consumerism, that first realised and put the idea forward that women in the 19th and 20th century had a dual, contradictory role as regard to consumerism. Women were inscribed as “both consumer and commodity, purchaser and purchase, buyer and bought” (Roberts, 1998). In the light of this, Zola (1883) explained that women were targeted because ‘shops provided too much temptation as they consumed women like a disease.’
The early part of the 20th century saw the explosion of pornographic images of women in non-elite forms of culture, which went against law, which in turn tried to police female sexuality. People soon began to realise that images of sexy women would sell products. The prostitute as command of the early 19th century porn was made solely to be desired and consumed. This was the first time, which women were represented as an image, and not as an image representing a woman.
Due to such a rise in products centred on the needs and desires for women, there became an increasing rise in crime with emphasis upon women who stole obsessively known as kleptomaniacs. But, the irony was, that many of the women were predominantly bourgeois and/or from aristocratic backgrounds. According to Zola (1902) these women “stole from a pervasive desire, a new sort of nervous affection…. proving the results of the temptation provided by the big shops.”
As cultural types, the kleptomaniac and the prostitute image portrayed a particular set of anxieties concerning the growth of consumerism and the comodification of modern life. These two stereotypes also encapsulated the relation women held towards the new consumer culture.
Many studies exist, which try to explain why women were taking over as consumers. Some historians have put it down to their social status. Victoria De Grazia (1996) describes consumerism as “a force to which women are more vulnerable than men because of their subordinate social, economic and cultural position.” This point was backed up by Aulander (1979) who said, “Bourgeois women had not only to produce themselves, but also needed to acquire goods for representing the family’s social position.”
Weblen took a slightly different approach, and believed that women went out and consumed increasingly in order “to provide tangible proof of her husbands wealth through her self-ornamentation and vicarious leisure.” This regards women as a representation of what the husband earns, and that the wife also demonstrates “her status as property.” Weblen, in this case is saying that the husband treated his wife like another item of consumerism in order to show off his wealth.
This view was dramatically changed, when in 1918 women were given the vote in England, enabling them to represent not only their family and class, but also themselves. This made little difference though, to women’s consumption of goods, and simply sparked new ideas for manufacturers. Advertisers linked low cut dresses and short haircuts of women to the era of wartime liberation and freedom from constraint.
After this point, advertising towards women started to change. Rather than using women as an erotic image, they were being portrayed more as a pure image, and one that has freedom to go out and enjoy herself. Lears (1994) explained that “women were pushed off the stage of visual culture and transfigured into the giddy women-as-consumer.” Loeb (1987) also tends towards this argument and suggests that the twentieth century female consumer “exercised choice and the pursuit of pleasure…” and agreed that women were a strong influence on the way advertisers tried to sell their product.
Many historians shared this view. "Historically women acted as rational consumers," says Blaszczyk(1989). "They found ways to resist the dominant culture while helping to reshape the material world. Producers paid attention to women’s choices and changed product designs to meet women’s expectations.
After, the war period, there was a sudden burst in technology with the initiation of many household appliances onto the market. This included electricity, refrigerator and the washing machine. This meant the average housewife had more free time, and was not as held back. Of course, advertisers still tried to focus much of their attention towards women. It was a confusing time as “women were portrayed either as mighty consumers with advertisers at their beck and call or as pathetic victims of male expertise and control (Roberts, 1998). As housewives increasingly relied on their husbands to purchase appliances, and on scientific experts to operate them “the real decision making power…shifted out of the woman’s immediate sphere of control.” (Ross, 1996).
It was the introduction of the motor vehicle that actually started to separate gender categories in advertising. Ross argues, “that the automobile as a cultural symbol shaped a new notion of masculinity.” This sparked new forms of advertising, and it was perhaps some of the first bit of marketing, which was centred mainly to attract the male rather than the female. This use of advertising was also very much through film, where cars were often used, as a “symbol of social opportunity” and new male independence. Advertising that was used, which would be very controversial today, was by Renault who dubbed the car “the man’s friend” while other household appliance companies, answered to this by saying they were “the woman’s friends.”
Advertising and consumer marketing has changed in accordance to gender, since the mid twentieth century. The concentration of products towards men has increased no end, and many companies are realising that marketing goods towards men is extremely worthwhile. Another fundamental factor has been the changing role of women. Many women are now in full time or part time employment, which leaves them little time to consume, as well as increased independence.
