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Gender role portrayals and Gender role

portrayals and
sexism in Spanish magazines sexism
Marcelo Royo-Vela
Facultat d’Economia, Universitat de València, València, Spain
Joaquin Aldás-Manzano 633
Facultat d’Economia, Universitat de València and IVIE, València, Spain, and

es Küster-Boluda and Natalia Vila-Lopez
In
Facultat d’Economia, Universitat de València, València, Spain
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to analyse the male and female stereotypes in Spanish
magazine advertising during the last three decades of the twentieth century in order to determine if
they reflect or not the important cultural changes of Spanish society in these years.
Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis of 1,033 different advertisements randomly
selected. To ensure reliability two independent codifiers of opposite gender worked together, one as
an analyst and other as a judge. Three agreement indices were calculated.
Findings – Use of male and female portrayals has undergone relevant changes in the last 30 years in
accordance with the social evolution of Spain. For both men and women stereotypes persist but there
has been a move from the portrayal of the character in situations considered socially traditional to
less traditional scenarios. At the end of the period analysed, Spanish magazines show low and
decreasing levels of sexism.
Research limitations/implications – Only one advertising medium and one country have been
analysed.
Originality/value – This is the first study developed in Spain in gender role stereotyping and
sexism, and has been analysed through a longitudinal research.
Keywords Advertisements, Social roles, Spain, Sexual discrimination, Gender, Magazines
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
In the present research, we investigate gender role and sexism as portrayed in Spanish
magazines using a content analysis methodology. With the development of democracy
in the 1970s, Spanish organisations have been found to concentrate on the problem of
sex discrimination and gender equality in our society at the same time as women have
been striving to join the labour market as equal members of the workforce. Therefore,
it is important to examine whether cultural portrayals in advertising have kept pace
with societal changes.
Several reasons justify this interest. Research has indicated that gender
representation in media can affect people’s attitudes and behaviours (e.g. Geis et al.,
1984; MacKay and Covell, 1997). By reflecting certain roles for men and women,
advertising is believed to reinforce the belief that those roles are ‘‘proper’’, ‘‘best’’ or
‘‘natural’’ (Hawkins and Coney, 1976). Silverstein and Silverstein (1974) indicated that if
women, for instance, are improperly depicted in advertisements, it is detrimental to
society because it perpetuates misconceptions. As Kim and Lowry (2005) indicate,
portrayals construct a specific portrait of reality and as viewers see more images, they Equal Opportunities International
Vol. 26 No. 7, 2007
pp. 633-652
# Emerald Group Publishing Limited
This research was supported with a grant from the research project no. 3405 of the University 0261-0159
of Valencia. DOI 10.1108/02610150710822285
EOI tend to adopt attitudes and expectations about the world that coincide with the images
they see. According to Cultivation theory, people who are exposed to a particular view
26,7 of the world in the media, begin to accept this world as reality (Fullerton and Kendrick,
2000), and that implies a responsibility for advertisers, because ‘‘there is a reason to be
concerned about the images of males and females in the media, especially in media
where children are heavy users’’ (Busby, 1975, p. 126).
However, Gilly (1998) indicates that defenders of advertising’s portrayal of the sexes
634 argue that advertising simply mirrors what is already present in society (Courtney and
Whipple, 1983). Advertisers use ‘‘reality’’ that is believed to sell their products
effectively (Schudson, 1984). If that is true, advertisers will tend to adapt their
creativity to the changing society beliefs. As several studies demonstrate (Duker and
Tucker, 1977; Leigh et al., 1987; Orth and Holancova, 2004; Wortzel and Frisbie, 1974)
advertising effectiveness is enhanced when role portrayals are consistent with the
orientations of the target markets (Michell and Taylor, 1990) and may react negatively
to advertisements when they are inconsistent with their a priori attitudes (Bhat et al.,
1998; Williams, 1995). So, if a society has been transformed, one may expect changes to
have occurred in media gender representation because the way men and women are
viewed in society has changed (Bartsch et al., 2000).
Why are Spain and the three decades analysed in this paper (1975-1999) a relevant
context for a study on gender role and sexism in advertising? Few countries in Europe
have experienced such historical and socio-political transformation in these years.
From a political point of view, Spain has moved from a dictatorship to a full democracy.
This period, the late 1970s, coincides with the beginning of this research. As López
Pintor (1990) points out, it is precisely at this moment that a substantial cultural
change starts taking place in the predominant values attached to industrialised
societies: rationalism, pragmatism, tolerance, egalitarianism, willingness to participate
in decision-making processes and a penchant for consumer spending.
From an economic point of view, nowadays Spain is not the agricultural and
industrial society it was in the 1970s (56 per cent of the GDP was generated by these
two sectors). Services are now the base of our economy (60 per cent of the GDP in 2006).
Consequences of this transformation have been especially relevant for women. In the
1970s only 28 per cent of them had a paid job (i.e. the employment rate, as defined by
economists) and the rest were homemakers. At the end of the period considered in this
paper, the employment rate had become 52 per cent. Similarly as Uray and Burnaz
(2003) indicate regarding Turkey, the shift from traditional large families towards small
nuclear-type families has accelerated. Aldás et al. (2006) show how in 1973, 30 per cent
of the families were composed of five members or more. This percentage was only 10
per cent in 2003.
The cultural consequences of these transformations have been significant. The
value attached to jobs carried out by women as a means of self-fulfilment and
independence has increased, as well as the gradual acceptance by men of tasks
previously done exclusively by women. All these factors support the idea that labour
behaviour of the new generations of women is more equal to men and that they become
targets for a broad number of advertisers.
But Spain is an interesting country to be analysed in the context of gender roles in
advertising for another reason. Unlike in many European Union countries both
traditional and modern family models exist side by side. Even after the significant
changes that have taken place, as stated before, the employment rate of Spanish
women today is 52 per cent very far from the 73 per cent of the UK, the 64 per cent of
Germany or the 62 per cent of France. That means that in Spain, the traditional family Gender role
model is still important, and it is interesting to assess in this context the extent to portrayals and
which the media either respond to developments in society or act in harmony with the
more traditional part of it. sexism
Although strong similarities in gender-role portrayals in ads have been noted across
cultures (Das, 2000), several differences have also been identified (Milner and Collins,
1998; Wiles et al., 1995). This is what makes the study of gender-role portrayals in a
greater number of countries important. The research developed in this paper is quite
635
new in the Spanish context. Organizations such as the governmental agency Women’s
Institute of Spain (El Instituto de la Mujer) have fostered debates, events and research
dealing with sex equality and, in many cases, its minimal impact on society and mass
media and advertising. Some research has been carried out in Spain sponsored by the
Women’s Institute or Consumer Associations (see Unión de Consumidores de España,
1995). But the methodology is clearly weak in some points (e.g. sampling
representativeness, lack of intercoder reliability) and results seem biased towards the
political and societal role of the sponsors. So, although people have been sensitised to
this idea of gender development, no research has been carried out so far using the
methodology described in this paper. This enables an acceptable degree of objectivity
to be reached in line with traditional marketing or advertising research standards on
this subject.
In short, this paper sets out to analyse the development of male and female role
portrayals in Spanish print advertising in the light of the potential influence of political,
economic, social and cultural changes which have taken place in Spain. The main objective
is to study the way in which women and men are treated in the different historical periods
under study by analysing the content of print advertising using the Spanish environment
as an excellent experimental field given the factors commented above.

