Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................... 2
1. Gender Differences ...................................................................................... 2
1.1 The Biosocial Approach ............................................................................ 4
1.1.2 Social Learning Theory - Gender Development ..................................... 6
1.1.2.1 Gender Roles ........................................................................................ 8
1.1.2.2 Feminist Theory ................................................................................... 8
1.1.2.2.a Gender Inequality ....................................................................... 9
1.1.2.2.b Gender Oppression ..................................................................... 9
1.1.2.2.c Structural Oppression............................................................... 10
1.2 Media Representations of Gender Roles. ................................................. 10
Summary;....................................................................................................... 12
References .................................................................................................... 13

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2.1 Marketing Implcatons & Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

INTRODUCTION

In the last fifty years, the world we live in has changed dramatically.
Women have gained greater financial independence and responsibility.
This is due in part to the fact that more women graduate college each
year than men. The trend toward larger numbers of women graduating
started with the baby boom generation (Holland, 2012). The baby
boom generation has created a group of women who are well educated,
financially independent, and capable of making their own investment
and purchasing decisions. Women currently account for eighty-five
percent of consumer purchases in the United States (Sam et. al, 2010).
Women often decide large and small purchases alike as they have
taken over the role of the primary breadwinner of the family. In
Prudential Financials biennial study, the majority of women today
are financially responsible for generating their own and their families
income (Fearnow, 2012). However, only three percent of creative
directors for advertising agencies are women (Holland, 2012).
Companies need to adapt to the changing market place in order to not
only survive but also thrive as a business. The need for companies to
adapt to the current market is not a new phenomenon. It has always
been a challenge to adapt to market changes, but adapting to a radical
shift in market segmentation can be even more difficult.

1. GENDER DIFFERENCES

Men and women traditionally approach purchasing decisions very

differently. The difference is created because men and women want
different things out of a buying decision. Women look to satisfy long
term needs and wants while men are shorter sighted and look at
satisfying immediate or short term needs and wants (Baker, 2012).
Traditionally the purchasing decision is to move from customer

awareness to interest in purchasing and finally narrowing of options.

Marketers who try and engage customers everywhere they go
constantly inundate the modern consumer. For example, on an average
drive to work a potential customer is likely to encounter radio ads,
billboards, sign spinners, and store signs. These same consumers are
likely to have checked a news website and accessed email or Facebook
encountering banner adds all before work. This type of marketing
overload has caused a shift in the process used to make purchasing
decisions. According to a recent survey discussed in the Harvard
Business Review blog, only about a third of consumers use the
traditional approach to the purchasing decision. Another third use what
they refer to as the open-ended path. These are consumers that
constantly research differences in products and change their mind
about which brand to buy. The final third have abandoned the search
process entirely and focus on one brand exclusively (Anderson, 2012).
Women prefer to shop at a relaxed pace when they actually go to a
store. They want to examine merchandise, compare items and prices,
ask questions, try things on, and then make purchases. There is a pride
in the ability to be prudent and get the best products for the best prices
(Levit). This is a market that stores like T.J. Maxx have honed in on.
They make women feel accomplished for getting the best deal. T.J.
Maxx has used the accomplishment and the need to share with women
in their latest marketing campaign, Maxx Moments (Moore, 2008).
Narratives and stories such as the Maxx Moments appeal to womens
emotions. Women act on emotion in purchasing decisions (Baker,
2012). Companies that help others by supporting a cause also appeal to
women. Social responsibility in companies has grown to be an integral
part of the marketing strategy, particularly with women. In the age of
social media, portraying a companys affiliation is easier than ever.
Brands like Yoplait, General Mills, and Campbells have all done this
extremely well. Yoplaits tops to support breast cancer has been very

effective. When done right, cause marketing can turn into brand
loyalty and increased profits from both genders (Shayon, 2011).
How do men and women form opinions? According to decisionmaking confidence, women use other peoples opinions to help make
their own decision. Men use other peoples decisions to help them
form their own opinion. They go on to explain that women like to
know why other women made the choices they made, while men like
to know that other men are happy having made the same decision as
them (Baker, 2012).

1.1 THE BIOSOCIAL APPROACH

Biosocial theory argues that gender cannot be explained by biology

alone. Instead it sees gender as determined by both biological and social
factors working in conjunction with each other. Money and Ehrhardt
argued that when a new-born baby is labelled as male or female, this
labelling has consequences for how the child will be perceived and
treated. Various research studies presented babies live or on videotape
and found that participants labelled babies behaviour differently and in
gender-stereotyped ways, according to whether they were told that a
baby was a girl or a boy. This suggests that adults respond to the childs
gender.

