Essay #4 ...Literature Review _ Women's roles in the media

“Stepford Housewives” said it all. Remember all the eager-to-please and overly-obsessive women with cleaning and cooking in the movies. It turned out to be a close description of women’s roles in media back in the day. Women’s roles in media during the 50’s and 60’s were pretty much revolved around domestic chores. However, after years of feminism, there should be some changes, to say the least. So I wonder what the changes in mass media were when it comes to gender stereotypes like women’s roles and their perspective. It’s important to learn how the media depict the subject because the media has big impact on future generations and their impressions on women’s quality and values. Therefore, people needs to be aware of the accuracy of female’s roles in mass media so kids won’t get the wrong idea of gender stereotypes that still can be seen in TV and magazine today. Researchers have studied the gender stereotypes quiet extensively, especially when it comes to women’s roles, through mass media like TV shows and textbooks. Overall, the results seem to conclude that despite of some changes, the women’s roles in the media continue to revolve around household chores and appearances. Then again, not many studies focused on magazines and commercials. The question that I would like to study becomes: “How the women’s roles and values have changed in mass media like magazines and commercials?”


Through several studies from various sources, there have been some positive changes in the media’s portrayal of women. For example, in the article of “Portrayal of women in human sexuality, marriage/family texts still traditional”, study showed a decrease in photographs of women dealing with their appearances, male-female relationship and household and mothering issues in college-level textbook. In addition, there was an increase in the number of photographs of women dealing with feminist messages of self-development, career development and world or political issues. Also, in a New York Times article, research showed that more women in film and television were shown as intelligent and as problem-solvers. Statistics prove that 69 percent of women were shown using their intelligence in movies, and in TV, 34 percents. Self-reliance was stressed in 35 percent of female characters on TV and in movies, and about 28 percent in teenage magazines. These numbers illustrate visible improvements in media’s interpretation of women’s roles, especially compare to the previous decades. However, that still doesn’t mean the rigid gender role conceptions ended.

Despite of all the improvement in the media’s portrayal of women, women’s roles continue to stay traditional in mass media and college-level textbook. From 1970’s to the 1990’s, pictures of women dealing with appearance, romantic relationships and family decreased. Nonetheless, this decrease was not steady and it was very small, too. The increase of images of women with feminist messages, career development and political issues was also small and unsteady. Overall, photographs of women with traditional messages still outnumbered photographs of women with feminist messages in college textbooks. Similarly, in the New York Times article, a study, by children’s advocacy group called Children Now, showed women’s role staying traditional as female characters are more likely to talk about romance and personal appearance than having a job or going to school. The study also showed that women were more likely to have their looks commented upon compare to men in movies. On TV, the study found that only 28 percent of women were shown working, as opposed to 41 percent of men. Researchers concluded that women’s roles in media are staying the same as they’ve always been. In addition, the result of the study confirms the preoccupations among girls, which is being attractive enough to lure a male. It has been a concern for the last 20 years, as women continue to be seen primarily as sex objects.

After examining the articles about gender roles in media studies, the main point seemed to be that media, including TV shows, movies and textbooks, is reinforcing the stiff gender role distinctions, particularly on women. This point was supported by researchers Jason Low from Victoria University of New Zealand and Peter Sherrard of University of Florida. However, they only studied about a thousand photographs of women in textbooks that were used from the 1970s into 1990s. That indicates the fact that some results from this study might have changed overtime; and there might be more pictures from a wide variety of textbooks they haven’t study that might carry a different message about women’s role. Another study that also supported the main point above was conducted by Dr. Nancy Signorelli of the University of Delaware and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The study was conducted in fall of 1996, and it reviewed 23 top-rated TV shows, 15 movies, top 20 music videos in three weeks, and 4 issues of leading teenage magazines like YM, Seventeen, Sassy and Teen. Even though the study did focus on the most popular media tools, the target audience of these media sources is teenaged girls. Although teenaged girls will grow up to be women, the lack of focus on women’s main media sources like Oprah magazines might cause the study to be incomplete. However, the end results from both studies are consistent with one another as they both show the roles of women stay traditional in the media.

After reviewing all the studies in the literature review, it is quiet clear that women’s role continues to stay traditional in textbooks, movies and TV shows; but we still don’t know how the gender’s roles have changed for women in the media, like commercials and magazines, since the start of the new century. In the two studies mentioned, there have been some positive improvements in women’s role in media, despite of the continuing existence of stereotype gender roles, which mainly revolves around appearance and relationship. So what we need to find out is: “How have women’s roles and values changed in media sources like magazines and commercials since the beginning of 21st century?”

Citation:
- Portrayal of women in human sexuality, marriage/family texts still traditional. (2000, Winter). Media Report to Women, p. 6.
- Smith, D. Media More Likely To Show Women Talking about Romance than at a Job, Study says (1997, May 1). The New York Times, B.15