Perpetuation of gender inequality: A content analysis of comic strips

Abstract

One vehicle for the perpetuation of gender inequality is mass media. The form of mass media addressed in this article is comic strips. The underlying ideology is that gender inequality is detrimental. The article examines findings from two studies: an “over-all” comic-strip page study and an indepth study of three comic strips. Results from both analyses reveal that comic strips do perpetuate gender inequality. Findings show that men are represented far out of proportion to their true ratio in the population while women are represented far under their true proportion. It is shown that comic strips are reflective of American society in some ways but also give a distortion of reality — one detrimental to men and women. Guidelines are suggested for the correction of this situation.