Gender in Spanish Daily Newspapers

The purpose of this study was to examine the portrayal of women and men in a Spanish daily newspaper and to find whether there were gender differences among the authors of the articles in said newspaper. A content analysis was conducted of 4,060 articles and advertisements from 24 issues of a randomly selected, large-circulation, Spanish newspaper. Men were found to be more commonly featured in the articles, photographs, and advertisements than women, and they would usually be soldiers, athletes or high-rank businessmen much more often than women were. Furthermore, we determined that the reporters writing the articles were more likely to be men than women. And, in addition, men were more likely to be cited as sources than women.     

Gender at Work and at Home in Britain: Continuities and Changes

This paper discusses the views that British men and women hold about gender roles. Drawing on a survey with over 4,000 university students and interviews with professional men and women, it is suggested that, while the majority of both genders are moving toward an egalitarian model of gender roles, men's views are more likely than women's to be constrained by an essentialist mode] of gender. The data presented indicate that men were more likely than were women to endorse traditional gender roles, to regard women as better equipped for child care than men, to believe that women's advances necessarily disadvantage men, and to believe that men's work opportunities have worsened in comparison to women's. Drawing on both the interviews and the survey, it is also argued that beliefs about gender roles tend to be mediated by individualist discourses, which exempt exceptional individuals from normative gender roles.     

Selling Sex to Radio Program Directors: A Content Analysis of Radio & Records Magazine

This study was designed to examine whether radio format and musical artists' gender predict sexual content in trade advertisements geared toward radio program directors. Advertisements were coded from one of the leading music trade magazines, Radio & Records magazine, between 2002 and 2003. Results indicated that overall women artists used sexual content in trade advertisements more often and to a greater degree than did men. In some cases, advertisements in radio formats with younger demographic markets, such as pop or hip-hop, also used higher levels of sexual content. It is concluded that the organizational context of the commercial music industry helps to perpetuate status differences between women and men artists, which may then bring about a cognitive bias in the field that promotes women artists' over reliance on using sexual content in trade advertisements.     

Co-Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in New Zealand Television Advertising

This paper reports key findings from a content analysis of gender and ethnic depictions in a sample of 2,120 New Zealand prime-time television advertisements screened in 2006. The study explored the following questions: With what product categories are male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters most commonly associated? What are the most common occupational roles of male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters? The results reveal highly stereotypical depictions of women and men within each ethnic category. White men dominated advertisements for foodstuffs, telecommunications and financial/corporate/legal services and were over-represented as professionals/white collar workers, while White women were over-represented in advertisements for household products, personal products, and medical products and featured predominantly as homemakers. Māori/Pasifika men were over-represented as athletes and service and sales workers. Non-White women featured prominently within multi-ethnic groups in advertisements for personal grooming products and most frequently featured as glamour models, while non-White men were over-represented as blue collar workers. Largely absent were Māori/Pasifika women and Asians of both genders, potentially exacerbating the multiple axes of subordination encountered by these groups in the New Zealand context.     

Cognitive accessibility of sex role concepts and attitudes toward political participation: The impact of sexist advertisements

Women who were exposed to advertisements that portrayed women in their traditional role as homemakers reported less favorable attitudes toward political participation than women who were not exposed to advertisements. Exposure to portrayals of women as sex objects, on the other hand, did not affect women's attitudes. In contrast, men reported less favorable attitudes toward political participation after exposure to advertisements that portrayed women as sex objects, but were not affected by portrayals of women as homemakers. Implications for the influence of sex roles on political participation and the impact of sexist advertisements are discussed.     

Gender Role Stereotyping in Advertisements on Two British Radio Stations

The portrayal of men and women in two differentsamples of British radio advertisements was examined. Itupdated an earlier British study (Furnham &Schofield, 1986) which was recently replicated in Australia (Hurtz & Durkin, 1997). Onehundred advertisements from each of two London basedradio stations were content analyzed into eightcategories referring to the central figure of thecommercial; credibility, role, location, arguments, reward,product, accent and narrator. On both radio stationswomen were significantly more likely to be portrayedpromoting products for self-enhancement and with bodily health and domestic products, and food.There was only one significant difference in portrayalbetween the two stations, suggesting somegeneralizability of these findings. The results arediscussed in terms of development and maintenance ofgender role stereotyping in different aspects of themedia.     

“Do Me Please,She Won't”: An Examination of Personal Ads Posted by Married Men Seeking Sex from Other Men

Advances in technology have created new ways for individuals to find partners through personal ads seeking casual sexual encounters. This article examines self-identified married men who are seeking sexual encounters through placement of a men seeking men personal ad found on a free non-sexual large mainstream classified website. Three thousand advertisements were analyzed to reveal patterns among advertisements including items such as sexual act desired, sexual roles desired, race, and age. The results reveal that married men are seeking out different types of sexual encounters than men who do not identify themselves as married, desiring encounters more often during lunch, seeking out drug and disease free partners, desiring safe sex, and being more likely to desire a top or versatile sex role.     

