the effects of magazine advertising on the perceived abilities of women in leadership positions...
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The Effects of Magazine Advertising on The Perceived Abilities of Women in Leadership Positions
Jennifer GeorgeMichelle Uhlenbrock
Media Advertisement
Media advertising relies on and reinforces stereotypes of womenEvident in TV advertising,
magazines Gendered Advertisements
(Goffman, 1976)How women and men are
portrayed in print advertisementsSix visual cues for power that tend
to be in favor of male dominance
Media Advertisement (cont.) High fashion magazines often portray
women in negative light Submissive Powerless Objectified/sexualized Childlike
Not all magazine advertisements portray women in negative light
Powerful women are present in ads, but scarce
Past Studies of Magazine Advertisements Rudman and Borgida (1995)
Sexist vs. non-sexist ads• Women in sexist ads rated as less
intelligent, less powerful, and less autonomous
Findings:• Exposure to sexist ads increased the
occurrence of thoughts about women as objects
What About Women?
TV Commercials as Achievement Scripts for Women (Geis, Brown, Jennings & Porter, 1984)Women who viewed sex-
stereotyped commercials were more likely to deemphasize achievement and emphasize homemaking
Stereotyping
How Gender Stereotypes Prevent Women’s Ascent Up the Organizational Ladder (Heilman, 2001)There is a scarcity of women in
upper level positionsGender stereotypes and the
expectations they produce can have negative effects on women in the workplace
Research Question
We are interested in studying how magazine advertisements (specifically women’s fashion and beauty magazines) affect perceptions of women in leadership positions
Methods
Materials Magazine advertisements from
high fashion and beauty magazines • Cosmo, Vogue, InStyle, Glamour,
and Women’s Health
Materials (cont.)
Types of Ads“Negative” categories
• Artificial: • doll-like, mannequin, unreal, puppet
• Sexualized• Heroin chic
“Neutral” categoryAthletic category
Blurred product information to prevent associations with products
Artificial Advertisements
Sexualized Advertisements
Heroin Chic Advertisements
Neutral Advertisements
Athletic Advertisements
Gender Authority Measure Questionnaire Rudman and Kilianski (2000)
Series of statements that evaluate people’s preferences for men and women in leadership positions
Rated on a 1-5 Likert scale• Our study: 1-6 scale
Example: “If I were in serious legal trouble, I would prefer a male to a female lawyer.”
Hypothesis
We expect to find that both men and women who view the negative categories of ads, will score higher on the GAM, than those participants who viewed neutral or athletic ads.Scoring higher = greater
preference for men than for women in high-status jobs
What we expected to find…
GAM
Participants & Procedure 272 participants
48 males220 females4 chose not to respond
Ages 18 – 62 Average : 25
Online study Informed consent and random
assignment to 5 different levels of the IV
Procedure (cont.)
First set of GAM questions answered GAM split into pre and post measure to
increase statistical power• 9 questions each
10 advertisements from a single categoryBrief response given to each ad
• ‘Use three words to describe this ad.’ Second set of GAM questions Demographic questions Debriefing form
What We Expected to Find…
GAM
Time vs. Condition
GAM
F(4,259) = 1.786, p = 0.132
α = 0.853 α = 0.7
Discussion
We concluded that short term effects of advertisements on people’s perceptions of women in leadership positions were mild and perhaps non-existent
We are still concerned about the long term effects and effects on other attitudes
Limitations
ProcedureLimited number of ads.Shown for a short period of time
ConditionsSome ads could have easily fit
into more than one category• Could have used more “pure” ads
Connections to Past Research
Geis, Brown, Jennings and Porter (1984)Had significant results – why?
• Participants wrote essays about how they imagine their lives and concerns 10 years from now, allowed for flexibility
• Used TV ads which vividly depict life as opposed to still photography
Future Directions
Repeat research as a longitudinal study
Use different methods of measuring attitudes
Measuring different attitudes Stricter rules for ad selection and
categorization Different types of media
Television, commercials, music, etc.
Conclusion
Reasons to be concernedThese magazines reach over
9,000,000 women a yearWays women are being portrayed
is negative
Questions?