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性别角色与国家的性别 Sex-Role Portrayals and the Gender of Nations Author(s): Laura M. Milner and James M. Collins Source: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 67-79 Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4189135 Accessed: 15...

性别角色与国家的性别
Sex-Role Portrayals and the Gender of Nations Author(s): Laura M. Milner and James M. Collins Source: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 67-79 Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4189135 Accessed: 15/06/2010 09:47 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mes. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. M.E. Sharpe, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Advertising. http://www.jstor.org Sex-Role Portrayals and the Gender of Nations Laura M. Milner and James M. Collins This study compares television advertisements from Japan, Russia, Sweden, and the United States are compared. Consistent with Hofstede's framework which suggests that countries may be characterized along a continuum from masculine to feminine, the authors found that television advertisements from feminine countries featured more depictions of relationships for male and female characters than did masculine countries. Expectations of fewer gender differences in feminine countries than in masculine countries and of greater depictions of productivity being found in television advertisements from masculine countries were not realized, however. Implications of these findings for the international advertiser are considered, and future directions for research are suggested. Laura M. Milner (Ph.D., Kansas State University) is Professor of Marketing in the School of Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Jamee M. Colline (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Associate Professor of Business Administration in the School of Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Acknowledgements: The authors thank Tonya Bauman, Hakan Funck, Anna Grigoreva, Sergei Ivanov, Taro Kanazawa, Oksana Khavanskaya, Virginia Lane, Jeanette ? iva, Mayumi Sato, Jonas Sonderberg, Rum i ko Tachibana, Joyce Whitehorn, Shintaro Yasuda, and James Yauney for their assistance in data collection. Gratitude to three anonymous reviewers and to Barbara B. Stern is also expressed for their insightful suggestions. Sex-role portrayal in advertisements is an extensively studied topic. Re- searchers' interest in this area results from a variety of factors, the most important of which are that marketers use gender as a primary segmenta- tion variable and that social scientists use advertisements to examine gen- der stereotyping in the media. These research efforts typically focus on female portrayals. They consistently indicate that women often are not favorably portrayed and that their roles are frequently narrowly defined (see Belkaoui and Belkaoui 1976; Busby 1975; Courtney and Lockeretz 1971; Dominick and Rauch 1972; Ferguson, Kreshel and Tinkham 1990; Hawkins and Coney 1976; Lysonski 1983; 1985; McArthur and Resco 1975; McCree, Corder and Haizlip 1974; Mosher 1976; Poe 1976; Prather and Fidell 1975; Scheibe 1979; Schneider and Schneider 1979; Sengupta 1995; Sexton and Haberman 1974; Venkatesan and Losco 1975; Whipple and Courtney 1985). Although this phenomenon is well-studied in the United States, under- standing of sex-role portrayal in an international context is limited because there are so few studies (but see Ford, et al. 1994; Gendall and Blakeley 1990; Gilly 1988; Razzouk and Harmon 1986; Robbins and Paksoy 1989; Sengupta 1995; Wiles and Tjernlund 1991; Wiles, Wiles and Tjernlund 1995). Hence, the first major goal of the current study is to show that sex-role portrayal can be an artifact of the cultures that frame the phenomena being studied. When research is expanded to embrace a different spectrum of countries, a different picture emerges. This picture indicates that when feminine values have a dominant influence on a culture, this influence is reflected in the culture's advertisements. Thus, the second m^jor objective is to show that cross-cultural sex-role portrayals may be systematically predicted. This paper begins with a review of relevant research by Geert Hofstede. His research in cross-cultural work values is increasingly utilized by mar- keters and provides a framework for the current study. Second, relevant cross-cultural sex-role research is reviewed, with a special emphasis on a study by Gilly (1988), whose methods are used in this research. Third, the methodology and results of the current study are described. Finally, impli- cations of the current study for academics and practitioners are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided. Hofstede Hofstede's Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work- Related Values (1980) represents a significant and innovative study of mana- Journal of Advertising, Volume XXIX, Number 1 Spring 2000 68 The Journal of Advertising gerial issues in a cross-cultural context. Hofstede col- lected 117,000 questionnaires from 88,000 respon- dents in 20 languages, 66 countries, and 50 occupa- tions. His analysis delineated four important dimen- sions that can be used to classify the 53 countries and regions studied: Individualism, society's preference for a group or individual orientation; Uncertainty Avoidance, a culture's tolerance for uncertainty; Power Distance, societal desire for hierarchy or