Literature review and hypothesis

A study of relevant literature shows a number of studies which deal with the analysis of
the development of female roles and stereotypes in print advertising. Reference is made
to longitudinal studies carried out in other countries and which have also spanned
different historical periods. In Table I an overview of some significant studies is shown.
Generally speaking, past research indicates that both men and women are portrayed
in stereotypical ways in magazine advertising in most parts of the world (e.g. Bretl and
Cantor, 1988; Courtney and Lockeretz, 1971; Cutler et al., 1995; Das, 2000; Goffman,
1976). These results are conclusive in USA and Great Britain (Belkaoui and Belkaoui,
1976; Furnham and Bitar, 1993; Manstead and McCulloch, 1981; Sullivan and
O’Connor, 1988) and also in Italy (Furnham and Voli, 1989), Australia (Mazella et al.,
1992), Japan (Ford et al., 1998), Korea (Cutler et al., 1995; Hovland et al., 2005; Kim and
Lowry, 2005), Hong Kong (Sengupta, 1992), Portugal (Neto and Pinto, 1998), Turkey
(Uray and Burnaz, 2003), Singapore and Malaysia (Wee et al., 1995) and India (Das,
2000). According to the above, it is hypothesized that:

H1. In all the years analysed in the last three decades, women and men will be
portrayed more often in traditional roles in Spanish magazine ads than in non-
traditional ways.
Regarding the differences between men and women, as Gilly (1998) points out, the
overall conclusion of the studies of sex role portrayals in advertisements conducted in
EOI Author Period analysed Country Main conclusions
26,7
The 1970s
Sexton and 1950-1951, 1960- USA No major changes in stereotypes, except for
Haberman (1974) 1961, 1970-1971 housewife and mother, which are gradually
becoming more moderate
Venkatesan and 1959-1963, 1964- USA No significant changes in the stereotypes
636 Losco (1975) 1968, 1969-1971 identified by Courtney and Lokeretz (1971),
except for the role of sex object and
housewife
Belkaoui and 1958, 1970, 1972 USA Women appeared more frequently than men
Belkaoui (1976) in non-working and decorative roles. Men
identified themselves with better-paid jobs.
Women are more involved with essential
products such as food and household and
generally inexpensive articles
The 1980s
Skelly and 1959-1979 USA Changes in male roles run parallel to
Lundstrom (1981) changes in female roles
Lysonski (1983) 1974/75-1979/80 USA Advertisers show women in less
conventional roles
Lysonski (1985) 1976, 1982/83 UK The changes which have taken place are
not dramatic, although women appear
increasingly more frequently in roles
independent of men
Soley and Kurzbard 1964, 1984 USA The sexual content has not increased in the
(1986) twenty-year period analysed
Soley and Reid 1964, 1984 USA More nudity shown in 1984 than in 1964
(1988)
The 1990s
Ferguson et al. 1973-1987 USA The fifteen-year study shows that the
(1990) number of advertisements where women are
shown in a decorative role has decreased
Fox (1990) 1909-1910, 1919- USA The role and characteristics of the products
1920, 1929-1930, associated with women and the home have
1939-1940, 1949- followed in the footsteps of social changes
1950, 1959-1960,
1969-1970, 1979-
1980
Michell and Taylor 1976-1988 UK Specific stereotypes (housewife, sex object)
(1990) are still the most common, though in
decreasing numbers
Nowak (1990) 1935-1980 Sweden There is no clear trend in the development
of the role of women in a professional
capacity. Differences in work situations
between men and women have decreased
Mays and Brady 1955, 1965, 1975, USA Women appear less in home settings and
(1991) 1985 more in social and business situations
Table I. Klassen et al. (1993) 1972-1989 USA Women appear less frequently in less
Some examples of traditional settings
longitudinal studies in Nussmeyer and 1976, 1986, 1996 USA A gradual increase in the use of
print advertisements King (1999) advertisements with sexual connotations
1970s, is that women were portrayed differently from men. Dominick and Rauch (1972) Gender role
and Schneider and Schneider (1979) found that women were more frequently pictured portrayals and
as unemployed or employed in traditional female occupations. Courtney and Whipple
(1974) concluded that in the 1970s, women were not portrayed as autonomous and sexism
independent human beings. Some years later, Courtney and Whipple (1983) noted
minor improvements over time. In a geographical context quite similar to Spain, Neto
and Pinto (1998) noted men to be most likely to be portrayed in occupational settings, 637
as interviewers, narrators or celebrities, while women were more likely to be dependent
on others. These results lead to the following hypothesis:

