Females' attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising: a Canadian study

This paper discusses Canadian research that is basically a replication of an American study conducted over ten years ago. The results indicate that attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising in Canada today reflect the attitudes found over ten years ago in the US. Specifically, respondents in this study believe that women are not accurately depicted in advertising in Canada. More interesting was the fact that such attitudes were consistent across the demographic categories of the respondents including age, income, education and marital status.

INTRODUCTION

It has been argued that advertising over the past decade has not presented a realistic view of women and their roles in society. The controversy over the portrayal of women in advertising continues today. Increasingly, women are taking on a broader role in society. For example, with more than half of Canadian women working outside the home it would be ethically sound and make marketing sense to depict women more accurately in advertising. However, as we enter this new decade, there is an important question that needs to be answered. While the debate over whether or not advertisers portray women realistically continues, the key issue is how women feel about the portrayal of females in advertising, regardless of the action or inaction of advertisers to effect change. Do females believe that advertisers depict women in realistic multi-dimensional ways or do they believe they are shown in stereotypical roles of housewives and/or sex objects? While studies show that realistic role portrayals of women strongly influence advertising effectiveness (Leigh et al., 1987), are advertisers in Canada responding? If so, do female consumers perceive the response? This study did not address whether or not advertisers are actually responding to societal change but rather examines the attitudes of female consumers toward the portrayal of women in advertising.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In an attempt to determine if advertisers are depicting women accurately and realistically, content analysis has been deployed by researchers over the past 20 years (Courtney & Lockeretz, 1971; Sexton & Haberman, 1974; Wagner & Banos, 1973). In general, the research has concluded that women have been historically portrayed in a narrow social and occupational manner. According to Courtney & Lockeretz (1971) women have been portrayed as home-makers, dependent on men, as sex objects or as not making important decisions. Some researchers have suggested that from the 1950s-1970s there has been a general trend toward a more modern and more realistic depiction of women in advertising (Belkaoui & Belkaoui, 1976; Venkatesan & Losco, 1975; Schneider & Schneider, 1979). However, in the 1980s, some research involving content analysis suggests that the stereotypical depiction of women continued to persist (Soley & Reid, 1988), while other studies revealed results to the contrary (Lysonski, 1983). One Canadian study involving content analysis conducted by MediaWatch in 1984 indicated that sex-stereotyping of women had not been eliminated in Canada (Lipovenka, 1985). Further, the CRTC (1986) suggested that not only had sex-role stereotyping not been eliminated but that greater regulation and legislation was required in order to eliminate it.

While content analysis has been an important tool in researching the topic, it is also fundamental to assess consumers' attitudes toward this issue. But many studies that have taken the attitudinal research route have been conducted over ten years ago (Mazis & Beuttenmuller, 1972; Baker & Churchill, 1977; Lundstrom & Sciglimpaglia, 1977; Sciglimpaglia et al., 1979). Further, much of this research is inconclusive, conflicting or incomplete. For example, studies involving attitudes toward specific advertising and purchase intention have often shown little or no relationship to each other. Similarly, sex-role orientation has not been conclusively linked to attitudes toward advertising. Some research suggests that perhaps attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising is based more on demographic variables or the product itself (Roberts & Koggan, 1977). Notwithstanding the conclusiveness or inconclusiveness of past research, there has been little Canadian attitudinal research on this topic. One must be careful not to generalize the findings of American studies in relation to the Canadian marketplace.

It has often been argued that Canada suffers from a psychological as well as a technological lag when compared to the US and trends found in the US may not hold true in Canada (Firestone, 1967). It would be interesting to determine whether or not attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising found in 1979 in the US hold true in Canada today. In 1987, The Canadian Advertising Foundation (CAF) received over 200 complaints about how women are depicted in advertising (Financial Post, 1987). However, the CAF believes that the complaints do not represent the views of the average Canadian. Thus, it would seem appropriate to examine the issue using a broader sample of females. The focus of this research is females' attitudes toward their portrayal in advertising and whether or not they perceive a change in the way women are depicted in advertising.

STUDY

This study is essentially a Canadian replication of part of the Sciglimpaglia et al. (1979) study conducted in the US. The methodology involved survey research. The respondents consisted of a random sample of 175 women in a majority in eastern Canada. A sample was selected from the telephone directory using a simple template method. The respondents had to be female adults over the age of 18 years. A three-callback system was utilized to ensure greater participation. Selected respondents were only replaced when they could not be reached after three attempts. The response rate was 72 per cent with a refusal rate of less than five per cent. The demographic characteristics of the sample were measured against Statistics Canada data for the city to determine representativeness of the sample. The sample was found to be highly representative of the female population in the area in terms of age, income, education and marital status. There was a slight over-sampling of women in the 25-44 category, but there was not a significant difference.

FINDINGS

It is appropriate to review the findings of this study and to compare them to the results found in the Sciglimpaglia study ten years ago in the US. Table 1 shows and compares the results of both studies. There were two statements where the results were exactly the same. Over 50 per cent of respondents in both studies agreed that advertising shows women as dependent on men and at least half the women in both studies suggest that they are more sensitive to the portrayal of women in advertising. Thus, the Canadian results of 1990 reflect the 1979 US research findings. In the Sciglimpaglia study at least six out of ten women agreed that advertising: (1) suggests a woman's place is in the home; (2) does not show women as they really are; (3) shows women as sex objects; and (4) implies that women do not do important things. In this study, very similar results were found. However, slightly less women agreed that advertising suggests a woman's place is in the home (51 per cent), while 46 per cent of respondents in this study believe advertising suggests women do not do important things. Also, while 82 per cent of the American respondents thought advertising suggested women did not make important decisions, only 63 per cent of respondents in this study agreed with this statement. Further, while 60 per cent of respondents in the US study found the portrayal of women in advertising to be offensive, only 50 per cent of respondents in this study agreed with this statement.

