An Analysis of how gender stereotypes about women have changed in advertising, with reference to domestic and car adverts

It is my belief that the advertising industry has slowly and finally began to change and show women in a more independent way. I’ve selected domestic and car adverts to try to show the clear gender divides in terms of stereotypical representation: the woman in the kitchen and the man behind the wheel. I will look at a range of TV ads, to see if these stereotypes have been broken, and if it can be claimed that the housewife figure used by advertisers has finely been laid to rest.
During the last one hundred years, the role of women in society has drastically changed. In 1918 women earned the right to vote and slowly they began to be seen as equals to men. The equal pay legislation of 1970 helped to achieve equality between the genders and the rest of the decade saw feminism as an ideology increase in prominence and power.
During the 1990’s a new ‘modern woman’ image was being promoted by the media, which showed women being strong and dominant. Advertisements began to chan...