H2. In all the years analysed in the last three decades men will be more frequently
portrayed as independent from others than women.
Trends in gender representation are not clear. As pointed out by Bartsch et al. (2000),
one may expect changes to have occurred in media gender representation since the
1970s, as women are more likely to be on the work force and employed in work
traditionally held by men. Quite conclusive in this sense are the results of Michell and
Taylor (1990), Allan and Coltrane (1996), Bretl and Cantor (1988), Lysonski (1983),
Nowak (1990), Sexton and Haberman (1974) among others. It is suggested that the role
portrayals of women in advertisements have been improved. They are more
representative of contemporary women and gradually become equal to men (Schneider
and Schneider, 1979; Sullivan and O’Connor, 1988). Other evidence indicates that there
may not be a change from the 1970s in gender representation because equality in areas
such as wage gap and occupational roles has not occurred (Cejka and Eagly, 1999) and
gender stereotypes may be still present (Cejka and Eagly, 1999; Rudman and Kiliansi,
2000). What is more, some studies indicate that negative stereotypical depiction is even
becoming worse (Gilly, 1998; Ganahl et al., 2003; Lovdal, 1989; Marecek et al., 1978).
However, the importance of the social changes in Spanish society mentioned before,
lead us to hypothesize:

H3. Male and female role portrayals will become less stereotypical in Spanish
magazine ads over the three decades analysed.
There is no unequivocal definition of sexism in advertising, for much depends on the
ethical and social values applied. However, it may be generally understood that
advertisements that clearly express the view that men and women do not possess the
same value or should not enjoy the same rights, must be regarded as sexist
(Utterström, 1977).
Content research also shows that women are more likely than men to be portrayed
in a sexist way as defined before: dependent, subservient in domestic settings, inactive,
indoors, without authority and expertise, presented as attracting and attaining a man,
and then serving him (Courtney and Whipple, 1983; Fullerton, 2000; Lysonski and
Pollay, 1990).
Although most of the research on sexism has been conducted in the USA and
British context (Beetles and Harris, 2005), several studies have been carried out in other
countries. Ford et al. (1998) and Fullerton (2000) focused, respectively, on Japan and
Uzbekistan and found that women continue to be shown as decorative and as sexual
objects more often than men. Findings of Kim and Lowry (2005) indicate that women in
Korean television advertising were frequently portrayed in a sexist way.
EOI These results allow us to state the following hypothesis:
26,7 H4. Men and women will differ in the level of sexism in which they are portrayed in
Spanish magazine commercials. The sexism level of women characters will be
higher than men’s.
Most of the research developed to analyse the evolution of the sexism level of
638 advertising concludes that a slight decrease in sexism can be observed, for instance
Lindner (2004) focusing on women portrayals. Kang (1977) found little improvement,
stating sexism stayed approximately the same through the years she analysed (1979-
1991). However, Hovland et al. (2005) concluded that their results strongly suggest that
sexist portrayals of women advertising are becoming less prevalent. According to
these results and due to the strong socio-cultural changes that Spanish society has
experienced in the three decades analysed, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H5. Over the years analysed, a significant decrease in the number of sexist
depictions of both men and women is expected in Spanish magazine
advertisements.

Methodology
This paper has adopted content analysis as the research method to examine how
women and men were portrayed in Spanish magazine ads. Magazines have been
selected to represent print media, because newspapers in Spain are read mainly by
men, not only actually (60.2 per cent of the readers are men) but more intensively in the
1970s. Consequently ads would probably be targeted to men and the analysis would
provide biased results. The wide variety of magazines allows us to select a balanced
selection of titles directed to men, women and general public, as explained later.
Content analysis has been used extensively to evaluate stereotypes and sexism (Allan
and Coltrane, 1996; Michell and Taylor, 1990).