It seems that advertising of products has not caught up to the same level to the equality of men and women. Many adverts still portray women as sex objects, in order to sell the product to men. Some examples of this are Citroen, who use a naked model to drive their cars. This is to a lesser extent nowadays, but it still means that the car is perhaps not the main object of the advert, even though it is the product being promoted.
Adverts that promote women’s products also use a stereotypical image of a woman with a good figure to emphasise the best effect of the beauty product. But once again, the image of the beautiful woman is the focus of the promotion, rather than the aspect of the merchandise itself.
Adverts are usually in line with traditional gender role stereotypes, where men are portrayed typically as authority figures and women are shown predominantly in domestic situations (Goffman, 1979). Goffman’s much quoted work ‘Gender Advertisements’ has provided the foundation upon which most of the evaluation of gender roles in advertising have been based. The evolution of adverts would seem to have reflected the changing roles of men and women. Skelly and Lundstrom (1981) suggest that today men are being portrayed as more ‘decorative’ and less authoritarian. However, other authors, such as Courtney and Whipple, (1983) suggest that in general, advertisers have been slow to update the archaic role portrayals of women.
Fragrance and beauty products are now increasingly available for men. The promotion for these kinds of products, often also use the aspect of getting a woman, in order to encourage the use of the product. These often take a lighthearted look at getting closer to the opposite sex, and how by using the product this will happen. Such an example is Lynx, who produce body products exclusively for men. They portray their products almost as an aphrodisiac and as a way to get closer to women. Clearly this is not true, but companies believe that the average male consumer would like to believe this.
In recent years, gender has become increasingly specialised, with many advertising campaigns appearing in different places, and at different times, depending upon the audience that will see them. For example, new technology has meant that advertising can be used between football matches. Clearly, the majority of spectators are male, so marketing campaigns focus on products, which will appeal to men almost exclusively. Also, the introduction of gender based magazines, such as For Him Magazine, or Women’s Own, have meant that specific campaigns can be placed in specific gender reading material. The Internet has also sprouted specialised advertising campaigns, with certain adverts appearing on male or female based web sites for example.
Overall, it is clear that consumerism by both genders is very important, and occurs throughout life without any boundaries. Elliott (1995) proposes that consumerism, and the consumption of products is a vehicle for meaning creation and social transaction. He suggests that for this reason consumption choices are sufficiently important to the self-concept of an individual as to be considered ‘existential’.
Consumers consume the symbolic meaning of products in order to construct a social identity, as a way of participating in social life and even as a way of securing social relationships (Lunt and Livingstone, 1992). Not only does the consumer buy the product, they also often buy social respect, health and beauty to control their environment. However men and women aspire to frequently dissimilar social groupings, hold opposed concepts of reality and have conflicting views. Therefore, it would be unwise for the marketer of a product to assume that reactions to signs are the same for both the sexes.
Gender is a major factor in consumerism, and it seems that the focus of many advertising campaigns are still focused towards the female gender, even though, this maybe an outdated analysis. More general products still seem to concentrate on attracting the women as the consumer, even though the item may be purchased for a man or a woman. Obviously, specific items for male and female are kept separated, but for many products, this simply isn’t true. The adverts themselves portray an outdated image too. Content analysis by authors such as Goffman (1979) has demonstrated that in advertisement women and men are frequently portrayed in stereotypical roles; the former occupying the submissive, reliant position and the latter being dominant and purposive.
The emphasis upon the growth of consumerism throughout the twentieth century focuses mainly on the inherent attraction of consumption by the female gender. It was clear that from an early stage that, women were the primary consumers in society with men taking a more background role. This view has changed in more recent decades, but marketing and promotion for products has not quite caught up to this stage yet.
Whether the attitude of companies to develop marketing strategies not centred on gender based ideals will change, remains to be seen. But gender is an important and influential factor within consumerism, and it is only when you really start to look, do you notice how much products are centred around the female or male consumer.
Bibliography
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Stearns, P, (1997), Stages of Consumerism: Recent Work on the Issues of Periodization, The Journal of Modern History, March pp102-117
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Roberts, M, (1998), Gender, Consumption, and Commodity Culture, American Historical Review, June pp 817-844
- Benson, J, (1994), The Rise of Consumer Society in Britain, 1880-1980
- Benjamin, W, (1978), Theory of Modernity and the Dialectics of Seeing
- Veblen, T, (1972), The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions.
- De Grazia, V, (1996), The Sex of things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective
- Lears, J, (1994), Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America
- Loeb, (1987), Consuming Angels: The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism.
- Ross, K, (1995), Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonisation and the Reordering of French Culture
- Goffman, (1979), Gender Advertisements