TABLE 1: CANADIAN STUDY 1990 VERSUS AMERICAN STUDY 1979

		Percentage agreeing with statement

		Canada 1990	US 1979

1.	Advertising suggests a woman's place is in the home	51	60
2.	Advertising I see does not show women as they really are	77	60
3.	Advertising suggests that women are dependent on men	51	50
4.	Advertising shows women mainly as sex objects	80	60
5.	Advertising suggests women do not make important decisions	63	82
6.	Advertising suggests women do not do important things	46	60
7.	I am more sensitive than I used to be to the portrayal of women in advertising	54	55
8.	I find the portrayal of women in advertising to be offensive	50	60
9.	If a product I buy is advertised in a way that I find offensive to women, I would stop buying it	51	31
10.	If a new product uses advertising that I find offensive to women, I would not buy it, even if it was a good product	48	28

On the other hand, this study showed stronger agreement than the US study on some of the statements. Over 75 per cent believed advertising does not show women as they really are, compared to 60 per cent in the US study. Also, while 60 per cent of women in the Sciglimpaglia study agreed that women are shown as sex objects, 80 per cent of respondents in this study agreed with this statement. Further, in the US study, about 30 per cent of respondents indicated that they would stop buying a product if it used advertisements which were offensive to women, while over 50 per cent said they would do so in this study. Finally, the US study revealed that 28 per cent of respondents would boycott a new product if it used an advertisement campaign which was offensive to women, but in this study close to 50 per cent stated that they would do so. It appears that more respondents in this study are apt to allow their attitudes to dictate their purchase intention.

One question that was not asked in the US study was whether or not respondents believed that the portrayal of women in advertising will change for the better in the future. In this study, 55 per cent of respondents believed it will, while close to 25 per cent do not believe it will, and close to 25 per cent do not know. It should also be pointed out that there were no significant differences in responses to any given question when responses were examined from an income, age, education, and marital status perspective. The overall results for this study are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2: FEMALES' ATTITUDES TOWARD THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN ADVERTISING - A CANADIAN STUDY

		SDA	DA	Percentage N	A	SA¹

1.	Advertising suggests a woman's place is in the home	4	30	15	48	3
2.	Advertising I see does not show women as they really are	2	10	11	64	13
3.	Advertising suggests that women are dependent on men	9	23	17	46	5
4.	Advertising shows women mainly as sex objects	5	5	10	58	22
5.	Advertising suggests women do not make important decisions	2	22	13	46	17
6.	Advertising suggests women do not do important things	4	40	10	36	10
7.	I am more sensitive than I used to be to the portrayal of women in advertising	2	30	14	46	8
8.	I find the portrayal of women in advertising to be offensive	3	27	20	40	10
9.	If a product I buy is advertised in a way that I find offensive to women, I would stop buying it	8	25	16	46	5
10.	If a new product uses advertising that I find offensive to women, I would not buy it, even if it was a good product	10	22	20	42	6
11.	I believe the portrayal of women in advertising will change for the better in the future²	2	20	23	51	4

¹ Scale used was SDA = strongly disagree, DA = disagree, N = neutral, A = agree, SA = strongly agree.
² There were no significant differences in responses on any question using age, income, education or marital status of the respondents.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Clearly, this research, for the most part, reflects an American study conducted over ten years ago. What does this mean? Does it mean that Canadian advertisers do suffer from an innovative lag and failed to respond to societal change? Does it mean that Canadian consumers suffer from a psychological lag and are just now becoming sensitive to the issue of women and their portrayal in advertising? Or is it that Canadian advertisers may have changed the way they advertise but consumers do not perceive the change? One can speculate, but one thing is certain: women do not believe that females are portrayed accurately or realistically in advertising. These negative attitudes have important implications for advertisers. This predisposition toward advertising in general may limit the receptiveness to, and thus the effectiveness of, specific advertisements. Companies using advertising that depicts women in a narrowly defined social or occupational context, or those using advertising with any other inaccurate portrayals, may find that women will not only be offended but they may reject new products or boycott existing products.

It would seem that a more realistic portrayal of women in advertising is not only desirable but fundamental in a modern marketplace. Women not only want it, they deserve it. If advertisers believe that they are currently depicting women accurately in advertising, they may be advised to rethink their position. It is clear from this research that women do not believe this to be true. It is possible that better pre-testing of advertising is warranted. Obtaining input from the female market may pay dividends, in that better and more progressive advertising may result. A particularly important finding in this study is the fact that the attitudes held by women cut across age, income, education and marital status categories. Therefore, advertisers cannot simply write off complaints about the portrayal of women in advertising to a small group of liberal feminists. The concern appears to be widespread.

Certainly, the limitations of this research need to be pointed out. The sample, although randomly selected and representative of the population from which it was drawn, was somewhat small and from one area in Canada. Attitudes of women may vary across Canada and perhaps research involving a large national sample would offer greater insight into the issue. Further, like all attitudinally-based research, this study is just a snapshot of how consumers think at this particular point in time. More research, particularly using baseline data, will allow us to better gauge changes in attitudes over time. Finally, attitudes are often not linked to behavioural intention and thus results from attitude research should always be viewed with caution. However, it has often been said that the consumer's perception is reality and advertisers should be concerned about the perception that Canadian women have of advertising as it relates to the portrayal of women.

Vol 11 No 3 (1992)