Have you really come a long way, ladies? Or still being (stereo)typical?
Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, which was passed in Parliament last month, seeks to reserve one-third of the total number of seats in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women.
But what about the presence and role of women in other sectors, such as advertising and marketing services? While this industry employs many women, their number in key leadership positions are still relatively low. It was only in 2017 that the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award for the first time to a woman, Roda Mehta.
What about women in ads? Are there too few? Too many? And how are they presented?
In his 1976 book, Gender Advertisements, sociologist Erving Goffman conducted an analysis of women in US advertising.
Examining hundreds of print ads of the 1960s, Goffman concluded that women tend to get portrayed in 'hyper-ritualistic' roles, and they are always shown as 'less' than the male characters, playing the role of a support character.
If we were to do an analysis of Indian video ads, we will see something that reflects this hyperitualism. Women are shown in gender-defined roles of cooking, cleaning, washing, feeding, caring, and shopping.
But this is not just an Indian phenomenon. It is common in many countries.
This has led to the formation of the Unstereotype Alliance, where companies such as Unilever and Nestle have pledged to discourage the portrayal of women in gender-defined roles. P&G's Ariel advertising in its 'Share the Load' video series reflects this ethos.
I won't go into the Bechdel Test — a measure of the representation of women in film and other media — and how Indian movies rate on that.
