Role Portrayal of Women in Indian Versus American Magazine Advertisements: A Comparative Study

A comparison was made between the role portrayal of women in magazine ads in an emerging economy (India) and a fully industrialized economy (the U.S.). As expected, the Indian ads were more likely to portray women in traditional roles while the U.S. ads were more likely to depict women in a professional or work role. Indian ads portraying women also tended to be more likely to be for household products. Finally, there were several differences found in terms of the types of appeals used in Indian versus U.S. ads depicting women.