Gender Stereotyping in Newspaper Advertisements

The objective of the present study was to investigate the presence of gender stereotypes concerning occupational roles and sexualization in newspaper advertisements of two European countries very different for cultural values and gender equality, that is, Italy and the Netherlands. The top three newspapers by circulation in each country were selected. We included all the issues of these newspapers published in 1 month. We selected all the advertisings of a quarter a page in size or larger containing at least one adult human. Using content analysis, 1,666 characters depicted in the selected advertisings were coded by independent judges. Results demonstrated that men were primarily featured in playing professional roles, whereas women were more frequently presented as decorative. Compared with males, female characters were also more frequently sexualized, and this phenomenon was stronger in the more gender-unequal country, that is, Italy. Because of the role of advertising in shaping the cultural values, policy makers and cultural promoters should try to further with some kind of incentive a more equalitarian representation of genders in advertisings.