Gender Roles in Television Commercials

Kate Peirce

Although gender stereotyping in television advertising has decreased somewhat since gender roles in television commercials were first studied in the 1970s, such stereotyping remains today, especially in advertising on American television. However, there is some evidence that adolescents are exhibiting critical thinking in viewing such ads. In 1941, NBC and CBS were granted commercial licenses for their New York stations, but it was not until after World War II that commercial television began to flourish and expand. In 1951, the entire United States was linked to network television. It was not until the 1970s, however, that concerns about television's effects escalated and researchers began to examine not only television programming but also the commercials that supported television programming. Gender differences in commercials became a popular area of study, with researchers examining numbers of women versus men in advertisements, types of products both genders endorsed, occupations portrayed, voice-overs and ages of ...

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