Sex-Role Stereotyping in Television Commercials: A Review and Comparison of Fourteen Studies Done on Five Continents Over 25 Years - Statistical Data Included

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  Sept, 1999  by Adrian Furnham,  Twiggy Mak

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However, as Furnham and Skae (1997) in Britain and Ferrante, Haynes, and Kingsley (1988) in America have noted in their small-scale comparative studies, there do appear to be small, but stable and detectable trends in gender-role advertising. Women are being depicted less as dependent and in a domestic setting, which no doubt reflects global statistics on the increase in the number of working women. However, some of the sex differences seem impervious to change such as the fact that, on average, female central characters nearly always seem to be considerably younger than their male counterparts.

Studies done in more traditional societies show, not surprisingly, that sex-role stereotyping is stronger (Neto & Pinto, 1998). Examining commercials in both Hong Kong and Indonesia, Furnham et al. (1999) found sex-role differences in 90% of the coding categories. This was even greater than was found in the original studies done in America over 25 years ago. Those two Asian countries differ significantly in size, history, geography, and religion but, like many Asian countries, have been slower to adopt ideas of sexual equality popular in the west (Williams & Best, 1982). This may well be true of most Asian countries and fits with the data on sex-role stereotyping.

This study compared similar content analytic studies with each other and with important earlier studies. The analysis is a step toward understanding the general picture of sex-role stereotyping in television commercials: in the 1970s the commercials typically show men as authoritative and knowledgeable, whereas women are confined at home. Such pictures have not changed much over the 25 years, although for some attributes men and women are depicted more equally. However, the study by Furnham and Skae (1997) does show a change in this pattern; advertisements are much less sex stereotyped than previous European studies. This may imply a decline in sex-role stereotyping in the Western world, in particular, Britain. Gunter (1995, p. 50) noted in his recent critical review of many studies looking at gender-role portrayals in advertisements directed to adults and to children that, from the late 1980s onward, advertisements did seem less sex-role stereotyped: "More advertisements emerged featuring women in central, independent roles, assuming greater degrees of control over the immediate situation in which they were depicted and more generally over their own lives. As yet, this new pattern in gender-role portrayals has been visible in advertisements aimed at adults, while recent research has indicated that advertisements aimed at children have remained as gender-stereotyped as ever." Current studies in Asia suggest that sex stereotyping in television commercials is not declining there and is much stronger. than in Europe (Furnham et al., 1999). This indicates that the general pattern over the world is not identical; though in the Western world sex stereotyping appears to decline, this is not the case in Asia and possibly not in Africa (Mwangi, 1996). Some Asian and African countries are not nearly as technologically advanced as Western countries and comparatively new to television. Thus South Africa, the most developed country in Africa, has had television for barely 25 years. The fact that many have more stereotypical gender-role portrayal than in the West may be another indication of their lagging behind the Western world in issues with respect to gender equity. Perhaps future studies in this area could look at the relationship between cultural values (individualism--collectivism, masculinity--femininity) and sex-role stereotyping. This would allow one to develop and test quite specific hypotheses about where and why differences in sex role-stereotyped television commercials would occur.