How Media is Changing Gender Roles in American Society

Temple University

Fall, 2018

MSP 3421 (002) Technology and Culture

Steve Schwartz

October 31st, 2018

 

How the Media is Changing Gender Roles in American Society

Throughout history, gender roles have been a constant in every society. As defined by Planned Parenthood, gender roles are “how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex” (Planned Parenthood, n.p, n.d.). As time has gone on however, these roles are changing. For example, in the 1950s, men were expected to be providers for their family, and women were expected to be homemakers. In contemporary society, it is no longer expected for people to conform to these ‘traditional roles.’ In particular, the gender roles of women have undergone extreme transformations. One major reason for this change is the way the media has portrayed people. Society has become far more progressive since the 1950s, and the media is a significant reason.

The media has in ordinate amount of power in shaping public thought. It is able to sway public opinion in any way they want to. According to agenda setting theory, the media determines the importance, or salience, of items. For instance, if they take a certain stance on a subject such as abortion, those who watch that channel will start to think that way about abortion. As a part of this, the media is responsible for shaping societal norms. It does this not only through news, but through scripted television shows, movies, advertisements, and more. Since most of the world is connected to media outlets in some way, the way the world thinks is essentially controlled by those who control the media.

In every society that has ever existed, gender roles have been present; people like to be organized, and an easy way for people to do that was to organize roles or tasks by genders. However, gender roles are not uniform across different societies. In American society, the male gender role is consistently that of provider, or taking on characteristics of being “confident, competent, powerful, and in high-status positions” (Wood, 32, 1994). Further, “men are seldom shown doing housework” (Wood, 32, 1994). Women, however, “are depicted as passive, dependent on men, and enmeshed in relationships or housework (Wood, 33, 1994). However, this is not the case in every society. In some South Asian countries, women are assigned the role of provider, win men taking on a much more prominent role in housework. With this is mind, it can be stated that gender roles are a social construct, rather than universal laws that are set in stone. As stated above, gender roles are merely expectations, not requirements for how to act. Further, since they are a construct, they are able to be molded and changed over time.

Through the media, gender roles are perpetuated ad nauseum. Turn on any family sitcom, and defined gender roles will clearly be present. In the golden age of television, women were portrayed as not much more than homemakers, whose job was to be a full-time mother and wife. They were not expected or encouraged to try and carve out successful or lucrative careers. Rather, they were expected to stay at home and keep the house tidy. As time has gone on and society has become more progressive, the way these gender roles are portrayed has changed. Men are still portrayed in all the successful positions they were but are now are starting to take on some of the roles that were previously assigned to women. The way gender roles for women have changed is much more significant. Less so they are only being portrayed as homemakers, and more often they are portrayed as doctors, lawyers, or other positions of power or success. A sure sign of the changing times is the recently released movie Wonder Woman. Produced by Marvel in 2017, Wonder Woman is just like any other superhero movie, except for the fact that the main hero is a woman. To release a movie with a woman in such a prominent role 60 years ago would have been unthinkable, since women were discouraged from seeing themselves as anything other than a homemaker. Further, in addition to being cast in prominent roles, more and more women are writing, producing, and directing shows and movies.

Having more women in these prominent roles inspires younger women and girls by showing them that they are capable of doing anything. This is not only the case in movies and television, but in advertising as well. A magazine called Sport England ran a campaign called This Girl Can, which instead of featuring women in what is perceived as a standard of beauty, featured regular, everyday women. By breaking established stereotypes of beauty and roles in society, younger women and girls can be empowered by seeing that people just like them exist in society and are also capable of considerable success.

The changing of roles in society is an important step forward in reaching gender equality. While true equality may never be reached, adjusting the gender roles of women to reflect the times is an important step in that direction. By empowering women, society moves closer towards true egalitarianism, which would permanently shift how society functions as a whole.

 

 

Reference List

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Lantagne, A. (2014). Gender Roles in Media. Retrieved from

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-lantagne/gender-roles-media_b_5326199.html

Planned Parenthood. (n.d.) What are gender roles? Retrieved from

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/sexual-orientation-gender/gender-gender-identity/what-are-gender-roles-and-stereotypes

Roderick, L. (2017). How the portrayal of women in media has changed. Retrieved from

https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/03/08/portrayal-women-media/

So the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks! Retrieved from

http://mollytreanor.blogspot.com/2013/01/these-are-some-of-1950s-sexist-adverts.html

Wood, J. (1994). Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender. Gendered

Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture. pp.231-244. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Retrieved from https://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/causes.of.gender.inequality/Readings/Wood%20-%20Gendered%20Media%20-%2094.pdf

Wonder Woman Movie Poster. Retrieved from http://gothamcityesq.com/entertainment/women-

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