Money and Ehrhardt believed that the differential treatment of babies

depending on their sex is what determines a childs gender identity and
from this emerges its gender role identity and sexual orientation. As a
result they predicted that if a genetic male is labelled as a girl and
treated as a girl before the age of two to three, he would acquire the
gender identity of a girl. Thus the key to gender development,
according to Money and Ehrhardt, is the label that a person is given
and their sex of rearing, not their biological sex.

The biosocial approach is supported by Smith and Lloyd who dressed

babies in non-specific gender clothes, then labelled them with a boys
or a girls name. They found that people would play with them
differently according to their gender label, with boys being treated in
a more physical manner. This supports the biosocial theory as it shows
that when a baby is labelled as male or female, they are perceived
differently.

The biosocial approach is also supported by Bradley et al who reported

on a case of a biological male who, after accidental damage to his
penis, had reassignment surgery and was raised as a female. This
individual exhibited some male behaviours as a child but preferred
female company and as a result, perceived himself as female and was
happy that way. This suggests that sex rearing is more important that
biology as suggested by Money and Ehrhardt.

Another piece of research support come from Schaffer who showed a

sample of over 200 male and female adults a video of a 9 month old
baby named either David or Dana, playing with toys and responding to
stimuli. The adults labelled the babies behaviour and emotions in
gender-typical ways according to whether they believed it to be a boy
or a girl. This supports the biosocial approach as it shows that adults
treat babies differently depending on their biological sex label.

However, the biosocial approach is contradicted by Reiner and

Gearhart who reported on 16 biological males who were born without
a penis and given gender reassignment surgery and raised as females.
They found that all exhibited male tendencies and ten decided to
become male again by the age of 16. This suggests that biological
factors are more important than social upbringing in gender
development.

Another contradicting piece of research is by Luxen who reports that a

number of research has shown that very young children and even
animals display sex differences in their toy preferences. This
contradicts the biosocial approach as it shows that even before the ages
of 2-3 years, children and animals show sex differences in their
behaviour suggesting that biological factors are more important.

A strength of the approach is that in terms of real world application,

biosocial theory is more valuble than biological explanations as it does
not imply that sex differences are innate and cannot be changed by
altering social context. Biosocial theory is valuable because it supports
the feminist view that changes in social roles will lead to changes in
psychological differences between men and women. In addition, it has
high ethical appeal because sex roles are perceived as social and
therefore more flexible.

However a limitation is that Money and Ehrhardt collected the

majority of supporting research from abnormal individuals which
makes it difficult to generalise to the whole population as not everyone
has hormonal imbalances. Also, research on abnormal individuals
raises ethical concerns because such participants are especially
vulnerable to distress and psychological harm. This was evident in the
David Reimer case study.

1.1.2 SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY - GENDER DEVELOPMENT

Social learning theory regards gender identity and role as a set of

behaviours that are learned from the environment. The main way that
gender behaviours are learned is through the process of observational
learning. Children observe the people around them behaving in various
ways, some of which relate to gender. They pay attention to some of
these people (models) and encode their behaviour. At a later time they

may imitate the behaviour they have observed. They may do this
regardless of whether the behaviour is gender appropriate or not but
there are a number of processes that make it more likely that a child
will reproduce the behaviour that its society deems appropriate for its
sex.
First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it
perceives as similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate
behaviour modeled by people the same sex as it is. Second, the people
around the child will respond to the behaviour it imitates with either
reinforcement or punishment. It is likely that the child will be
reinforced for acting in gender appropriate ways and punished or
ignored for gender inappropriate behaviour. Third, the child will also
have observed the consequences of other peoples behaviour and will
be motivated to imitate the behaviour it has seen reinforced and avoid
imitating the behaviour it has seen punished (vicarious reinforcement
and punishment).

After that, social learning theorists identified specific sex-typed

behaviors (Mischel, 1970). A behavior is sex-typed when it is more
expected and therefore seen as appropriate when performed by one
sex, but less expected and therefore seen as inappropriate when
performed by the other sex. Making a list of sex-typed behaviors
results in the articulation of a gender or sex role, which weve already
discussed, so sex-typed behaviors are also similar to the concept of
gender norms. The idea of sex-typed behaviors adds the idea, not
necessarily contained in the idea of gender norms, that we very
purposefully categorize behaviors as appropriate to one sex but not the
other. Gender socialization works, according to social learning
theorists, by rewarding children for engaging in sex-typed behavior
that is consistent with their assigned sex category. The classic example
is crying; while a little girl may be soothed when she cries, a little boy
may be told that boys dont cry. Crying is a sex-typed behavior, seen
as OK for girls and therefore not a punishable behavior. But because it

is not seen as an appropriate behavior for boys, the little boy may be
punished or corrected for his crying behavior.

