A Study of Gender Advertisements. A Statistical Measuring of the Prevalence of Genders’ Patterns in the Images of Print Advertisements

Abstract

This study extends a previous Goffmann’s work. He categorized gender stereotypes in advertising pictures in USA in the 1970s, in six main groups: relative size, feminine touch, function ranking, family, ritualization of subordination, licensed withdraw. This work is a tentative of a statistical measure of the prevalence of gender’s patterns in print advertisements, in Italy, in 2006. The Hypotheses: strongest gender’s stereotypes survive, some changed, others disappeared. The results show that main gender’s stereotypes are hard to die even though the society has significantly changed, creating “modern” stereotypes. The line between masculinity and femininity seems to be thinner today.

Keywords

• gender’s stereotypes
• advertisement’s images
• social statistics
• research method