Women & Advertising

 WOMEN & ADVERTISING
 
Advertising is one of the chief ways in our culture that images of women are presented to women. lt is pervasive, public, powerful.
Advertising talks to women, giving messages about products and brands. Advertising talks about women, communicating messages about their identity.
In a time when women are reassessing old and new images of themselves, advertising has an important role to play.  
To understand the images of women that women want to see reflected in advertising:
• How do women see themselves today?
• What are the images of women in advertising today?
• What are the most compelling images of themselves women want to see in advertising?

 This is a time of reassessment for women.
‘Dramatic shifts over the last three decades in society’s views of women and in women’s view of themselves translate into dramatic changes in women’s…
• education 1970 1992
medical school graduates: 8.4% female 35.7% female
law school graduates: 5.4% female 42.7 % female
• employment,
women with children under
6 who are in the workforce: 30% 62%
• income.
Average pay for female managers, professionals rose 18% from 1978-1993; male’s pay rose 1.7%.
Sources: U.S. Digest of Education Statistics; Research AIert, 1995.
 

Across all generations, women share beliefs about women and face Self-defnition and Negotiation. However, the work of Self-definition and Negotiation is influenced by one’s generation and lifestage task.
Though we work on these tasks all the time, we are more focused on particular issues at certain times.
 
How Women See Where We Are Now
 
Women have undergone so much change in the last few decades and have caused so much change in the culture, it goes without saying that their values have changed.
• The old stereotypes and rigid roles were based on one set of values that recognized women primarily in relation to others: woman as daughter, wife, mother.
• Important values: physical attractiveness, nurturing, caring for others.
What are the new values emerging as important to women
Women today see themselves as…
° diverse individuals, not crammed into a few old stereotypes;
° complete people, not identified with any one role;
° active, capable, intelligent, confident, and in control;
° competent yet connected to others;
° having inner strength;
° leading lives that capture the reality of multi-tasking, adapting, agility;
° in relationships with men based on mutuality and equality;
° affirming the value of female friendships.

And women want to see these values reflected in advertising.
Why Women are Dissatisfied with their Depiction in Advertising
The trail of articles and surveys in the past ten years documenting women’s dissatisfaction with the way they are portrayed in advertising is very long.
 • As far back in 1972, 75% of women surveyed by the mainstream magazine, Redbook agreed 'the media degrades women by portraying them as mindless dolls.'
 • Much has changed as advertisers tried to respond to women’s dissatisfaction.
 -- Hard to find ditsy women totally obsessed with cleaning or male approval.
• Much has not changed; women still criticize advertising for:
  - not showing women or their lives as they really are
- treating women mainly as sex objects
- focusing on an unrealistic ideal of beauty
• In fact, some studies point to an increased emphasis in advertising on women as sex objects. They document a pattern in advertising today of greater focus on women’ s appearance.
The Difficulties of Advertising to Women

Advertisers are trying to address women’s dissatisfaction but it is difficult. Are 'reality and women’s advertising mutually exclusive?'
'Given the confusion and complications of our culture, it’s almost
impossible to show uncliched images of women in ads.' Barbara Lippert, Adweek
 Because of the process of Self-definition women have experienced, they are less willing to tolerate images they perceive to be negative.
 Women today are diverse.
- With stereotyped images overturned, no mass target exists.
- Advertisers fear that if they focus on women in the workplace they might alienate more traditional women. Some bypass the issue by creating gender neutral advertising or seek neutral spaces -- 'the cracks between home and work.'
 Some advertisers believe that no clear images of women have emerged to take the place of older images that have been overturned.
 Advertisers have to depict not only the changes in the reality of women’s lives, but women’s changing ideals as well.
 Images of Women in Advertising Today

 To understand women’s dissatisfaction with their reflection in advertising, we have to examine the images that appear in advertising and how women feel about them.
 Some of these images have been around since advertising began; some first appeared in earlier decades and then disappeared for a time; some are emerging for the first time this decade.
 • Face Value/Body Beautiful
 • Maidens and Mothers
 • Free Women
 • Strong Women
 • Working Women
 • Angry Women
 • Female Bonding  

When images of women in advertising today are compared with women’s images of themselves, the
reasons for women’s dissatisfaction with advertising are clear. Advertising has changed, but not enough.
 Women still level old charges:
 • Unrealistic and demeaning to women
 • Too role linked
 • Misses individuality and diversity of women today
 • Fails to capture women’s struggle with Negotiation
 • Still dominated by images which draw on physical beauty or reproductive ability: Face Value I Body Beautiful, Maidens and Mother.

Speak to the generations.
Although there are great similarities of values and beliefs across the generations of women, the generational differences provide direction for targeted campaigns.
• Women in their 20s
- indomitable optimism and faith that they can negotiate the system -coupled with the pragmatism of this generation
• Women in their 30s and 40s
- disillusionment about work
- difficulties of Negotiation
• Women in their 50s
- excitement and sense of new beginning
Specific Categories
 

Think shampoo, think scouring powder, think cars---think differently.
 • Beauty and Fashion: categories embedded in the Face Value/Body Beautiful image of women.
ISSUES:
- how to avoid presenting women as sex objects
- how to present ideal images women won’t reject as unrealistic or oppressive
 • Traditional Women’s Categories: shift from traditional emotional center -- insecurity around being a good wife, mother, housekeeper -- to new emotional center -- time famine and resulting guilt.
ISSUES:
- the need for new images for traditional female roles
- how to present these categories without being polarizing to women
- finding meaningful images of mutuality between men and women that are accepted as realistic.
 • Untraditional Women’s Categories
- benefit from women’s desire to see themselves as competent, capable, active, intelligent, functioning successfully in the world
- even more traditional women like these images