Where ya been the last 100 years…You're just now figuring it out…Still think you're not brainwashed….either or.. you are …Wake UP
The Effect of Modern Female Sex Role Portrayals on Advertising Effectiveness
Lynn J Jaffe and Paul D Berger
The rise in the number of working women has created a cultural shift in American society. Advertisers have responded to these changes by creating diverse modern images of women. One of the modern portrayals is the 'superwoman image' in which a woman manages the demands of both job and home with little help from anyone. The other is the 'egalitarian image' in which a working woman and her working husband share the household chores. In an experiment among 140 married adult women, we examine the effect of these modern female role portrayals on advertising effectiveness. Print ads for a food product are used. Analysis reveals that the egalitarian portrayal is the most effective role portrayal among many segments of the female market. Economic resource theory and sociological theory were used to develop hypotheses and to explain significant interaction effects between role portrayal and different female market segments on advertising effectiveness.
The rise in the number of working women has created a cultural shift in American society. Since working women are no longer available solely to manage the home, sharing household responsibilities has become a critical issue among families. There has been a growing interest by marketing researchers and practitioners in the subject of household task allocation because they believe task allocation directly impacts marketplace behavior (Roberts and Wortzel, 1984). This paper investigates the advertising effectiveness of different modern female role portrayals that focus on the division of household chores. The results are used to help advertisers develop better positioning strategies to attract different segments of the women's market.
Today, over 56 % of women are employed outside the home, compared to less than 25 % in 1950 (Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard 1993). By 1995 more than 80 % of all mothers with children living at home are expected to be employed outside the home. With more than half of all American families adopting this lifestyle, dual-earner families are quickly becoming the norm. Moreover, they are replacing the traditional family model of husband as breadwinner, wife as bread maker (Googins, 1991). Advertisers need to monitor changes in family roles and adjust their strategies to compensate for these shifts.
Due to society's belief that females should be able to handle household and child care by themselves, many employed women assume two full-time jobs, one at work and one at home. One way advertisers have responded to working women's ability to manage these dual demands is by creating the 'superwoman image' In ad after ad we see the working mother with briefcase in one hand and smiling child in the other. The image suggests that she can easily manage the demands of job, children and household, all by herself.
https://www.warc.com/fulltext/jar/6312.htm