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Gender stereotypes in Portuguese television advertisements

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, July, 1998 by Felix Neto, Isabel Pinto

There is now fairly widespread conceptual agreement and empirical support for the view that television can and does profoundly influence both children and adults (e.g., Miller & Reeves, 1976; Frueh & Mc Ghee, 1975; McGhee & Frueh, 1980; Jennings, Geis, & Brown, 1980). As Courtney and Whipple (1983) have noted it "can influence intellectual development, change attitudes, contribute to aggressive behavior in children, teach children how to become consumers, encourage prosocial attitudes and behaviours, be an agent of political socialization, and teach racial stereotypes . . ." (pp. 45-46).

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It is as a socializing agent that television is particularly powerful. Because viewing television involves the observation of others' behaviour and its reinforcement contingencies (Bandura, 1977), television is considered to be a major vehicle through which children learn about appropriate behaviours, particularly gender-appropriate behaviours, and about the relative desirability of performing those behaviors.

Gerbner (1978) has described television as the "cosmic force" or unquestioned environment one is born into, such as pre-Reformation religion provided the social milieu in pre-industrial times. In most developed countries television has the widest audience of any medium. It is watched by all types of people regardless of national origin, race, social class, gender or age, and it is watched very frequently. Typical estimates of average time per day spent with television advertisements in the four Portuguese channels, from January to July 1996, was 11 hours (Publico, 28 November, 1996).

Due to the fact that between 10 and 28% of television time is dedicated to advertisements, there has been concern and research about the characteristics of the male and female models that are "sold" along with the product (McArthur & Resko, 1975). Commercials are of particular interest in the analysis of media content because they are a highly condensed form of information which tends to be selectively responsive to aspects of the surrounding culture, and because they are usually repeated many times, so that most viewers are likely to encounter them, probably more than once.

Recognition of the potential influence of television commercials on gender-role development has spurred a continuing interest in monitoring the degree of gender-role stereotyping in commercials over the past two decades. Beginning in the early 1970s, researchers assessed the degree of stereotyping by analyzing the content of gender-role messages. The choice to focus on content is most likely attributable to the long-established tradition of content analysis. For decades it has been used as an objective, systematic, and quantitative method for analyzing the manifest features of communication. It is based on the assumption that information about the nature of people's psychological states and social roles can be obtained by analysing their choice of language and other observable, visible characteristics.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Portugal experienced substantial increases in the proportion of women in the workplace. In 1994 the female activity rate was 42% (Comissao para a Igualdade e Direitos da Mulher- CIDM-1994). In the context of the European Union, Portugal is one of the countries with the highest female activity rate. The Government increased legislation to prohibit gender discrimination and appointed CIDM whose office constitutes the governmental mechanism to obtain equality of opportunities and of rights. Surveys of family roles indicate some shifts in the patterns of division of household labor. In 1990/91 women constituted 55.5% of the students enrolled in college education. In sum, in recent decades Portugal has experienced ideological, political and economic pressures concerning gender roles similar to those of other Western nations, and in this context it is of interest to assess the extent to which the mass media have responded to developments in the surrounding society. Portuguese television is seen in Portugal and by large populations in other countries (African countries speaking Portuguese and Portuguese emigrants around the world).

This study examined gender role stereotyping in Portuguese television advertisements. It had two majors aims. First, it attempted to extend our knowledge of current Portuguese advertisings using a large sample and employing a coding scheme based closely upon those used in analyses in both American and British commercials, namely McArthur and Resko (1975), Manstead and McCulloch (1981), Levingstone and Green (1986), Harris and Stobart (1986), Gilly (1988) and Furnham and Bitar (1993). The previous research in other Western nations and everyday observation led to the expectation that gender role stereotypes would be found too in Portuguese media. It can be observed that similar gender stereotypes among children and adults have been found in Portugal and in other western countries (Neto, 1997; Neto, Williams, & Widner, 1991; Williams, Best, Ward, & Nero, 1990). Second, the study attempted some cross-cultural analysis of comparable data, specifically that of America, Australia, Britain and Italy.

Health Care Industry

Gender stereotypes in Portuguese television advertisements

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, July, 1998 by Felix Neto, Isabel Pinto

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