Relating Hofstede's masculinity dimension to gender role portrayals in advertising

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine cross‐cultural differences in gender role portrayals in web ads in Korea and the USA on the basis of Hofstede's masculinity dimension.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative content analysis was employed to obtain a numerically‐based summary of different themes and roles portrayed by women and men in 400 web ads.FindingsA greater percentage of Korean ads featured characters in relationship themes, featured women as a main character, and portrayed them in family and recreational roles. To a large extent, the results validate the use of Hofstede's taxonomy, supporting the application of “masculinity” framework into the determination of appropriate advertising appeals‐related to gender roles.Practical implicationsInternational advertisers who are planning a global campaign for their gender‐related consumer products can benefit by locating the target country's position on Hofstede's masculinity index and using it as a guideline for creating visual images of main characters in the ads.Originality/valueThis study adds a new contribution to an international account of web advertising in maintaining a comprehensive understanding of contemporary gender role portrayals. It could benefit international advertisers with both practical and theoretical implications, for no systematic studies have ever touched the gender‐role issue with web advertising yet.

Content Analysis—A Methodological Primer for Gender Research

“…For example, An and Kim (2007) acknowledged the lack of a perfect sampling frame for their study of web advertising in the U.S. and Korea. Therefore, they chose to sample from lists of top brands prepared by BusinessWeek (for the U.S. sample) and the Korean Culture and Information (KCI) database (for the Korean sample).…”

“…Some analyses explicitly test hypotheses derived from theory, as in a pair of studies that applied Hofstede's (1980) cultural dimension of masculinity to compare advertising content between nations high and low in cultural-level masculinity (An and Kim 2007;Odekerken-Schroder et al 2002). Here, the independent variable was a nation's level of masculinity, defined by Hofstede as the degree of gender role differentiation, and dependent variables included a range of gender role portrayals (e.g., female dress shown as demure or seductive; working vs. nonworking role; type of nonworking role (family/recreational/decorative) portrayed by women).…”

“…Studies have compared male and female behaviors and attributes for domestic and international content in media ranging from film and television (e.g., Fernandez-Villanueva et al 2009;Smith 1999) to children's books (Anderson and Hamilton 2005), men's magazines (Ricciardelli et al 2010), video games (e.g., Martins et al 2009), radio talk shows (Brinson and Winn 1997), and even postage stamps (Ogletree et al 1994) and birth congratulatory cards (Bridges 1993). Research on gender images in advertising seems to be particularly popular in recent years (An and Kim 2007;Baker 2005;Fullerton and Kendrick 2000;Ibroscheva 2007;Lindner 2004;Messineo 2008;Odekerken-Schroder et al 2002;Uray and Burnaz 2003;Valls-Fernandez and Martinez-Vicente 2007).…”

Gender Role Portrayals in Brazilian and Portuguese Television Advertisements

“…As predicted, in Turkey were found fewer differences in gender role portrayals than in Mexico, United States and Australia. An and Kim [8] point out that "previous literature provides some empirical evidence for the influence of masculinity/femininity value orientation on the portrayals of gender roles in advertising across cultures".…”

Myanmar’s Cultural Dimensions: Exploring the Relationship among the Social Identity, Attitudes towards Globalisation and Preferences of Myanmar Consumers in Yangon

“…Through a content analysis of gender role portrayals in 400 web advertisements in the United States and South Korea, An and Kim (2007) found "a greater percentage of Korean ads featured characters in relationship themes, featured women as a main character, and portrayed them in family and recreational roles" (181). In terms of international marketing, these results validate the use of Hofstede's masculine vs. feminine cultural dimension when determining appropriate advertising appeal related to gender roles.…”