Gender roles portrayed in Kenyan television commercials

A content analysis of 105 television advertisements aired on Kenya's television networks (KBC and KTN) during an 8-week period (July and August) was carried out. Commercials were coded according to the sex of the central character, spokesperson, the nature of products/services presented, setting, and occupation of the central character. There were no significant differences in the proportion of women and men serving as central characters in commercials. However, both men and women were depicted in traditional roles. Significant gender differences were apparent in relation to the products and services presented, preferred spokesperson, commercial settings, and occupational cues. Generally, the stereotyped nature of Kenyan commercials is consistent with findings obtained in developed countries. The results are discussed in relation to the prevailing cultural milieu.This article is based on a paper presented by the author at the 1992 Department of Educational Psychology National Seminar, Gender Issues in a Changing Society, Kenyatta University, Nairobi.     

Personal advertisements of male-to-female transsexuals,homosexual men,and heterosexuals

Transsexuals, because of their attempts at gender reversal, offer a unique opportunity to study self-presentation, social roles, and stereotypes. The present study is a content analysis of personal advertisements of male-to-female transsexuals (TM, N =99), homosexual (HoM, N =64) and heterosexual men (HM, N =99), and heterosexual women (HW, N =99). Advertisements were coded for the presence or absence of 11 characteristics either offered or sought, based on the 1984 work of Deaux and Hanna. The content of TM personal advertisements was significantly different from those of HW, HM, or HoM. TM mentioned physical characteristics and sincerity, and requested friendship most often; HoM mentioned sexuality most often; HM offered financial security and status in the form of occupation, and listed marital status most often; and HW offered personality characteristics and attractiveness most often. Several factors may contribute to the pattern of differences observed, including the fact that TM were more likely to be seeking friendship than sexual partners, in contrast to the other three groups.     

RACIAL AND GENDER BIASES IN MAGAZINE ADVERTISING

Recent evidence suggests that racial and gender biases in magazine advertisements may be increasing. To explore this possibility, a content analysis was performed on 10 years of fashion advertisements drawn from magazines geared toward White women, Black women, or White men ( N = 1,800 advertisements from 1985–1994). The results indicated that (a) except for Black females in White women's magazines, African Americans were underrepresented in White magazines; (b) female body exposure was greater than male body exposure, and White female body exposure rose significantly during the 10 years; (c) White women were shown in low-status positions nearly twice as often as were other models; and (d) Black women wore the majority of animal prints, most of which were patterned after a predatory animal. These findings suggest that racial and gender biases in magazine advertising persisted, and in some cases increased, between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s.     

“Appearance potent”? A content analysis of UK gay and straight men's magazines

With little actual appraisal, a more ‘appearance potent’ (i.e., a reverence for appearance ideals) subculture has been used to explain gay men's greater body dissatisfaction in comparison to straight men's. This study sought to assess the respective appearance potency of each subculture by a content analysis of 32 issues of the most read gay (Attitude, Gay Times) and straight men's magazines (Men's Health, FHM) in the UK. Images of men and women were coded for their physical characteristics, objectification and nudity, as were the number of appearance adverts and articles. The gay men's magazines featured more images of men that were appearance ideal, nude and sexualized than the straight men's magazines. The converse was true for the images of women and appearance adverts. Although more research is needed to understand the effect of this content on the viewer, the findings are consistent with a more appearance potent gay male subculture.     

Fifty Years of Advertising Images: Some Changing Perspectives on Role Portrayals Along with Enduring Consistencies

Content analysis is used to evaluate portrayals of women and men in United States magazine advertisements over a 50-year period, 1950 through 2000. We examine 7,912 portrayals of people in 3,212 advertisements from the time period and analyze changes in those advertisements relative to transitions in feminism and cultural trends. Magazines from representative categories provided the sample data. Over the period studied, magazine advertising showed a trend toward objective role portrayals of women fairly equal to men. This trend perhaps resulted from feminist??s positioning women in the public as well as the private sphere. Women were still subordinated to men in more subtle aspects of advertisements, measured by Goffman??s (1979) cultural positioning framework. Sexual exploitation of both sexes was noticed.     

Gender stereotyping in medical advertising: Much ado about something?

Gender bias in medical advertising may be one factor contributing to differential treatment of women and men by physicians. Four hundred forty advertisements from three prominent medical journals were analyzed. Significantly more male, compared to female, recipient ads were found overall as well as for cardiovascular drugs. Males and females were both portrayed stereotypically in the ads, but this trend was especially true for males. The facial expressions of men were more likely to be serious/neutral whereas the facial expressions of women were more often judged to be pleasant. Females tended to be younger than the males that were depicted. Since heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women, underrepresentation of women in cardiovascular ads was questioned. Stereotypical portrayals as well as differences in facial expressions and age of depicted recipients may contribute to physicians being less likely to take the complaints of women, compared to men, seriously.     

