Media has become more and more important in our society today, in the United States but also in other developed countries of the world. Since media and advertisement were created close to about a century ago, several changes have been made in terms of how people and products are advertised, and its consequences on the society.

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Family Communication
Women and Men advertised in the media, in the United States and abroad
Claire Bounon
Illinois State University
04/30/15

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Introduction
Media has become more and more important in our society today, in the United States but
also in other developed countries of the world. Since media and advertisement were created close
to about a century ago, several changes have been made in terms of how people and products are
advertised, and its consequences on the society. In this case, there has been a noticeable gender
inequality between the representation of women and men over time. In order to get a better
understanding of this issue that causes consequences on societies, the advertisement of women
and men will be looked at specifically, in the United States, but also abroad.
Literature Review
The first section of the literature review will take a particular look at how women and men were
portrayed by media, in a chronological order. Bretl and Cantor (1988) looked at how men and
women were portrayed in television commercials in the United States since 1971. As the
research was meant to compare the different trends over time, it was found that men and women
are more and more represented in an equal amount of time. However, they are not represented in
the same way, and those differences keep being portrayed on American television. As women are
more likely to be represented in domestic settings, and as the actual user of the product
advertised; men are more and more portrayed as a spouse and a parent. Finally, an important
finding from this research is that over the last 15 years, the advertisement’s narrator is a male,
90% of the time. While media exposure is becoming more and more equal according to Bretl and
Cantor (1988), a big difference lays on how the women is the user of in the advertisement, but
the man stays the one to initiate the presentation and the narration of the commercial. In 1997,
despite the fact that women were starting to work, they were still considered through their family
roles (Coltrane & Adams, 1997). The purpose of the study conducted by the researchers was to

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assess the degree of stereotyping present and reproduced in commercial advertisements. The
outcomes of the study allowed the researchers to find some continuity to any past sexist
stereotypes such as: “women in the advertisements were less prevalent, more likely to be shown
in families, less likely to hold jobs, […] and more likely to be pictured as sex objects”.
Unfortunately, women have kept this image for a long time on television, and on media. In order
to better react to such differences, some researchers were interested on making predictions.
Diekman and Eagly (2000) applied the social role theory to men and women in their research, to
make predictions about the past, present, and future of their personal attributions. The authors
were interested in looking at the stereotypes constructed among those men and women. Diekman
and Eagly were able to find an increasing role equality between men and women, with women
increasing their masculine personality traits, helping with great role changes for them into male-
dominated occupations for example. What this research shows, is that the woman had to adapt to
the commercial, and not the other way around. For example, she had to increase her masculine
traits to have a role “equality” with men. More recently, research has also been conducted on the
topic in order to compare the media tendencies in the past until today. Furnham and Paltzer
(2010) combined lots of previous research since year 2000 on how men and women are
portrayed in the media and television advertisements more specifically, in order to better identify
stereotypes roles, unrepresentative groups in popular media. This study compares different
portrayals in different countries over the world through content analyses. The authors combined
the studies in terms of mode of presentation, end comments, credibility, role, age, argument,
reward type, product type, background, and location. Overall, men usually were the narrators of
the commercials, compared to women. Advertising has changed with the years, because of
trends, fashion, social roles, technology etc. but the combination of these 30 studies brought

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Furham and Paltzer (2010) to believe that it is hard to compare and contrast sex roles on
television because of all those factors, especially culture. What had made change advertisement
was only the tendency of the society, and not the other way around. And staying consistent with
the past, the narrator was still most likely to be a man. Mager and Helgeson (2011) were also
interested in comparing the past tendencies until today, and they examined advertising trends of
portrayals of women and men over 50 years in the United States (1950-2000), and the changes of
representation after transitions to feminism and cultural trends. After examining almost 8,000
representations in over 3,000 advertisements in magazines, the researchers found an almost equal
representation of men and women, as women were still subordinated to men. However, sexual
representation of both men and women was identified. As this research does not discover
anything very different over the years, it shows consistency in mass media messages in the
society, with a slightly better representation of women towards the end of the time frame. Men
and women were finally having an equal exposure in the media, but the status of the woman
stayed the same, that is a subordinate to the man, like society didn’t evolve over the years.
Representations of women
The representation of women as subordinates and with gender inequality influenced researchers
to understand more about the role of women at home, and in the commercials. When Brines
(1994) researched division of labor at home, she was interested in learning about the constant
woman’s role in the household despite recent changes and revolutions affecting the American
society at that time. Her research had for purpose to identify why housework was remaining
women’s work in the household, despite her economic dependency, which can be affected by
media but also vice versa can affect media and its expectations. The sample was defined as
“black and white husbands and wives 18 years old or older in unions that had commenced by