Sample
By following similar research (Venkatesan and Losco, 1975; Soley and Kurzbard, 1986;
Das, 2000), the selection of source magazines was based on those of greater circulation,
according to available data media sources. In this way, six magazines were chosen in
each analysed year (two directed a general target, two towards a male target and two
towards a female target). Of these, three were weekly publications and three monthly.
The sampling months were selected randomly both for weekly publications (January,
April, July and October) and for the monthly ones (January, May and September).
Weekly publications were sampled in all the weeks of each selected month. As there
were more monthly than weekly magazines, only three months were selected for
monthly magazines (four for weekly ones as stated above). As it was impossible to get
the same six magazines published throughout the 30 years, it was necessary to
consider a total of 14 different magazines to substitute those which had disappeared.
Given the large number of advertisements, ten were chosen at random per magazine
provided that they were of at least half a page in size (Venkatesan and Losco, 1975;
Wiles and Tjernlund, 1991; Das, 2000). This process was repeated for the four years
selected for the longitudinal study: 1975, 1985, 1995 and 1999 (year of the field work).
Table II shows the final selection of ads per magazine made after this process of
documentary reference.
 Advertisements per year Gender role
Name of magazine 75 85 95 99 Total portrayals and
Muy interesante – 33 29 59 121
sexism
Tiempo – 43 35 79 157
Actualidad 41 – – – 41
Total non-specialist 41 76 64 138 319
639
Hola – – 41 41 82
Mi Casa – – – 55 55
Nuevo Estilo – 43 – – 43
Pronto 39 29 – 35 103
El Mueble 35 – 32 – 67
Ser Padres 29 – – – 29
Total women readership 103 72 73 131 379
Interviú 44 41 36 63 184
Man – – – 59 59
Automóvil – – 32 – 32
Moto Esport 34 – – – 34 Table II.
Moto Mundial – 26 – – 26 Selection of
Total male readership 78 67 68 122 335 advertisements
according to year and
Total for magazines 222 215 205 391 1,033 magazine type

Two main adult characters, preferably of different gender where possible, were
selected. Where more than two appeared, the two subjects were chosen at random,
regardless of whether they were of the same or different gender.
As a result of the random sampling process, a total of 1,033 different advertisements
were selected. They produced 518 characters for the analysis, given that 162 ads
contained just one man; 166 ads contained just one woman; 95 ads contained both
genders. So, the 518 characters included 257 men (162 þ 95) and 261 women (166 þ 95).
As can be appreciated, the Spanish advertisers usually avoided the use of characters to
communicate their product when using print media (59 per cent of the ads had no
character). The number and characteristics of the advertisements analysed by period
of time are shown in Tables III and IV. This methodology is similar to that used by
authors such as Lysonski (1985), Soley and Reid (1988) or Michell and Taylor (1990).

Content variables
Role portrayals. The roles portrayed by the central figure were coded according to the
proposal of McArthur and Resko (1975), used in subsequent research by Furnham and

Number of advertisements analysed

Type of advertisement 1975 1985 1995 1999 Total

Without characters 131 143 120 216 610

Men only 30 27 33 72 162
Women only 43 18 37 68 166
Men and women 18 27 15 35 95 Table III.
Number of
Total 222 215 205 391 1,033 advertisements analysed
EOI Schofield (1986), Harris and Stobart (1986), Gilly (1998), Ferguson et al. (1990) and
26,7 Siu and Au (1997). Table V details those categories and their definitions. After the
coding process, following the recommendation of Gilly (1998) to avoid too few cases in
some cells, the role variable was collapsed into three categories: (1) roles that defined
the character in terms of his or her relationship to others (i.e. spouse, parent,
housewife), (2) roles that defined the character independently of others (i.e. worker,
640 celebrity, interviewer) and (3), others. Additionally, and as proposed by Sexton and
Haberman (1974), it was analysed if the role portrayal of the character would be
considered by the society as traditional or non-traditional for both men and women,
following the guidelines provided by Ferguson et al. (1990).
Sexism. The Consciousness Scale for Sexism was originally developed by Butler-
Paisley and Paisley-Butler (1974) as an ordinal five-level consciousness scale to
describe how women as presented in the media were limited to special roles and
relationship. Pingree et al. (1976) further elaborated this scale to actually examine the
consciousness scale for women in magazines. They suggested a five-level exploratory
model to examine the media sexism from both women and men’s sides. The scale
outlined in Table V classifies media portrayals of men and women into five
conceptually-driven categories which are believed, according to Ferguson et al. (1990,
p. 43) ‘‘to possess an ordinal relationship to each other’’. Chao’s (2005) criteria were used
to assign the advertisement a level of sexism, as also described in Table V.

Coding and reliability

The coding procedure was modelled on that of Furnham and Bitar (1993), Furnham
and Voli (1989) and Kolbe and Burnett (1991). Four observers participated in a group
training session where 20 advertisements were coded. Any disagreement was resolved
by reviewing the problem advertisement together to determine the reason for the
disagreement, as suggested by Kim and Lowry (2005). After the training session each
one of the four coders was required to code the advertisements of the year assigned to
him. The intercoder reliability of the full study was determined by recoding by means
of a judge of a different gender, the randomly selected fifteen per cent of the
advertisements of each year. Three agreement indices were calculated: the agreement
percentage proposed by Holsti (1969) and Cohen’s Kappa (Cohen, 1960) in order to
establish the reliability of the categorisation of nominal variables, and Krippendorf’s
alpha for nominal and ordinal data, which corrects random agreement (Krippendorf,
1980; Kang et al., 1993). The results show a high degree of agreement, thus ensuring
reliability in the analysis categories proposed (Table VI).