What Matters More—Breaking Tradition or Stereotype Content? Envious and Paternalistic Gender Stereotypes and Advertising Effectiveness

The outcomes of 2 experiments investigating the effectiveness of advertisements that use (non)traditional stereotypes of women (Experiment 1) or men (Experiment 2) are reported. Effectiveness of the ads was tested in relation to perceivers' attitudes toward female or male gender roles, respectively. The main finding was that for both male and female versions of the advertisements, the paternalistic ad strategies were more effective than were the envious ones, supporting the predictions of the stereotype content model over the classic prediction of negative effects of nontraditional gender portrayals for advertising effectiveness. Moreover, attitudes toward gender roles played only a limited role in determining ad effectiveness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

On Gender Specificity of Person Characteristics in Personnel Advertisements: A Study Among Future Applicants

This research is an examination of how person characteristics mentioned in personnel advertisements influence the judgments of male and female students with regard to their subjective eligibility for, and the attractiveness of, a particular vacancy. The first study showed that many frequently mentioned person characteristics in personnel advertisements applied differently to men and women, but that female characteristics were more in demand than male characteristics. The second study examined to what degree male and female participants felt that they themselves possessed male and female characteristics; results showed that the men were more confident about the degree to which they possessed male and female characteristics than the women were. The third study examined how the type of person characteristics mentioned in personnel advertisements influenced men's and women's judgments regarding their eligibility for and the attractiveness of a particular position. The men found all positions about equally attractive, whereas the women found “male” positions considerably less attractive. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women's Magazine Advertisements

Over the past 30 years, the literature on how women are depicted in advertising has been strongly influenced by studies conducted in the U.S. and Europe and may not fully describe the ways in which women are depicted in advertising across cultures. In this study we analyzed advertisements collected from women's fashion and beauty magazines in Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States to compare the ways in which Western and Asian models were portrayed in print advertisements. We found that although demure dress was used most often for both races, Western models were shown more frequently than Asian models in seductive dress. Western models were also posed more often than Asian models as the Seductive beauty type. Product categories also differed. Asian models were used more frequently in advertisements for hair and skin beauty products, whereas Western models dominated the clothing category. The findings suggest that Western models are used more than Asian models in advertisements which are “body” oriented, and that Western models are used in advertisements in Asia when the underlying marketing strategy is that “sex sells.”     

Images of women in advertisements: Effects on attitudes related to sexual aggression

While the power of advertisements has long been known, investigations of sociocultural influences on sexual attitudes have been limited primarily to studies of sexually aggressive media. In this study we examined the effects on sexual attitudes of different portrayals of women in advertisements. Male and female white middle-class university students were exposed to one of three groups of advertisements. In one condition women were depicted as sex objects, in another in progressive or role-reversed roles, and a third condition comprised product oriented advertisements containing no human figures. Sexual attitudes were assessed using four subscales of Burt's Sexual Attitude Survey of 1980, a measure of attitudes believed to be rape-supportive, and conducive to sexual aggression against women. Before completing the Survey, subjects rated a series of advertisements on appeal and aesthetic dimensions. Whereas the product oriented advertisements were rated as more appealing than those featuring female figures, analyses showed that males exposed to the sex-object advertisements significantly more accepting of rape-supportive attitudes, and females exposed to the progressive female images were less accepting of such attitudes than were controls.     

Some Factors Related to Social Success in College

Abstract

Preferences for age of partners of heterosexual and homosexual men and women were investigated. Personal advertisements were collected from newspapers in the United States and analyzed for the difference between the age of the advertiser and the age of the preferred partner. Heterosexual men tended to seek women younger than themselves, whereas women sought partners near their own age or older. The preferences of homosexual men and women were similar to those of heterosexuals, although more homosexuals stated a preference for a partner younger than themselves.     

Women preparing for traditionally male professions: Physical and psychological symptoms associated with work and home stress

Gender differences in well-being often are attributed to differential exposure of women and men to stressors, either from different distribution of the genders across roles or from different stressors within roles. An alternative hypothesis is that men and women differ in their vulnerability, although not necessarily in their exposure, to stressors. The relevant research often has confounded gender with work roles. Therefore, women and men preparing for the same traditionally male professions, as well as another group of women preparing for traditionally female professions, were included as participants in the current study (n = 397, almost all white). Even with exposure to stressors controlled statistically, nontraditional women were more susceptible than men with the same professional goals to several physical and psychological outcomes. These gender differences were not accounted for by differential vulnerability to the stressors measured in this study. However, chronic job tension and home (non-work) life events were stronger predictors of certain symptoms for these women preparing for traditionally male professions than for women preparing for traditionally female professions. Thus, both gender and career track differences were demonstrated, in susceptibility to symptoms developed and in vulnerability to stressors, respectively.     

Gender-Role Congruence and Self-Referencing as Determinants of Advertising Effectiveness

In an initial experiment, men and women with varied gender-role orientations evaluated gender-stereotyped and nonstereotyped advertisements for gendered products that are actually used by both sexes. Consistent with a gender-role congruence model of advertising effectiveness, traditional participants (masculine men; feminine women) responded more favorably to traditional (i.e., gender-stereotyped) than to nontraditional advertisements, whereas nontraditional participants (androgynous individuals; feminine men; masculine women) reacted somewhat more favorably to the nontraditional advertisements. Experiment 2 revealed that when encouraged to self reference, traditional participants became much more responsive to nontraditional advertisements, even more so than were the nontraditional participants. Practical implications of these results are discussed.