Abstract
This paper examines how gender is represented in South African television advertising. It provides a foundation upon which changes in representation over time may be mapped; contributes toward a cross-national literature that considers differences in representation; and tentatively examines how representations intersect with other key social categories. A sample of 5,803 advertisements was collected during 2003 that included 1,633 primary visual actors and 2,350 narrators. These were analysed by means of content analysis. A coding scheme was developed that was partly based on existing research, including McArthur and Resko’s (1975) influential study, but also research within non-Western contexts. Content categories included attributes of the primary visual actor (i.e., age; portrayal; race; and social class) as well as advertisement attributes (i.e., actors; primary narrator; products; and setting). Hypotheses predicted that males and females would be represented differently in television advertisements and that these differences would reflect traditional hierarchical relations in society. Findings largely supported these hypotheses. Males were represented as dominant. They were of primary focus; appeared most frequently within the socially valued public-work arena; and were represented as occupying positions of greater social authority. Females were represented as subordinate. They were of secondary focus; appeared most frequently within the socially undervalued private-domestic arena; and were most often represented as occupying positions of social subordination. This subordination was reinforced through findings that imply their sexualisation. Interesting patterns also emerged in findings indicating possible change in representations of gender. The implications of findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arima, A. N. (2003). Gender stereotypes in Japanese television advertisements. Sex Roles, 49, 81–90. doi:10.1023/A:1023965704387.
Bauer, M. W. (2000). Classical content analysis: A review. In M. W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative researching: With text image and sound (pp. 131–151). London: Sage.
Berg, B. L. (1998). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bohan, J. S. (1993). Regarding gender: Essentialism, constructionism, and feminist psychology. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 17, 5–21. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1993.tb00673.x.
Bresnahan, M. J., Inoue, Y., Liu, W. Y., & Nishida, T. (2001). Changing gender roles in prime-time commercials in Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Sex Roles, 45, 117–131. doi:10.1023/A:1013068519583.
Burr, V. (2003). Social constructionism. London: Routledge.
Collins, R. L. (2011). Content analysis of gender roles in media: Where are we now and where should we go? Sex Roles, 64, 290–298. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9929-5.
Coltrane, S., & Messineo, M. (2000). The perpetuation of subtle prejudice: Race and gender imagery in 1990s television advertising. Sex Roles, 42, 363–389. doi:10.1023/A:1007046204478.
Connell, R. W. (2000). The men and the boys. Cambridge: Polity.
Craig, R. S. (1992a). The effect of television day part on gender portrayals in television commercials: A content analysis. Sex Roles, 26, 197–211. doi:10.1007/BF00289707.
Craig, R. S. (1992b). Considering men and the media. In R. S. Craig (Ed.), Men, masculinity and the media (pp. 1–7). Newbury Park: Sage.
de Villiers, C. (1998). Qualified parental rights for unmarried fathers. Agenda, 37, 82–85. doi:10.1080/10130950.1998.9675697.
Dominick, J., & Rauch, G. (1972). The image of women in network TV commercials. Journal of Broadcasting, 16, 259–266.
DuRant, R. H., Rome, E. S., Rich, M., Allred, E., Emans, S. J., & Woods, E. R. (1997). Tobacco and alcohol use behaviors portrayed in music videos: A content analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 1131–1135.
Eisend, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of gender roles in advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38, 418–440. doi:10.1007/s11747-009-0181-x.
Fejes, F. J. (1992). Masculinity as fact: A review of empirical mass communication research on masculinity. In R. S. Craig (Ed.), Men, masculinity and the media (pp. 9–22). Newbury Park: Sage.
Furnham, A., & Bitar, N. (1993). The stereotyped portrayal of men and women in British television advertisements. Sex Roles, 29, 297–310. doi:10.1007/BF00289940.
Furnham, A., & Chan, F. (2003). The gender-role stereotyping of men and women in Hong Kong television advertisements. Psychologia, 46, 213–224. doi:10.2117/psysoc.2003.213.
Furnham, A., & Farragher, E. (2000). A cross-cultural content analysis of sex-role stereotyping in television advertisements: A comparison between Great Britain and New Zealand. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 44, 415–436. doi:10.1207/s15506878jobem4403_5.
Furnham, A., & Mak, T. (1999). Sex-role stereotyping in television commercials: A review and comparison of fourteen studies done on five continents over 25 years. Sex Roles, 41, 413–437. doi:10.1023/A:1018826900972.
Furnham, A., & Paltzer, S. (2010). The portrayal of men and women in television advertisements: An updated review of 30 studies published since 2000. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 216–236. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00772.x.
Furnham, A., & Skae, E. (1997). Changes in the stereotypical portrayal of men and women in British television advertisements. European Psychologist, 2, 44–51. doi:10.1027/1016-9040.2.1.44.
