Sexism in Advertising

Extraordinary moves have been made in the direction of women's liberation from the attitudes that have maintained them in an inferior and submissive position. Yet there is evidence aplenty that some of the most common influences that the public is subjected to still carry the message of women's traditional and so familiar place. Advertisements in popular publications are replete with suggestions that woman's place is in the home, caring for man's basic needs for comfort: shelter, clothing, food, sex, and the bearing of children. One receives the clear impression that these functions demand the first claims on a woman's time. Until recent years she has not been expected to leave the confines of the home. Only now has she availed herself of the opportunity of choice in a wider world—without the burden of guilt for wanting more.

Given that consumer needs are directly related to activities, and given that ads seek to appeal to the largest and most common type of person in any category of society, in our survey we began to look for what advertisers felt women had the greatest needs for. We wanted to find out how woman's image, as an indicator of societal role, was being used in ads that had greater general appeal. The validity of this approach seemed strengthened by two facts: that the profit motive influences advertisers to be sure they are interpreting needs accurately and that the majority of advertising executives are men. It is men who hold power, who determine society's structure, and who have historically determined what is expected of, and therefore what will be received from, the woman.

Trends of advertising in women's magazines from 1910 to the present will be discussed here, and key themes will be extracted from this historical review. Since this study is necessarily biased by our interpretation of these ads, we will check our findings against a survey of other women's perceptions of advertising, to determine if they have detected the same attitudes.

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