What’s in the news?

• • UNICEF and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (GDI) recently conducted a study titled “Gender bias and inclusion in advertising in India”. 

• GDI is a non-profit research organization that researches gender representation in media and advocates for equal representation of women. 

• The research measures over 1,000 television and YouTube advertisements aired across India in 2019. The ads analysed were those that received the most reach.

Results of the study

• The study finds that while Indian advertisements on television and YouTube are superior to global benchmarks insofar as girls and women have parity of representation in terms of screen and speaking time, their portrayal is problematic as they further gender stereotypes — they are more likely than male characters to be shown as married, less likely to be shown in paid occupation, and more likely to be depicted as caretakers and parents.
• The study finds that women characters dominate screen time (59.7%) and speaking time (56.3%), but one of the drivers of this is their depiction for selling cleaning supplies and food and beauty products to women consumers. 
• For example, almost all the detergent and food commercials depicted a woman taking care of her family who speaks directly to women viewers about caring for their families. 
• A greater percentage of female characters is depicted as married than male characters (11% compared with 8.8%). Female characters are three times more likely to be depicted as parents than male characters (18.7% compared with 5.9%). 
• Female characters are more likely to be shown doing the following activities than male characters — shopping (4.1% compared with 2.3%); cleaning (4.8% as against 2.2%); and being involved in the purchase or preparation of meals (5.4% against 3.9%).
• For characters where intelligence is part of their character in the ad, male characters are more likely to be shown as smart than female characters (32.2% compared to 26.2%). Male characters are almost twice as likely to be shown as funny than female characters (19.1% compared to 11.9%).
• Two-thirds of female characters (66.9%) in Indian ads have light or medium-light skin tones — a higher percentage than male characters (52.1%). 
• The research also found consistent gender differences in sexualization. Female characters are nine times more likely to be shown as “stunning/very attractive” than male characters (5.9% compared with 0.6%). Female characters are also invariably thin, but male characters appear with a variety of body sizes in Indian advertising.

Impacts

• Misrepresentation and harmful stereotypes of women in advertising have a significant impact on women — and young girls — and how they view themselves and their value to society. 
• The study noted that while we do see female representation dominate in Indian ads, they are still marginalised by colorism, hypersexualisation, and without careers or aspirations outside of the home. The stark inequality must be addressed to ensure an equitable society.

Reference:

1. https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/ad-agencies/news/indian-ads-have-prominent-female-characters-but-they-are-still-highly-stereotyped-study/articleshow/82162988.cms