Abstract
318 randomly selected television ads from India (from 2004) in three different languages (English, Hindi, and Tamil) were content analyzed to examine both the frequency of appearance and prevalence of gender stereotypes. Results indicate that there are more male than female central characters and voiceovers in Indian ads; stereotypical differences were also found in the type of credibility used by men and women, and the nature of the products they advertised and settings that males and females appeared in. Female central characters tended to be younger than their male counterparts and were more likely to be portrayed in relationship roles. Similarities and differences in gender role portrayals found in Indian television ads and those from other nations are also discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmed, N. (1998). Mass mediated stereotyping in the 1990s—A cross cultural perspective. Journal of Information Ethics, 7(1), 68–78.
Allan, K., & Coltrane, S. (1996). Gender displaying television commercials: A comparative study of television commercials in the 1950s and 1980s. Sex Roles, 35, 185–201.
An, D., & Kim, S. (2007). Relating Hofstede’s masculinity dimension to gender role portrayals in advertising: A cross-cultural comparison of web advertisements. International Marketing Review, 24, 181–207.
Arima, A. N. (2003). Gender stereotypes in Japanese television advertisements. Sex Roles, 49, 81.
Bailey, A. A. (2006). A year in the life of the African American male in advertising: A content analysis. Journal of Advertising, 35(1), 83–104.
Bardwick, J., & Schumann, S. (1967). Portrait of American men and women in TV commercials. Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior, 4(4), 18–23.
Bowman, J. (2004, August). The markets that will matter. Media: Asia’s Media and Marketing Newspaper, p. 10–11.
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.
Bretl, D. J., & Cantor, J. (1988). The portrayal of men and women in US television commercials: A recent content analysis and trends over 15 years. Sex Roles, 18, 595–609.
Business Week. (2005, August 22). India’s new worldly women, China and India—The challenge, online extra. Retrieved 2009 from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_34/b3948530.htm.
Chakraborty, S. K., & Chakraborty, D. (2007). The economic function in the Hindu worldview: Its perennial social relevance. International Journal of Social Economics, 34, 714–34.
Cheng, H. (1997). ‘Holding up half of the sky’? A sociocultural comparison of gender-role portrayals in Chinese and US advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 16, 295–330.
Coltrane, S., & Adams, M. (1997). Work-family imagery and gender stereotypes: Television and the reproduction of difference. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 50, 323–347.
Craig, R. S. (1992). The effect of day part on gender portrayals in television commercials: A content analysis. Sex Roles, 26, 197–211.
Das, M. (2000). Men and women in Indian magazine advertisements: A preliminary report. Sex Roles, 43, 699–717.
Dates, J. L., & Barlow, W. (1990). Introduction: A war of images. In J. L. Dates & W. Barlow (Eds.), Split image: African Americans in the mass media (pp. 1–21). Washington, DC: Howard University Press.
De Souza, L. (2006, March). Insider’s view: India. Campaign, pp. 12, 19.
Ferrante, C. L., Haynes, A. M., & Kingsley, S. N. (1988). Images of women in television advertising. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic media, 32, 239–247.
Forrester, C. (2007, Nov/Dec). India’s take-away plan. International Broadcast Engineer, 8–9.
Fowles, J. (1996). Advertising and popular culture. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Frueh, T., & McGhee, P. E. (1975). Traditional sex-role development and amount of time watching television. Developmental Psychology, 11, 109–114.
Furnham, A., & Bitar, N. (1993). The stereotyped portrayal of men and women in British television advertisements. Sex Roles, 29, 297–310.
Furnham, A., & Chan, F. (2004). The gender role stereotyping of men and women in Hong Kong television advertisements. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 46, 213–224.
Furnham, A., & Farrager, 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 & Electronic Media, 44, 415–436.
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.
Furnham, A., & Voli, V. (1989). Gender stereotypes in Italian television advertisements. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 33, 175–185.
Furnham, A., Babitzkow, M., & Uguccioni, S. (2000a). Gender stereotyping in television advertisements: A study of French and Danish television. Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs, 126, 79–104.