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1983 and remained intact through 1986” (p.667). The author found a consistent gap between
married men and women and their roles in the households. Women were most likely to take care
of the home and the children, while the man was working in a corporation. Unfortunately, status
violations often led to threat to the relationship and sometimes ended up in a divorce at that time.
“How women are represented in mass media ultimately results from an interplay of forces which
mould social reality. One of these social forces in the mass media.” is what Ceulemans and
Fauconnier mentioned in their research in 1979 (p.5). They focused on the representation of
women in the mass media over the world, and then the professional status of women in mass
media in the advertising industry, the radio, television and so on. The authors were able to
confirm that women are defined in the media through their domestic roles and their sexual appeal
to men. Ceulemans and Fauconnier (1979) were interested in procuring a list of
recommendations in order to reduce discrimination, which can on the long-term lead to social
roles changes in reality and in the media, in order to portray a more modern perception of the
family and women’s roles in the household. As the representation of a family on television can
have consequences on younger audience and their perception of the household and women in this
particular case, Peter and Valkenburg (2007) looked at the Adolescent’s exposure to a sexualized
media environment and their notions of women as sex objects. The purpose of their research was
to determine if there is a link between these two variables. The 745 participating Dutch teenagers
were between 13 and 18 years old and both girls and boys. It was found later on that there was
no outcome difference between a boy and a girl. The authors found that there is a link between
the teenagers’ exposure to a sexualized environment and their association to women
representation as a sexual object. However, this association followed a hierarchy i.e. the more
explicit the representation was, the stronger were the associated beliefs were. Schneider and

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Schneider (1979) were also interested in sex roles on television. They looked at how men and
women used to be portrayed in television commercials between the years of 1971 and 1976. The
study had 697 participants (with a large a majority of women), and it examined 287 distinct
commercials that were aired during prime time (27 hours). This research brought the authors to
realize that the representation of women was changing over time, and that the sex roles were
changing in the American culture, incorporating the changing roles of women into the society
and value system. In order to get a little more specific, women are trying to be empowered in the
media. This is what Brinkman et al. (2015) looked at very recently when they mentioned the
negative effects of the representation of women in the media today. The researchers were able to
find that college women are concerned with the representation of women in the media, and that
they sometimes decide to diminish the role of media in their lives. This finding might be a
solution today to not have to deal with a negative image, or maybe it qualifies more as
avoidance.
Representations of men
After looking at women in the media, it is interesting to look more specifically at how
men are represented, and the consequences it can have on an individual’s lifestyle and on the
perceptions of a society. Cantor (1990) examined over time how fathers and husbands are
portrayed in domestic comedies aired during prime time on television, because of the shows’
popularity. After revising the background on working-class fathers, middle-class fathers, single
parents, and black families on domestic comedies, the author was able to come up with typical
representations of men and women in domestic comedies from 1960s to 1990s. “Most women’s
fiction focuses on three themes: getting a man, keeping him once he is gotten, and living with
him and raising children, […] a woman is incomplete without a man” (p.283). Despite the

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changing conditions of men and women in a social setting, this research showed how their media
representation is still constant with previous and conservative portrays of men and women. It is
obvious that the image of men in the media still communicate a sense of masculinity and
responsibility towards women. In order to get a little more specific the example of alcohol
advertisements in the media is looked at, considering that men are the first consumers of alcohol
and that media directs their commercials to them specifically. Alcohol often portrays men in
their commercials, and diffuses a sense of maturity and masculinity construction that can have
effects on the audience. There is more and more room for alcohol advertisements in the media,
portraying men as their principal character, representing it as a normal social habit in the
Western Culture, and reaching younger and younger crowds. As those commercials are
becoming more and more important and media audience is becoming bigger and bigger,
concerns raise on a possible relationship between the representation of masculinity in alcohol
advertisements, and family/domestic violence. The purpose of the research conducted by
Towns, Parker and Chase (2012) was to identify the problematic elements in alcohol
advertisements targeting young men that might have an effect on masculinity, and then on any
potential domestic violence in the household. The authors found that in the most recent alcohol
advertisements, men were often the “everyday guy” or the “loser”, whom were consuming
excess alcohol. Furthermore, the authors drew the conclusion from their literature review that
messages in alcohol commercials relating to masculinity can cause harm to the consumer. It is
interesting to note that alcohol is just an example among many other industries. However, having
influential commercials about an influential product towards a young audience can have
consequences on the stereotypes, somebody’s lifestyle and to go even further, maybe domestic
violence.

