Contemporary Female Perspectives of Female Role Portrayals in Advertising

Abstract

Acknowledging the decades of social awareness and diverse views on the portrayal of women in advertising, the authors evaluate the perceptions of a stratified sample of adult women in a large mid-Atlantic SMSA regarding their general perceptions of female role portrayals, company image, purchase intention, and female autonomy orientation responses. The results suggest that despite changes made in female role portrayals in recent years, the problem of avoiding negative reactions from women has not gone away. Analysis of structural relations indicates that a strong female autonomy orientation leads to criticality of female role portrayals, which in turn leads to criticality of sponsoring company image as well as propensity to boycott products featured in advertising which is perceived to be offensive.