Gender stereotypes of women in television advertising in Ukraine

Abstract

ABSTRACT Advertising as a part of the content of television often creates stereotypes in the consciousness of people. Part of these stereotypes is about gender roles in society. Such advertising negatively affects on the idea of socially acceptable gender representation, and it can also have negative affect on the society. Under the influence of commercials with stereotyped gender images, it may be difficult for people to perceive men and women in those areas where they perform non-traditional gender roles. In the article, we have researched theoretical sources about the influence of advertising in modern world, psychological features of this phenomenon and the experience of the foreign researchers. We have done the analysis of advertising on the Ukrainian popular TV channels in the prime time by content-analysis of 200 commercials on 6 leading TV channels of Ukraine. On the base of characteristics of sexism advertising we singled out 10 stereotypes of women in Ukrainian TV advertising. The study indicates that women in Ukrainian commercials are mainly portrayed as households, nurses, guardian, servant or as decoration to power men. In real life the social role of women has changed, so it is important to change the image of women in advertising.