Results
As in previous studies, given that the data were frequencies, chi-squares test were
calculated to assess significance. Specifically, and following Bartsch et al. (2000) and

Number of characters
Character gender 1975 1985 1995 1999 Total

Men 48 54 48 107 257

Table IV. Women 61 45 52 103 261
Number of characters
analysed Total 109 99 100 210 518
Variable Source Classes Operational definition

Role McArthur and Husband/wife As made operational by Gilly (1998, p. 81). The role variable was collapsed into three categories:
Resko (1975) Mother/father (a) roles that defined the character in terms of his or her relationship to others (i.e. spouse,
Housewife/Husband parent, housewife, boy/girlfriend)
doing housework (b) roles that defined the character independently from others (i.e. worker, professional,
Office worker celebrity, interviewer/narrator)
Professional (c) Other
Celebrity
Interviewer/narrator
Boy/girlfriend
Others
Social Sexton and Traditional As made operational by Sexton and Haberman (1974, p. 43)
consideration of Haberman Non-traditional (a) Traditional. The situation in which the man/woman appears would be considered by society
the role (1974) Both as traditional for them. There exists something in the ad that can be cited as an
None explanation
(b) Non traditional. The situation in which he/she appears would be considered by society as
non-traditional for them
Level of Pingree Level 1 (High) As made operational by Chao (2005, pp. 41-2)
sexism et al. (1976) Level 2 Level 1. ‘‘Put her down.’’ Women were presented as incompetent, dependent, two-dimensional
Level 3 decoration with no real function involving the advertised products, such as the dumb beauties, the
Level 4 sex objects, or the whimpering victims. ‘‘Put him up.’’ Men decorated advertisements for products
Level 5 (Low) that did not require the presence of handsome, well-dressed men to provide more information about
the product. In this level, men were usually portrayed as attractive or sexy objects with masculine
stereotyping such as being competent, independent, powerful, knowledgeable, muscular, and brave.
Level 2. ‘‘Keep her in her place.’’ Traditional strengths and capabilities of women were
acknowledged, but tradition also dictated ‘‘womanly’’ roles, such as wives, mothers, secretaries,
clerks, teachers, and nurses. Women in this level were usually seen in the home or doing
feminine activities such as housekeeping, cooking, shopping, applying cosmetics, or gossiping
with friends. Women were fully capable of doing typical womanly jobs or activities, but
incompetent to accomplish manly tasks. ‘‘Keep him in his place.’’ Male characters were mainly
shown at work, usually in managerial positions or other manly positions, or doing manly
activities such as sports, gambling, or car racing. If they were shown working around the
house, they were very likely to mow the lawn, take the garbage out, or do other manly
(Continued)
portrayals and
sexism

641
Gender role

Content variables used

Table V.

in the study
 26,7
EOI

642

Table V.
Variable Source Classes Operational definition

housework. Men, who attempted traditional feminine activities at home such as doing laundry,
changing diapers, or cooking, were considered as abysmally incompetent.
Level 3. ‘‘Give her two places.’’ In this level, women’s images presented in media were
‘‘progressive’’. Women could be competent career women and housewives at the same time, but
traditional activities such as housework and mothering were still their prior tasks. In this case,
career was generally viewed as ‘‘something extra.’’ For example, woman could play a
professional role such as a lawyer or a doctor outside as long as she prepared dinner on the
table for her husband or children on time. When there was a conflict between her job and
family, family always came first. ‘‘Give him two places.’’ In this level, the characteristics for
men were similar to those for women. But, the priorities were reversed. Men were competent in
both worlds, business and family, but they were ‘‘helping out’’ at home. Their true place was at
work or outside the home.
Level 4. ‘‘Women and men are fully equal’’. Women were shown as fully competent to play
professional roles outside the home, without mentioning that housework and mothering were
non-negotiably their responsibilities. Men were as competent as women to do womanly jobs or
activities, and took womanly responsibilities as their own such as cooking, housecleaning, and
taking care of children. In this level, women’s first place was probably at work, while men’s
was at home. Moreover, while imaging romance was considered as a feminine activity, if the
male primary character was portrayed as pursuing romance, he might be coded as level 4.
Besides, romance could be assigned to this level when the two lovers in the commercial were
shown equally in love. Neither of them was superior.
Level 5. ‘‘Women and men are individuals.’’ Women and men were viewed as being treated
non-stereotypically and as superior to each other in some respects, while inferior in other
respects. Generally speaking, level 5 was the only level where a woman was allowed to be
superior. However, superior men were not usually coded V while superior women were.
Superior men might be coded II, because it fit more with traditional view of the women-men
relationship of level 2, unless men were shown superior to women in doing womanly jobs or
activities.
Das (2000), we used a chi-square goodness-of-fit test when we examined a question Gender role
with one variable (e.g. Are there more males portrayed in a traditional role than in portrayals and
neutral or non-traditional role in 1985?) and a chi-square test of independence when we
examined a question with two variables (e.g. Are there more males than females sexism
portrayed in a traditional role in 1985?). In the first case, the data were compared to a
uniform distribution.
Regarding hypothesis H1, Table VII shows that females were portrayed more often
in traditional roles in years 1975, 1985 and 1995 (p < 0.01) than in neutral or non-
643
traditional roles. The highest percentage (59 per cent) of traditional portrayals was in
1975. Regarding men, the results are the same. Males were portrayed most often in
traditional roles the same three years (p < 0.01) with the highest percentage (83.3
per cent), also in 1975. These results do not support completely the first hypothesis due
to the fact that in 1999 both men (50.0 per cent) and women (57.3 per cent) were
portrayed mainly in a neutral way (p < 0.01). This is a particular result that should be
discussed later, because follow-up studies of the seminal ones (Belkaoui and Belkaoui,
1976; Courtney and Lockeretz, 1971; Kerin, Lundstorm and Sciglimpaglia, 1979; Soley
and Reid, 1988; Wagner and Banos, 1973) into the mid-1990s (Busby and Leichty, 1993;
Lewis and Neville, 1995) demonstrated that the roles in advertisements have continued
to be traditional, as pointed out by Uray and Burnaz (2003).