1.1.2.1 GENDER ROLES

Gender role attitudes is a complex construct, and it is based on the
gender role concept. Gender role refers to culturally-derived activities
related with the characteristics of masculinity and femininity that an
individual may adapt, and gender role attitudes refers to individuals
beliefs about their social roles and responsibilities that are appropriate
and socially acceptable for men and women (Spence and Sawin 1985).
The attitudinal differences may range from an egalitarian view
(regardless of sex, any gender roles are appropriate for both men and
women) to a more traditional view (there are different gender roles for
men and women). Gender role and gender role attitudes are not
necessarily congruent with each other. For example, a woman who
reports favorable egalitarian attitudes toward homework may engage
some traditional feminine gender roles at the same time (Deaux 1985;
Fischer and Arnold 1994, Palan 2001).

1.1.2.2 FEMINIST THEORY

Feminist theory is one of the major contemporary sociological theories,
which analyzes the status of women and men in society with the
purpose of using that knowledge to better women's lives. Feminist
theorists have also started to question the differences between women,
including how race, class, ethnicity, and age intersect with gender.
Feminist theory is most concerned with giving a voice to women and
highlighting the various ways women have contributed to society.

1.1.2.2.A GENDER INEQUALITY

Gender-inequality theories recognize that women's location in, and
experience of, social situations are not only different but also unequal
to men's. Liberal feminists argue that women have the same capacity
as men for moral reasoning and agency, but that patriarchy,
particularly the sexist patterning of the division of labor, has
historically denied women the opportunity to express and practice this
reasoning. Women have been isolated to the private sphere of the
household and, thus, left without a voice in the public sphere. Even
after women enter the public sphere, they are still expected to manage
the private sphere and take care of household duties and child rearing.
Liberal feminists point out that marriage is a site of gender inequality
and that women do not benefit from being married as men do. Indeed,
married women have higher levels of stress than unmarried women and
married men. According to liberal feminists, the sexual division of
labor in both the public and private spheres needs to be altered in order
for women to achieve equality.
1.1.2.2.B GENDER OPPRESSION
Theories of gender oppression go further than theories of gender
difference and gender inequality by arguing that not only are women
different from or unequal to men, but that they are actively oppressed,
subordinated, and even abused by men. Power is the key variable in the
two main theories of gender oppression: psychoanalytic feminism and
radical feminism. Psychoanalytic feminists attempt to explain power
relations between men and women by reformulating Freud's theories of
the subconscious and unconscious, human emotions, and childhood
development. They feel that conscious calculation cannot fully explain
the production and reproduction of patriarchy. Radical feminists argue
that being a woman is a positive thing in and of itself, but that this is
not acknowledged in patriarchal societies where women are oppressed.

They identify physical violence as being at the base of patriarchy, but

they think that patriarchy can be defeated if women recognize their
own value and strength, establish a sisterhood of trust with other
women, confront oppression critically, and form female separatist
networks in the private and public spheres.
1.1.2.2.C STRUCTURAL OPPRESSION
Structural oppression theories posit that women's oppression and
inequality are a result of capitalism, patriarchy, and racism. Socialist
feminists agree with Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels that the working
class is exploited as a consequence of the capitalist mode of
production, but they seek to extend this exploitation not just to class
but also to gender. Intersectionality theorists seek to explain oppression
and inequality across a variety of variables, including class, gender,
race, ethnicity, and age. They make the important insight that not all
women experience oppression in the same way. White women and
black women, for example, face different forms of discrimination in
the workplace. Thus, different groups of women come to view the
world through a shared standpoint of "heterogeneous commonality."

1.2 MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER ROLES.

Children are continually exposed to models of gender-linked behavior
in readers, storybooks, video games and in representations of society
on the television screen of every household .
. Males are generally portrayed as directive, venturesome,
enterprising, and pursuing engaging occupations and recreational
activities. In contrast, women are usually shown as acting in
dependent, unambitious and emotional ways. These stereotypic
portrayals of gender roles are not confined to North America. Similar
stereotyping of gender roles has been reported in the televised fare of

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. Male and female televised characters are also portrayed

as differing in agentic capabilities. Men are more likely to be shown
exercising control over events, whereas women tend to be more at the
mercy of others, especially in coercive relationships which populate
the prime time fare .
The exaggerated gender stereotyping extends to the portrayal of
occupational roles in the televised world. Men are shown pursuing
careers often of high status, whereas women are largely confined to
domestic roles or employed in low status jobs. For both
sexes, these occupational representations neither fit the common
vocations of most men nor the heavy involvement of women in the
workplace in real life . In the modern
computerized workplace, men appear as managers and experts,
whereas women appear as clerical workers or as merely attractive
attendants in computer work stations.

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Summary

References