Department of Advertising

Gender Portrayals

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

As this web site develops, in the space below we will provide a bibliography of articles and books relevant to this topic. To the extent practical, bibliographic references will be annotated.

Anyone interested in submitting additional bibliographic material for this reference page, or for any of the others at this site, is welcome to send such material via e-mail to jef@mail.utexas.edu. Please type the references in the same format as is used here, and keep the annotations to a few sentences.

  1. Gary Warren Melton and Gilbert L. Fowler, Jr. (1987). Female Roles in Radio Advertising. Journalism Quarterly, 64 (1): 145-49.

    This study examines female role portrayal in radio commercials for various products and by time of the day the commercial is run. A content analysis is conducted with 2058 commercials drawn via a systematic sampling from the top two AM and FM stations of three markets. The study finds female presence in radio commercials to be virtually nonexistent comprising only 7% of the commercials studied. Results also indicate that when used in the ads, females are typically placed in consumer or worker roles and underrepresented in the areas of banking, employment and professional areas such as doctor and lawyer.

  2. Thomas W. Leigh, Arno J. Rethans, and Tamatha Reichenbach Whitney (1987). Role Portrayals of Women in Advertising: Cognitive Responses and Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising Research, 27 (October/November): 54-63.

    This paper examines the effects of women's role portrayal among two groups of women with different role orientation. A laboratory experiment is conducted with 87 women employing a 2 (role portrayal; traditional/modern) X 2 (role orientation (traditional/modern) between subject design. Commercials, in a storyboard form, for a frozen-food entree are used as test stimuli. Findings indicate that advertising effectiveness, as measured by attitude toward the ad, the spokesperson, and toward buying the product, is enhanced when role portrayals are consistent with the role orientation of the receiver. The study also suggests that the effect of role portrayals tend to be mediated by role-related cognitive response generated during the exposure to the ad. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

  3. Jane M. Simmons (1986). Gender Differences of Nonverbal Power Cues in Television Commercials. Proceedings of the 1986 Convention of the American Academy of Advertising, (ed.), Ernest F. Larkin: R72-R76.

    A content analysis of 253 television commercials is conducted to determine the presence of nonverbal power cues, the types of goods, the gender association of those goods. This study also examines the relationship between nonverbal power cues and recall scores of television commercials of male and female models using the data collected from 10 professional interviewers who are given 350 questionnaires. Results suggest that nonverbally, television commercials describe women as lacking authority and possessing less power than men. The correlational anaysis indicates no relationship exists between recall and the nonverbal power cues present in the commercials regardless of the gender of the presenter.

  4. Kathleen Debevec and Easwar Iyer (1986). The Influence of Spokespersons in Altering a Product's Gender Image: Implications for Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising, 15 (4): 12-20.

    This study examines the influence of the spokesperson's gender on advertising response variables such as the perceived image of a product and/or message and the extent to which an individual's sex and gender orientation affect his/her responses to gendered advertising portrayals. Results suggest that a spokesperson's gender can not only alter a product's gender image, but can result in more positive attitudes and product usage intention when the gender of the spokesperson and the product's gender differ.

  5. Thomas W. Whipple and Alice E. Courtney (1985). Female Role Portrayals in Advertising and Communication Effectiveness: A Review. Journal of Advertising, 14 (3): 4-8, 17.

    A review of studies concerning the impact of model gender, female role portrayals and their interactions with the product category is presented. Effective role portrayals are found in the related studies to be a function of three factors--appropriate match between the gender of the depicted model and the gender image of the product, the setting of the portrayal, and the portrayal's liberatedness and realism--and the interactions of all of these factors. Implications for advertising and research are discussed.

  6. Majorie J. Caballero and William M. Pride (1984). Selected Effects of Salesperson Sex and Attractiveness in Direct Mail Advertisements. Journal of Marketing, 48 (Winter): 94-100.

    The impact of physical attractiveness of a sales representative used in an ad and the sex of the spokesperson and its interaction with the sex of the receiver are investigated. The study consists of 2140 individuals actually ordering the product advertised (a book containing religious material) among a sample of 30,000 subscribers to a religious magazine who received the direct mail ad. Results show that only the ad featuring a highly attractive female and the ad without any stimulus person are likely to lead to purchase of the product advertised.

  7. M. Carole Macklin and Richard H. Kolbe (1984). Sex Role Stereotyping in Children's Advertising: Current and Past Trends. Journal of Advertising, 13 (2): 34-42.

    The study presents the results of a content analysis of 64 television commercials directed toward children. The results are compared with the findings from previous studies in terms of ad dominance, active/passive behavior, aggressive behavior, voice-overs, and audio track/background music. Problems with trend analysis in the area are discussed and some suggestions for future research are provided.