Index
Categorised variable Percentage agreement Cohen’s Kappa Krippendorf’s Alpha

Situation of actor/actress 0.91 0.85 0.85 Table VI.

Sexism 0.84 0.74 0.74 Agreement indices
Actor’s role 0.97 0.96 0.95 among codifiers

Vertical percentages
1975 1985 1995 1999
Social consideration Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

Traditional 83.3 59.0 69.1 57.8 56.3 51.9 30.2 27.2

Non-traditional 2.1 6.6 5.5 8.9 14.6 11.5 19.8 15.5
None 14.6 34.4 25.5 33.3 29.2 36.5 50.0 57.3
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
N 48 61 55 45 48 52 107 103
Goodness of fit test 48.0 25.2 34.9 16.1 12.8 12.9 15.8 28.6
Chi-square
df 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
p <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01
Independence test 7.56 1.44 0.67 1.08
Chi-square
df 2 2 2 2
p 0.02 0.48 0.71 0.58
Table VII.
Notes: 2(year vs role; men) ¼ 33.8; df ¼ 6; p < 0.01; 2(year vs role; women) ¼ 22.4; df ¼ 6; Social consideration of
p < 0.01 the role
EOI As shown in Table VIII, H2 can only be accepted for year 1975 (2 ¼ 17.69; df ¼ 2;
26,7 p < 0.01). In the following years, differences in the role played by men and women are
not significant. In 1975, men are portrayed more frequently (54.2 per cent) in an
independent role (worker, professional, celebrity) than women (16.4 per cent). But in
1985 (2 ¼ 1.99; df ¼ 2; p ¼ 0.36), 1995 (2 ¼ 3.01; df ¼ 2; p ¼ 0.22) and 1999 (2 ¼ 1.34;
df ¼ 2; p ¼ 0.50), differences disappear. In 1999, the percentage of males depicted in an
644 independent role (29.0 per cent) was very similar to the females percentage portrayed
as independent (22.2 per cent).
Previous results already allow us to accept H3. As mentioned above looking at
Table VII, the percentage of males and females depicted in traditional roles decreases
significantly both for men (2 ¼ 33.8; df ¼ 6; p < 0.01) and women (2 ¼ 22.4; df ¼ 6;
p < 0.01). In 1975, 83.3 per cent of males and 59.0 per cent of females were portrayed in
traditional roles. These percentages become 30.2 per cent for men and 27.2 per cent for
women in 1999. Results regarding the independence level of the role portrayed are not
so clear. As Table VIII shows, the evolution is slightly significant for men (2 ¼ 13.6;
df ¼ 6; p < 0.05) but not for women (2 ¼ 6.49; df ¼ 6; p ¼ 0.40). The explanation of this
result is that men experience an important reduction of their portrayal in an
independent role (54.2 per cent in 1975 to 29.0 per cent in 1999), but women are depicted
as independent more or less the same (16.4 per cent in 1975 and 22.2 per cent in 1999).
Advertising creative evolution has preferred to portray them in a neutral way instead
of in an independent role.
Regarding the level of sexism and according to Table IX, we cannot conclude that
men and women differ in the level of sexism at which they are portrayed in Spanish
magazine advertisements. Although H4 was true in 1975 (2 ¼ 17.93; df ¼ 4; p < 0.01),
it was not in the following years. In 1975 both, men and women were portrayed with
high degrees of sexism. Seventy-five per cent of male characters were classified at level
2: e.g. shown at work, usually in managerial positions or doing manly activities such as
sports, gambling or car racing according to Chao (2005) criteria. Most of the female

Vertical percentages
1975 1985 1995 1999
Role Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

