Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2011
Capstone Advisor
Dr. Bradley Gorham
Honors Reader
Dr. Jong-Hyuok Jung
Capstone Major
Advertising
Capstone College
Public Communications
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Professional
Subject Categories
Community Psychology | Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Psychology | Social Psychology
Abstract
The advertising industry since its inception has been saturated with male views and opinions, consequently manifesting in the sexual objectification of women. However, with more career opportunities for women in recent years, more women are choosing to engage in non-traditional careers, such as the fields of advertising and marketing. Yet, despite the growing female population within the advertising industry, the content of advertising still continues to be filled with gender stereotypes. To understand how female advertisers negotiate their gender role and their role as a media producer, I surveyed female advertising students of S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications (N=100) to examine the interaction amongst items, such as media consumption, gender identification, sex role ideology and behavior, general self-efficacy, and their attitudes toward the advertising industry.
Findings based on the 63 female advertising students who fully completed the online survey demonstrate that for the majority of them, being a woman is a very important aspect of their identity (n=50, 76.9%). Furthermore, female advertising students lean toward a moderate profeminist stance with egalitarian attitudes toward the female gender roles. However, their strong gender identification does not have a significant interaction with their attitudes toward the advertising industry. They understand that the media does have an impact on how they feel about themselves, but they overall are not able to perceive their potential parcitipation in a medium that persists to objectify their gender. Thus, the importance of this study is that since gender does not bear a significant role in how females advertise, there is a great need to teach future advertising professionals to recognize their power role as media producers and to value creating inclusive, diverse perspectives in the media.
Recommended Citation
Balitaan, Cristina Perez, "Perceptions of Gender Roles in the Advertising Industry" (2011). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 281.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/281
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Included in
Community Psychology Commons, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons, Social Psychology Commons
