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?