Relative to others 20.8 31.1 20.1 28.9 25.0 36.5 16.8 20.4
Independent 54.2 16.4 36.3 24.4 33.3 19.3 29.0 22.2
Others 25.0 52.5 43.6 46.7 41.7 44.2 54.2 57.4
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
N 48 61 55 45 48 52 107 103
Goodness of fit test 9.5 12.0 4.8 3.7 2.0 5.1 23.3 26.6
Chi-square
df 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
p <0.01 <0.01 0.08 0.15 0.36 0.07 <0.01 <0.01
Independence test 17.69 1.99 3.01 1.34
Chi-square
df 2 2 2 2
Table VIII. p <0.01 0.36 0.22 0.50
Role types played by
men and women in print Notes: 2(year vs role; men) ¼ 13.6; df ¼ 6; p ¼ 0.03; 2(year vs role; women) ¼ 6.49; df ¼ 6;
advertising p ¼ 0.40
 Vertical percentages Gender role
1975 1985 1995 1999 portrayals and
Sexism level Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
sexism
1 (Highest) 10.4 27.9 16.7 28.9 16.7 42.3 0.0 0.0
2 75.0 36.1 40.7 20.0 35.4 19.2 21.5 31.1
3 2.1 9.8 7.4 8.9 2.1 5.8 0.0 1.0
4 4.2 16.4 29.6 35.6 37.5 28.8 78.5 67.0 645
5 (Lowest) 8.3 9.8 5.6 6.7 8.3 3.8 0.0 1.0
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
N 48 61 55 45 48 52 107 103
Goodness of fit test 96.0 16.2 26.0 14.0 24.3 27.0 192.0 192.0
Chi-square
df 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
p <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01
Independence 17.93 5.40 10.14 4.86
Chi-square
df 4 4 4 4
p <0.01 0.24 0.03 0.18
Table IX.
Notes: 2(year vs role; men) ¼ 105.21; df ¼ 12; p < 0.01; 2(year vs role; women) ¼ 83.01; df ¼ 12; Evolution of sexism
p < 0.01 levels per gender

characters (36.1 per cent) were also classified at this level (seen in home or doing
feminine activities such as housekeeping, cooking, shopping, applying cosmetics or
gossiping with their friends, what Chao (2005) calls ‘‘keep her in her place’’. What may
be more important, the percentage of women characters (27.9 per cent) classified at the
highest level of sexism is more than 17 points higher to that of men (10.4 per cent). This
means that many women were portrayed in what Chao (2005) calls ‘‘put her down’’
(presented as incompetent, dependent, sex objects or whimpering victims). But as
indicated, these differences among men and women are no longer significant in the
following years, rejecting H4.
What Table IX indicates is a very important change in the level of sexism portrayed
in magazine advertising over the years, significant both for men (2 ¼ 105.21; df ¼ 12;
p < 0.01) and women (2 ¼ 83.01; df ¼ 12; p < 0.01). This allows us to accept H5. We
have commented above what the situation was in 1975; but what happened in 1999?
Neither men nor women were portrayed in the highest level of sexism and most men
(78.5 per cent) and also women (67.0 per cent) were at level 4 (low sexism). These
figures are significant both for males (2 ¼ 192.0; df ¼ 12; p < 0.01) and females
(2 ¼ 192.0; df ¼ 12; p < 0.01). That means, according Chao (2005) (see Table V), that
women and men were portrayed as fully equal: women were shown as fully competent
to play professional roles outside the home; men were as competent as women to do
womanly jobs or activities, and took womanly responsibilities as their own, such as
cooking, housecleaning and taking care of children.
But Table IX also shows an important result that should be commented in the
discussion section of this paper: the amount of male (21.5 per cent) and female (31.1
per cent) characters which can still be found at level 2 is high. Characters in extreme
values (1 and 5) have disappeared, but portrayals have been concentrated at two levels,
one of high sexism (level 2) and one of low sexism (level 4).
EOI Discussion
As the results indicate, stereotypical depictions of men and women in Spanish
26,7 magazine advertisements persist but are clearly becoming less prevalent. Males and
females were equally depicted in a neutral role at the end of the period analysed. No
differences between men and women can be found in the percentage of them portrayed
in an independent role nor the level of sexism at which they are depicted, though the
percentage of portrayals with high sexism level was still important in the last year of
646 the period considered.
What implications do these results have from a social and a marketing practitioner
point of view? If Cultivation Theory is true and over time, people who are exposed to a
particular view of the world through advertisements begin to accept this world as a
reality (Fullerton and Kendrick, 2000; Gerbner, 1998; Gerbner and Gross, 1976), the
responsibility of advertisers could be considered as crucial. As Gilly (1998) and Uray
and Burnaz (2003) pointed out, since advertisers may not even be aware of the gender
role stereotypes they are perpetuating, researchers must continue to monitor what ads
contain and to test alternative messages that do not contain stereotypes. But if
Courtney and Whipple (1983) or Holbrook (1987) are right, and advertising simply
mirrors what is already present in society, effectiveness should be ruling advertisers’’
creativity. As society’s image of men and women changes, so should advertisements in
order to be more effective as they represent people in a way they feel consonant with
(Michell and Taylor, 1990).
From our point of view, our results mainly support the second alternative. Spain has
deeply changed over the last three decades and magazine advertisements have
changed with it. Spain has experienced a substantial increase in the number of working
women with an increasing income level. As they have become a more important target
market, advertisers have realized that they have to reflect their everyday lifestyle to be
effective. So they must portray characters that can be considered realistic as also
pointed out for Singapore and Malaysia by Wee et al. (1995). Accordingly, the
percentage of women represented in traditional roles has decreased significantly in
Spain because, as Pollay and Lysonski (1993, p. 39) note, ‘‘a lack of identification with
the roles portrayed may reduce the attention, credibility, retention and subsequent
recall of any advertisement’’.
Lundstrom and Sciglimpaglia (1977) indicate that unacceptable image portrayal
could alter buying behaviour, and Kim and Lowry (2005) indicate that several
researchers have found that the use of stereotypical images could discourage some
consumers from buying products (Caballero et al., 1989; Callcott and Phillips, 1996;
Jaffe and Berger, 1994). As we indicated in the introduction to this paper, Spanish
society has experienced a substantial cultural change in its predominant values,
egalitarianism being a key one nowadays. So a sexist portrayal of women may irritate
them as a consumer segment. Our results show that no advertisement could be
classified at the highest level of the scale of sexism at the end of the period analysed,
while 27.9 per cent of female characters were classified at this level in 1975. Once again,
effectiveness is guiding advertisers’’ decisions, and they are changing as society does.
But our description of Spanish society also indicated that the female employment
rate is still much lower than the British, German or French ones. That implies that in
Spain, the traditional family model in which the female role is that of a homemaker is
still important. Do our results also reflect this fact? They do. As we indicated, when
sexism levels or magazine advertisements were analysed at the end of the period, a
clear polarisation of this variable was detected. It is true that most advertisements
showed a low sexism level for both men (78.5 per cent) and women (67 per cent); but it Gender role
was also true that one third of the female characters were portrayed with an important portrayals and
level of sexism (level 2 in the scale). Similar results were found by Michell and Taylor
(1990) who suggest that advertisers need two messages, one to the family oriented and sexism
another to the non-traditionalist.
So, do we mean that if advertising reflects society values, no responsibility can be
demanded of advertisers? Not at all. Both government legislation to prohibit gender
discrimination and self-regulation of the advertising industry are actually controlling
647
misbehaviour in advertisements. What we mean is that designing advertising against
society values is not worth it to advertisers. Our conclusion is the same as Michell and
Taylor’s (1990, p. 49): ‘‘. . . in usual circumstances, it is in the interest of the advertiser to
generate favourable response from women to an ad. Since advertisers have complete
flexibility in developing these images, it does make sense for them to show women in
ways women find acceptable. Anything else is more incompetence than conspiracy’’.
Nowadays, making good advertisements implies making non-sexist advertisements.
That is the best news for the society and also for the industry.
The last consideration does not imply a limitation for advertisers’’ creativity. As
Wee et al. (1995) point out, advertisers can break away from stereotypes and improve
their marketing communications at the same time. These authors propose using dual
roles (mother/professional or wife/manager), role switching (portraying some purchase
or use of the product by persons of the opposite sex to that of the traditional stereotype,
like a man cooking or a woman changing a light bulb), or role blending (scenes in
which no sex dominates, like men and women shopping or developing a joint-decision
activity).
As in all the studies based on content analysis, the main limitation of this one is that
it cannot demonstrate nor reject the negative social consequences of stereotyping. Nor
can it analyse the consequences of stereotyping on advertising effectiveness. As Kim
and Lowry (2005) point out, future researchers should try to analyse if stereotyping
sells more or if consumers remember those advertisements better. It should also be
examined, as Uray and Burnaz (2003) suggest, how consumers perceive gender role
portrayals in advertising and the consequences of the emotions generated by these
executional cues on consumer attitudes towards the ad and the product, in line with the
study of Orth and Holancova (2004). Finally, the extension of this research to other
printed media like newspapers and also to television is necessary to fully understand
the influence of social changes on advertising in Spain.

