Gender stereotyping in Indian advertisements

Abstract

Even as the world is changing, stereotyping of gender in media, especially advertisements, does not seem to have changed that much. It is true that advertisements have adapted themselves to portraying the changing social reality like depicting women in different roles. This change has become subtler, even as such advertisements harp on complex issues such as women's empowerment and gender equality. The present study did a content analysis of current television advertisements to determine the trends in gender role stereotyping. This study was conducted to find out the extent and nature of stereotyping advertisements on two Hindi channels in the year 2015. Using the visual theory-cognitive theory as basis, the study analysed the phenomenon of gender role stereotyping in advertisements. The study concludes that gender stereotypes persist in the Indian television commercial scenario to a large extent. However, a shift was observed towards portraying women in a positive role.