Gender in Advertising...

Gunter 1995 -
Before the 1970's women in magazine adverts were rarely shown to be in paid work and if they were shown to be in paid work it would be the stereotypical smiling secretary or hairdresser.

The number of housewife images started to decline in the 1950's although it was still common in the 1960's and 1970's.

In the 1970's strong evidence was found of stereotyping as three quarters of television ads featuring women were bathroom and kitchen products.

If and when women were seen in a paid environment they would be seen as subservient to men.

Studies in 1970's and 1980's showed a continuation of these trends.

It also became more common to see men in the home, as fathers or husbands.

Studies found strong simlirities in gender representations from country to country and particular sexism aimed at children.

In the 1980's, TV advertising did start to take on the idea of the busy working women.

Cumberbatch -
In the 1990's a study by cumberbatch of 500 prime time TV ads in the uk found that advertisers had become wary of showing women doing housework and for the fist time men wer shown doing the cooking more than women.

Still, not much had changed as women were more likely to be young and attractive and men were twice as likley as women to be shown in paid employment.

work was seen as central to mens lives; 'relationships' were shown to be more important to women.

89% of ads used a male voiceover

Macdonald 1995 -

Representation of gender roles seems to have been, for many years, one of the areas where advertisers were often reluctant to do anything very different.

'Advertisers generally lagged begind womens magazines in the cultivation of new modes of adress, even when the evidence suggested that commercial advantages could be gained from modernising their approach'

Scheibe -