Furnham, A., Mak, T., & Tanidjojo, L. (2000b). An Asian perspective on the portrayal of men and women in television advertisements: Studies conducted from Hong Kong and Indonesian television. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 2341–2364.
Furnham, A., Pallangyo, A. E., & Gunter, B. (2001). Gender-role stereotyping in Zimbabwean television advertisements. South African Journal of Psychology, 31(2), 21–29.
Ganahal, D., Prinsen, T., & Netzley, S. B. (2003). A content analysis of prime time television commercials: A contextual framework of gender representation. Sex Roles, 49, 545–551.
Gerbner, G., & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television. The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26, 182–190.
Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., Signorielli, N., & Shanahan, J. (2002). Growing up with television: Cultivation process. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 43–67). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Gilly, M. C. (1988). Sex roles in advertising: A comparison of television advertisements in Australia, Mexico, and the United States. Journal of Marketing, 52, 75–85.
Government of India. (2009). India at a glance. Retrieved from http://india.gov.in/knowindia/india_at_a_glance.php.
Gunter, B. (1995). Television and gender representation. London: Libbey
Gupta, A. K., & Jain, N. (1998). Gender, mass media and social change: A case study of TV commercials. Media: Asia’s Media and Marketing Newspaper, 25(1), 33–36.
Harwood, J., & Roy, A. (1999). The portrayal of older adults in Indian and US magazine advertisements. The Howard Journal of Communications, 10, 269–280.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Islands: Sage.
Jha Dang, P., & Vohra, N. (2005). Role portrayals of men and women in Indian television advertising. Abhigyan, 23(1), 36–44.
Jhally, S. (1987). The codes of advertising: Fetishism and the political economy of meaning in the consumer society. New York: St Martin’s Press.
Kim, K., & Lowry, D. T. (2005). Television commercials as a lagging social indicator: Gender role stereotypes in Korean television advertising. Sex Roles, 53, 901.
Kim, K., & Lowry, D. T. (2007, May). Developing a new gender role stereotyping index for television advertising: Coding stereotypical and reverse-stereotypical portrayals. Paper presented at the International Communication Association 2007 Conference, San Francisco, CA.
Kotwal, N., & Sahni, S. (2008). Perception of adolescents regarding portrayal of women in commercial advertisements on TV. Journal of Social Sciences, 17, 121–126.
Kumar, N. (Ed.). (1994). Women as subjects: South Asian histories. New Delhi: Stree.
Larson, M. S. (2001). Interactions, activities, and gender in childrens’ television commercials: A content analysis. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 45, 45–56.
Leiss, W., Lilnes, S., & Jhally, S. (1986). Social communication in advertising: Persons, products, and images of well being. New York: Methuen.
Manstead, A. S. R., & McCulloch, C. (1981). Sex-role stereotyping in British television advertisements. British Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 171–180.
Mazella, C., Durkin, K., Cerini, E., & Buralli, P. (1992). Sex role stereotyping in Australian television advertisements. Sex Roles, 26, 243–259.
McArthur, L. Z., & Resko, B. G. (1975). The portrayal of men and women in American television commercials. Journal of Social Psychology, 97, 209–220.
Milner, L., & Collins, J. M. (2000). Sex-role portrayals and the gender of nations. Journal of Advertising, 29, 67–79.
Milner, L., & Higgs, B. (2004). Gender sex role portrayals in international television advertising over time: The Australian experience. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 26, 81–95.
Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (1990). Cultivation analysis: Conceptualization and methodology. In N. Signorielli & M. Morgan (Eds.), Cultivation analysis: New directions in media effects research (pp. 13–34). New York: Sage.
Munshi, S. (1998). Wife/mother/daughter-in/law: Multiple avatars of homemaker in 1990s Indian advertising. Media, Culture and Society, 20, 573–591.
Mwangi, M. W. (1996). Gender roles portrayed in Kenyan television commercials. Sex Roles, 34, 205–214.
Nair, A. (2003, February 21). Indian television bill will shift the balance of power in the sector. Media: Asia’s Media and Marketing Newspaper, p. 12.