Furnham, A., & Spencer-Bowdage, S. (2002). Sex role stereotyping in television advertisements: A content analysis of advertisements from South Africa and Great Britain. Communications, 27, 457–483. doi:10.1515/comm.2002.003,19/11/2002.
Furnham, A., Abramsky, S., & Gunter, B. (1997). A cross-cultural content analysis of children’s television advertisements. Sex Roles, 37, 91–99. doi:10.1023/A:1025692804434.
Furnham, A., Mak, T., & Tanidjojo, L. (2000). An Asian perspective on the portrayal of men and women in television advertisements: Studies from Hong Kong and Indonesian television. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 2341–2364. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2000.tb02440.x.
Gaitskell, D., Kimble, J., Maconachie, M., & Unterhalter, E. (2010). Domestic workers in South Africa: Class, race and gender. In M. Turshen (Ed.), African women: A political economy (pp. 35–52). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ganahl, D. J., Prinsen, T. J., & Netzley, S. B. (2003). A content analysis of prime time commercials: A contextual framework of gender representation. Sex Roles, 49, 545–551. doi:10.1023/A:1025893025658.
Gauntlett, D. (2009). Media, gender and identity: An introduction. London: Routledge.
Gerbner, G., & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television: The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26, 172–199. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1976.tb01397.x.
Gergen, K. (1999). An invitation to social construction. London: Sage.
Gill, R. (2007). Gender and the media. Cambridge: Polity.
Glascock, J., & Ruggiero, T. E. (2004). Representations of class and gender on primetime Spanish-language television in the United States. Communication Quarterly, 52, 390–402. doi:10.1080/01463370409370208.
Gunnarsson, B. L. (1997). On the socio-historical construction of scientific discourse. In B. L. Gunnarsson, P. Linell, & B. Nordberg (Eds.), The construction of professional discourse (pp. 99–126). London: Longman.
Haberman, S. J. (1988). A warning on the use of chi-square statistics with frequency tables with small expected cell counts. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83, 555–560.
Hanke, R. (1992). Redesigning men: Hegemonic masculinity in transition. In R. S. Craig (Ed.), Men, masculinity and the media (pp. 185–198). Newbury Park: Sage.
Joffe, H., & Yardley, L. (2003). Content and thematic analysis. In D. F. Marks & L. Yardley (Eds.), Research methods for clinical and health psychology (pp. 56–88). London: Sage.
Kalichman, S. C., Simbayi, L. C., Kaufman, M., Cain, D., Cherry, C., Jooste, S., et al. (2005). Gender attitudes, sexual violence, and HIV/AIDS risks among men and women in Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Sex Research, 42, 299–305. doi:10.1080/00224490509552285.
Kim, K., & Lowry, D. T. (2005). Television commercials as a lagging social indicator: Gender role stereotypes in Korean television advertising. Sex Roles, 53, 901–910. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-8307-1.
Kratz, S. L. (1991). Manufacturing the gentleman’s girl: Beauty, class, and the adult entertainment club (Master’s thesis). Available from DigitalCommons@Florida Atlantic University.
Lauzen, M. M., & Dozier, D. M. (2005). Maintaining the double standard: Portrayals of age and gender in popular films. Sex Roles, 52, 437–446. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-3710-1.
Lee, C. W. (2004). Gender role stereotyping in television commercials: The case of Singapore. Advertising & Society Review, 5. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/asr/v005/5.3lee.html
Lee, N. (2009). Women’s discourse on beauty and class in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Culture & Psychology, 15, 147–167. doi:10.1177/1354067X08099619.
Levett, A., & Kottler, A. (1998). Through a lens, darkly. In E. Burman (Ed.), Deconstructing feminist psychology (pp. 184–205). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Lin, C. A. (1998). Uses of sex appeals in prime-time television commercials. Sex Roles, 38, 461–475. doi:10.1023/A:1018714006829.
Livingstone, S. M. (1990). Making sense of television: The psychology of audience interpretation. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Livingstone, S., & Green, G. (1986). Television advertisements and the portrayal of gender. British Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 149–154. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1986.tb00713.x.
Lovdal, L. T. (1989). Sex role messages in television commercials: An update. Sex Roles, 21, 715–724. doi:10.1007/BF00289804.
Luyt, R. (2003). Rhetorical representations of masculinities in South Africa: Moving towards a material-discursive understanding of men. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 13, 46–69. doi:10.1002/casp.706.
Luyt, R. (2005). The Male Attitude Norms Inventory-II: A measure of masculinity ideology in South Africa. Men & Masculinities, 8, 208–229. doi:10.1177/1097184X04264631.
Mager, A. K. (2010). Beer, sociability, and masculinity in South Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Manstead, A. S. R., & McCulloch, C. (1981). Sex-role stereotyping in British television advertisements. British Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 171–180. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1981.tb00529.x.
