Three female roles in television commercials

We analyze 307 television commercials' depiction of three female roles. The maternal and housekeeping roles encase women in the family. The aesthetic role of beautification enhances women's individuality. The imagery of commercials suggests effects of the technological rationalization of housework and the hedonistic consumer ideology: Women's autonomy is reduced as men become the technical experts on housework, the role of the mother as moral socializer is eroded, and children become self-centered consumers without family responsibilities. The family rarely appears as a close social unit, but is shown as a loose-knit collection of people held together by the wife-mother who supplies their separate wants. Commercials portray generational and sex-role differentiation greater than exist in the real world.This article is a revision of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, September 1978. The authors are indebted to Milton C. Albrecht, E. Barbara Phillips, Ida Harper Simpson, Gaye Tuchman, and an anonymous reviewer for comments on earlier drafts, and to Ann R. Tickamyer for assistance.