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Impact of Magazine Ads on Women in Leadership

This study explores how magazine advertising shapes perceptions of women in leadership roles, examining gender stereotypes and the implications of media representation in high fashion magazines. The research investigates the effects of different types of ads on attitudes towards female leadership abilities.

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Impact of Magazine Ads on Women in Leadership

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  1. The Effects of Magazine Advertising on The Perceived Abilities of Women in Leadership Positions Jennifer George Michelle Uhlenbrock

  2. Media Advertisement • Media advertising relies on and reinforces stereotypes of women • Evident in TV advertising, magazines • Gendered Advertisements (Goffman, 1976) • How women and men are portrayed in print advertisements • Six visual cues for power that tend to be in favor of male dominance

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. Stereotyping • How Gender Stereotypes Prevent Women’s Ascent Up the Organizational Ladder (Heilman, 2001) • There is a scarcity of women in upper level positions • Gender stereotypes and the expectations they produce can have negative effects on women in the workplace

  7. Research Question • We are interested in studying how magazine advertisements (specifically women’s fashion and beauty magazines) affect perceptions of women in leadership positions

  8. Methods • Materials • Magazine advertisements from high fashion and beauty magazines • Cosmo, Vogue, InStyle, Glamour, and Women’s Health

  9. Materials (cont.) • Types of Ads • “Negative” categories • Artificial: • doll-like, mannequin, unreal, puppet • Sexualized • Heroin chic • “Neutral” category • Athletic category • Blurred product information to prevent associations with products

  10. Artificial Advertisements

  11. Sexualized Advertisements

  12. Heroin Chic Advertisements

  13. Neutral Advertisements

  14. Athletic Advertisements

  15. 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.”

  16. 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

  17. What we expected to find… GAM

  18. Participants & Procedure • 272 participants • 48 males • 220 females • 4 chose not to respond • Ages 18 – 62 • Average : 25 • Online study • Informed consent and random assignment to 5 different levels of the IV

  19. 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 category • Brief response given to each ad • ‘Use three words to describe this ad.’ • Second set of GAM questions • Demographic questions • Debriefing form

  20. What We Expected to Find… GAM

  21. Time vs. Condition F(4,259) = 1.786, p = 0.132 GAM α = 0.853 α = 0.7

  22. 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

  23. Limitations • Procedure • Limited number of ads. • Shown for a short period of time • Conditions • Some ads could have easily fit into more than one category • Could have used more “pure” ads

  24. 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

  25. 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.

  26. Conclusion • Reasons to be concerned • These magazines reach over 9,000,000 women a year • Ways women are being portrayed is negative

  27. Questions?

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