McArthur, L. Z., & Resko, B. G. (1975). The portrayal of men and women in American television commercials. Journal of Social Psychology, 97, 209–220. doi:10.1080/00224545.1975.9923340.
Milner, L. M. (2005). Sex-role portrayals in African television advertising. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 17, 73–91. doi:10.1300/J046v17n02_05.
Milner, L. M. (2007). Race portrayals in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa television advertisements. Journal of African Business, 8, 41–59. doi:10.1300/J156v08n02_04.
Moon, Y. S., & Chan, K. (2002). Gender portrayal in Hong Kong and Korean children’s TV commercials: A cross-cultural comparison. Asian Journal of Communication, 12, 100–119. doi:10.1080/01292980209364825.
Morrell, R. (1998). Of boys and men: Masculinity and gender in Southern African studies. Journal of Southern African Studies, 24, 605–630. doi:10.1080/03057079808708593.
Morrell, R. (2001). The times of change: Men and masculinity in South Africa. In R. Morrell (Ed.), Changing men in Southern Africa (pp. 3–37). Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Morrell, R. (2002). Men, movements, and gender transformation in South Africa. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 10, 309–327. doi:10.3149/jms.1003.309.
Mwangi, M. W. (1996). Gender roles portrayed in Kenyan television commercials. Sex Roles, 34, 205–214. doi:10.1007/BF01544296.
Neuendorf, K. A. (2011). Content analysis: A methodological primer for gender research. Sex Roles, 64, 276–289. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9893-0.
Oyegun, J. (1998). Working masculinities back into gender. Agenda, 37, 60–64. doi:10.1080/10130950.1998.9675684.
Pelak, C. F. (2005). Negotiating gender/race/class constraints in the new South Africa: A case study of women’s soccer. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 40, 53–70. doi:10.1177/1012690205052165.
Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (2005). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London: Sage.
Reddick-Morgan, K. A. (2004). Emulated through images: The globalization of misconstructed African American beauty and hip-hop culture. Globalization. Retrieved from http://globalization.icaap.org/content/v4.1/reddick-morgan.html.
Reddy, V. (1998). Negotiating gay masculinities. Agenda, 37, 65–70. doi:10.1080/10130950.1998.9675693.
Reddy, S., & Dunne, M. (2007). Risking it: Young heterosexual femininities in South African context of HIV/AIDS. Sexualities, 10, 159–172. doi:10.1177/1363460707075797.
Rich, M. K., & Cash, T. F. (1993). The American image of beauty: Media representations of hair color for four decades. Sex Roles, 29, 113–124. doi:10.1007/BF00289999.
Riffe, D., Lacy, S., & Fico, F. G. (1998). Analyzing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Salo, E. (2003). Negotiating gender and personhood in the new South Africa: Adolescent women and gangsters in Manenberg township on the Cape Flats. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6, 345–365. doi:10.1177/13675494030063005.
Seekings, J., & Nattrass, N. (2006). Class, race, and inequality in South Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Shefer, T., Crawford, M., Strebel, A., Simbayi, L. C., Dwadwa-Henda, N., Cloete, A., et al. (2008). Gender, power and resistance to change among two communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. Feminism & Psychology, 18, 157–182. doi:10.1177/0959353507088265.
Statistics South Africa. (2001). Census 2001: Census in Brief. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.
Statistics South Africa. (2003). Census 2001: Census in brief. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.
Strelitz, L. N. (2002). Media consumption and identity formation: The case of the ‘homeland’ viewers. Media Culture Society, 24, 459–480. doi:10.1177/016344370202400401.
Sullivan, G. L., & O’Connor, P. J. (1988). Women’s role portrayals in magazine advertising: 1958–1983. Sex Roles, 18, 181–188. doi:10.1007/BF00287788.
Terreblanche, S. (2003). A history of inequality in South Africa 1652–2002. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
United Nations Development Programme. (2009). Human development report 2009. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Uray, N., & Burnaz, S. (2003). An analysis of the portrayal of gender roles in Turkish television advertisements. Sex Roles, 48, 77–87. doi:10.1023/A:1022348813469.
van Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist media studies. London: Sage.
Weber, R. P. (1990). Basic content analysis. Newbury Park: Sage.
West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1991). Doing gender. In J. Lorber & S. A. Farrell (Eds.), The social construction of gender (pp. 13–37). Newbury Park: Sage.
Wilkinson, S. (2001). Theoretical perspectives on women and gender. In R. K. Unger (Ed.), Handbook of the psychology of women and gender (pp. 17–28). Hoboken: Wiley.
Acknowledgement
Research funds were made available through the Commonwealth Commission and Universities UK. Special thanks go to Hayley Nichols and Jenny Luyt for their research assistance as well as the reviewers for their helpful suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Luyt, R. Representation of Gender in South African Television Advertising: A Content Analysis. Sex Roles 65, 356–370 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0027-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0027-0