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About the authors
Marcelo Royo-Vela (PhD in Business Sciences, Universitat de València, Spain) is Professor of
Marketing in the Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia. His
main areas of interest are advertising content, processing and social effects, consumer behaviour,
research methodology and tourism marketing. His work is focused on advertising, consumer
behaviour, tourism marketing and quantitative methods in marketing research and it has been
published in the EJM, JCIRA and in the best Spanish refereed journals. At the same time, papers
have been presented EMAC, AM or AMS Conferences.
Joaquin Aldás-Manzano (PhD in Business Sciences, Universitat de València, Spain) is
Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics,
Universitat de València and Associate Researcher of Valencian Economic Research Institute
(Ivie). His work is focused on advertising media planning, consumer behaviour and quantitative
methods in marketing research and it has been published in the EJM, JPBM, QMR, JIM and in
the best Spanish refereed journals. At the same time, papers have been presented at AM or AMS
Conferences. Joaquin Aldas-Manzano is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
joaquin.aldas@uv.es
I

nes Küster-Boluda is Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Marketing,
Faculty of Economics, Universitat de València. Her research attention has been focused on
strategic marketing areas. She has published articles in diverse referee journals (i.e. JQRM, EJIM,
and Spanish journals). At the same time, papers have been presented at EMAC, AM, or AMS
conferences.
Natalia Vila-Lopez is Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Marketing,
Faculty of Economics, Universitat de València. She has carried out research on topics such as
competitive positioning, identification of strategic groups/competitive groups and the
application of Multidimensional Scaling in marketing. Her research work has been published in
EJIM, JMM, JSM and Spanish refereed journals. She has presented papers at several Conferences
such as EMAC, AM or AMS.

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