Nassif, A., & Gunter, B. (2008). Gender representation in television ads in Britain and Saudi Arabia. Sex Roles, 58, 752–760.
Nelson, M. R., & Paek, H.-J. (2005). Cross cultural differences in sexual content in advertising in a trans-national magazine. Sex Roles, 53, 371–383.
Neto, F., & Pinto, I. (1998). Gender stereotypes in Portuguese television advertisements. Sex Roles, 39, 153–165.
Odekerken-Schroeder, G. O., De Wulf, C., & Hofstee, N. (2001). Is gender stereotyping more prevalent in masculine countries? A cross-national analysis. International Marketing Review, 19, 408–18.
Perlow, L., & Weeks, J. (2002). Who’s helping whom? Layers of culture and workplace behaviour. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 345–362.
Reddy, P., Prabhakar, T., & Narendra, P. (2007). India consumer outlook 2007. Technopak Consumer Outlook, October. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/930323/India-Consumer-Outlook-2007.
Rizor, E. R. (2003). Bound upon apron strings: A study of the traditional gender role stereotypes in television commercials. Master’s thesis. Dusquesne University.
Savage, M. (2004, September 10). Can Zee leverage cricket rights to regain India TV crown? Media: Asia’s Media and Marketing Newspaper, p. 20.
Schwab, J. (2004). Chi-square tests of independence. Retrieved from http://www.utexas.edu/courses/schwab/sw318_spring_2004/SolvingProblems/Class24_ChiSquareTestOfIndependencePostHoc.ppt.
Sengupta, S. (1995). The influence of culture on portrayals of women in television commercials: A comparison between the United States and Japan. International Journal of Advertising, 14, 314–333.
Shrikhande, V. (2003). Stereotyping women in television advertisements. Master’s thesis, University of Louisiana.
Shrum, L. J. (1996). Psychological processes underlying cultivation effects: Further tests of construct accessibility. Human Communication Research, 22, 482–507.
Signorielli, N. (1989). Television and conceptions about sex roles: Maintaining conventionality and the status quo. Sex Roles, 21, 341–360.
Signorielli, N. (1993). Television and adolescents’ perceptions about work. Youth and Society, 24, 314–41.
Siu, W., & Au, A. (1997). Women in advertising: A comparison of television advertisements in China and Singapore. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 15, 235–243.
Tan, T. W., Ling, L., & Theng, E. (2002). Gender-role portrayals in Malaysian and Singaporean television commercials: An international advertising perspective. Journal of Business Research, 55, 853–861.
Tapper, J. (1995). The ecology of cultivation: A conceptual model for cultivation research. Communication Theory, 5, 36–57.
United Nations. (2004). World marriage patterns 2000, Published by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved 2009 from http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldmarriage/worldmarriagepatterns2000.pdf.
United States Census Bureau. (2004). World population profiles 2002. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/ipc/prod/wp02/wp-02.pdf.
Uray, N., & Burnaz, S. (2003). An analysis of the portrayal of gender roles in Turkish television advertisements. Sex Roles, 48, 77.
Valls-Fernández, F., & Martínez-Vicente, J. M. (2007). Gender stereotypes in Spanish television commercials. Sex Roles, 56, 691.
Wee, C., Choong, M., & Tambyah, S. (1995). Sex role portrayal in television advertising: A comparative study of Singapore and Malaysia. International Marketing Review, 12, 49–64.
Wiles, C. R., & Tjernlund, A. (1991). A comparison of role portrayal of men and women in magazine advertising in the USA and Sweden. International Journal of Advertising, 10, 259–67.
Wiles, J. R., Wiles, C. R., & Tjernlund, A. (1995). A comparison of gender role portrayals in magazine advertising: The Netherlands, Sweden and the U.S. European Journal of Marketing, 29(11), 35–49.
Wolf, N. (2009, May 4). The Afghan revolution: Our Western moment of feminist leadership is over. Globe and Mail, p. A13.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Das, M. Gender Role Portrayals in Indian Television Ads. Sex Roles 64, 208–222 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9750-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9750-1