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Gender representations abroad
As mentioned earlier in the literature, women and men representations in media and
advertisements have become more and more interesting to researchers. In order to get a broader
understanding of the gender inequality perception, this paper will extent it’s literature to other
countries than the Unites States, which will give a better chance for comparison too. Browne
(1998) looked at how television commercials in the United States and Australia were targeting
children and using stereotypes. His research combined data and comparison of stereotyping
levels, by filming the cartoons on Saturday mornings. In terms of results, boys were often more
dominant than girls, were more aggressive as well. On the other side, girls were shyer, with less
control and were less instrumental. Getting a better understanding of how children are targeted in
television commercials is very important because introducing gender inequity very early in the
life span can cause consequences in their family lives with siblings, and then as a mother or a
father, recreating those differences and this inequity. Again, this research shows a certain
fragility of women, which is embedded in their perception of women in the future, and can affect
their roles in media but in their own family system too. Paek, Nelson and Vilela (2011) took a
global approach by analyzing cultural trends and dimensions as well as representation of
individuals in the mass media, in seven countries over the world. As it takes the research to
another level, it is particularly helpful in order to better understand the social roles of men and
women over the world and better perceive our own society amongst others. The authors used
content analysis in over 2,600 television commercials. Overall, more men were the narrator and
visual character during the advertisement, with still women represented in a stereotypical way.
This research also allows to confirm what the older research in the United States showed, in
terms of narration by men and subordination of women. Gilly’s article (1988) is another cross-

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cultural study that examined the portrayals of sex roles in advertising among Australia, Mexico
and the United States. Advertisements have not always been very fair or equal in terms of their
representations of women and men. The authors were interested in taking the study to another
level instead of limiting to the United States like some other researchers in the past, and analyze
different countries. Television commercials were studied specifically, and compared with a
content analysis. As stereotypes are found in commercials in the three countries, they are not
represented in the same way because of cultures and different societies. Furthermore, some
difference in terms of sex roles portrayals were found. The United States were not consistent and
revealed some differences on their representations of men and women. Sex roles seems to be
more equal in Australia, but there seem to be a bigger gap between men and women in Mexico.
Other countries were looked at, like India, and its relationship to gender inequality. Grover and
Hundal (2014) focused on India and its representation of women through advertising. Lately,
India has witnessed a very important change in terms of women’s roles in the society. The
authors were curious to examine if that change was also portrayed in mass media in India and in
advertisements. Both content analysis and factor analysis were used for this research. In the end,
researchers noticed that there are still advertisements in India degrading women and their roles,
which obviously leads to the potential consumer to not pay as much attention to the product or
service presented. This article is interesting because it helps realize that the American society is
advanced, compared to others. As a commercial is degrading women in India, it probably
degrades their self, and their role in the Indian society as women and mothers. Taiwan is located
in Asia, where the role of women in the society is very limited, because of cultural values and
customs. Wanhsiu (2010) decided to take a closer look at the role of men at home and their
fatherhood. This article focuses on the portrayals of women and especially men in a family

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context in advertising and commercials in Taiwan. The author conducted a content analysis
among commercials aired during prime time, and analyzed how men and women were
represented. It is interesting to notice that gender stereotypes are very common and instructed in
the early life span. Furthermore, during commercials, women are much more likely to be
represented doing chores and housework, as well as taking care of children. On the other hand,
men are portrayed only playing with their children, without having a bigger role in their
education, letting us suppose that their role is at work during the day. In the same context in
China, Tan et al. (2013) looked at how men are portrayed in growing man lifestyle magazines
over the world, and more specifically in China and the United States between 2008 and 2010.
The authors were looking at how a man’s type and role was represented in the media and
particularly those magazines. A content analysis was conducted among over 600 magazine ads.
The three categories researched were: “vigorous and macho”, “refined and sophisticated”, and
“trendy and cool”. The representation of masculinity in the advertisements have an important
role on the common beliefs and people’s perceptions of individuals, which will follow in the
household and people’s expectation of a man and a father.

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Discussion
This literature review helped to get a better understanding of the representation of men
and women in the media, in the past and today, in the United States and in the rest of the world.
The gender unequal representations show that communication between individuals and family
members is affected because media affects each individual’s role. Instead of having the society
change the media, the media is changing the society. Overall, it has been shown that women are
still subordinates to men, and that men are still most likely to be narrators of a commercial. This
review has some limitations such as contradictory findings because of the important number of
variables, not always used in the same way by researchers. Unfortunately, there is nothing very
specific or determinate in the results because it keeps changing over time with mentalities, which
can end up being good on the long term to avoid being stuck in an era. Finally, the literature is a
little older, and stereotypes are still affecting people and cultures. However, this literature review
shows some strength such as the important literature on the topic, which allowed us to compare
the tendencies in the United States to the ones abroad. A lot of variables have been used. It could
be interesting to see in future research if the same variables can be used the same way to get
better information on the role of men and women in the society and household

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