  8. Maureen Coughlin and P. J. O'Connor (1984). Gender Role Portrayals in Advertising: An Individual Difference Analysis. Advances in Consumer Research, 12: 238-41.

    This study explores consumer reactions to the changing role portrayal in advertising. The effect of two consumer characteristics (personality and attitudes toward the role of women in society) are also examined on reactions to the divergent roles displayed in ads. Data for 420 personal interviews with men and women living in New York city are used for analysis. Purchase intentions either for a fictitious brand of mouthwash are measured after shown print ads portraying the female model either in a traditional role or in a nontraditional role. Results suggest that personality characteristics are a significant factor in explaining purchase intent as a function of the female roles featured in ads.

  9. William E. Kilbourne (1983). An Exploratory Study of Sex Roles in Advertising and Women's Perceptions of Managerial Attributes in Women. Advances in Consumer Research, 11: 84-87.

    This study investigates the effect of sex role portrayal (housewife vs. professional) in magazine ads on women's perceptions of their managerial attributes relative to men's. An experiment is conducted with 77 female college students using mock-up ads for fictitious brands of products. Sex role stereotypes in magazine ads are shown to affect women's perceptions of managerial attributes in women such that respondents exposed to professional role ads evaluate males as possessing more managerial attributes than women exposed to the housewife role ads.

  10. Paula England and Teresa Gardner (1983). Sex Differentiation in Magazine Advertisements: A Content Analysis Using Log-Linear Modeling. Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 6 (1): 253-268.

    Log-linear modeling is used to examine differences in the portrayals of men and women and whether the sex differentiation in magazine ads decreased between 1960 and 1979. Two thousand ads appearing during 1960-1979 in Vogue, Ladies Home Journal, Playboy, and Time are content analyzed along four dimensions: age, activity, occupation and product use. The study finds considerable sex-typing in ads, and little change in the extent of sex-typing during the period. Comparing portrayals in ads with data on Americans' behavior, the authors conclude that ads portray more sex differentiation than is actually present in American men's and women's real-life roles. Policy implications of results are discussed.

  11. Geraldine Fennell and Susan Weber (1983). Avoiding Sex Role Stereotypes in Advertising: What Questions should We Ask? Advances in Consumer Research, 11: 88-93.

    As potentially controversial elements in female role portrayals in advertising, the paper identifies a number of dimensions to be studied in future research on female role portrayal:

  12. Teresa A. Swartz (1983). Role Portrayal Preferences for Print Advertisements. Proceedings of the 1983 Convention of the American Academy of Advertising, (ed.), Donald W. Jugenheimer: 112-115.

    This study investigates the relationship between women's sex role orientations (traditional or modern, as measured by Bem Sex Role Inventory) and desired advertising role portrayals (traditional: homemakers, fashion objects, and sex objects; modern: career, athletic, or neutral roles). Print mockup ads for a variety of products are tested among eighty women between the ages of 18 and 65. Results of the study reveal that the role portrayal preferred is not dependent on subjects' role orientation. In addition, this study presents some evidence that a neutral role portrayal may provide advertisers of most products with the best spokesperson.

  13. Lawrence C. Soley and Leonard N. Reid (1983). Effects of Decorative Female Models on Ad Recognition Over Time. Proceedings of the 1983 Convention of the American Academy of Advertising, (ed.), Donald W. Jugenheimer: 116- 119.

    The effects of decorative female models are examined by comparing recognition for magazine ads from the 1950s with recognition for ads from the 1970s. Analyses of Starch scored ads, controlling for the influence of product category, indicate that in both decades, magazine ads with decorative female models present obtain significantly higher "noted" scores than ads without such models, but that the "read most" scores are not affected by the presence of female decorative models. This study also reveals that ad recognition is differentially affected by product type.

  14. Leonard N. Reid and Lawrence C. Soley (1983). Decorative Models and the Readership of Magazine Ads. Journal of Advertising Research, 23 (April/May): 27-31.

    The effect of the model types used in magazine ads are examined on male readership of the ads. Using Starch "noted" and "read most" scores as the dependent variables, a sample of 126 Starch scored ads for cigarettes, liquor, and automobiles are analyzed. Results show that the "noting" of an ad by male readers is affected more by the presence of a decorative female model than the presence of the male only, male and female models together, or no human model. No such effect, however, is found in "read most" scores. The study also indicates that type of product differentially affects both the "noting" and "reading" of ads by male readers.

© 1995, 1996, 1997 Jef I. Richards
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