egali- tarianism; and Masculinity, a sex-role dimension. Later research resulted in the addition of a fifth di- mension, Long-term Orientation (Hofstede and Bond 1988), the cultural perspective on a long-term vs. a short-term basis. The placement of countries not in- cluded in the original research such as China and Russia was subsequently estimated (Hofstede 1993). Hofstede's research represents a major advance- ment in the study of organizational theory, as indi- cated by his impact on international business research (Chandy and Williams 1994; Sondergaard 1994). Be- ginning in the 1990's, several marketing researchers recognized the potential applicability of Hofstede's dimensions on work-related values to marketing re- search problems (Albers-Miller 1996; Albers-Miller and Gelb 1996; de Mooij 1998; Lynn, Zinkhan and Harris 1993; Milner 1994; Milner and Collins 1998; Milner, Fodness and Speece 1993; Wiles, Wiles and Tjernlund 1995). For instance, Albers-Miller utilized Hofstede's dimensions to examine business periodi- cals from 11 countries and found that with the excep- tion of the Individualism category, the other three are correlated with specific advertising appeals. For example, untamed, magic and youth are appeals nega- tively correlated with Uncertainty Avoidance. When Lynn, Zinkhan and Harris utilized Hofstede's dimen- sions to examine consumer tipping in 30 countries, they found that tipping was not highly utilized in coun- tries that are low on Power Distance or on Masculinity. The current study focuses on the Masculinity di- mension. Hofstede describes the dimension in the following way: Masculinity stands for a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assert iv en ess, and mate- rial success. Its opposite, Femininity, stands for a preference for relationships, modesty, caring for the weak, and the quality of life. This fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the way in which a society allocates social (as opposed to bio- logical) roles to the sexes. Some societies strive for maximum social differen- tiation between the sexes. The norm is then that men are given the more outgoing, assertive roles and women the caring, nurturing roles.... Other societies strive for minimal social differen- tiation between the sexes. This means that some women can take assertive roles if they want but especially that some men can take relationship- oriented, modest, caring roles if they want to....The minimum-social-difTerentiation societies in com- parison with their opposite, the maximum-social- differentiation societies, will permeate their insti- tutions with a care, quality-of-life oriented men- tality. Such societies become "welfare societies" in which caring for all members, even the weakest, is an important goal for men as well as women. ...the Masculinity-Femininity dimension relates to people's self-concept: who am I and what is my task in life? (Hofstede 1984, p. 84) de Mooij (1998) notes that this dimension "...discrimi- nates between cultures particularly with respect to values related to winning, success, and status, which are much used in advertising appeals....for advertis- ing and branding, this dimension can be used to dis- tinguish important cultural differences with respect to values and motivations like achievement, accom- plishment, and success" (p. 82). What Hofstede provides is a method for describing what we call the "gender of a country." That is, both ends of his spectrum represent figuratively male coun- tries and female countries. Hofstede thus elevates the level of discourse on gender to a cultural plane. Milner and Collins (1998) suggest that gender of a nation may be superior to gender of the depicted char- acter in predicting sex-role portrayals in television advertisements. Therefore, our study proposes this dimension as likely to discriminate among countries in regard to sex role portrayal in television advertis- ing. Although some studies have examined the explicit relationship between sex-role portrayal in print adver- tisements and Hofstede's ranking, none have done so in the context of television advertising. We now turn to the application of Hofstede's research in the investiga- tion of television advertising and sex roles. Cross-cultural Sex-role Portrayal Research The literature addressing sex-role portrayal in the media is quite large, and it is extremely difficult to convey the rich substance of this work in a few short paragraphs. (See Gilly 1988, Lysonski 1985, Milner 1994, and Whipple and Courtney 1985 for reviews.) However, to provide a context for the current study, several cross-cultural sex-role studies involving Hofstede's Masculinity dimension along with Gill/s Spring 2000 69 work on advertisements are discussed. Gilly (1988) placed the issue of sex-role advertising in the fore- front of cross-cultural research in her study of sex- role portrayals on television commercials in Austra- lia, Mexico, and the United States. She anticipated that Australian and Mexican advertisements would feature more negative sex-role portrayals of women than advertisements in the United States. However, her results indicate that "Australian advertisements show somewhat fewer sex role differences and Mexi- can advertisements show slightly more sex role dif- ferences than U.S. advertisements" (p. 75). In the decade following Gilly's work, other research- ers compared sex-role portrayals in different cultures (Ford, LaTour Honeycutt and Joseph 1994; Robbins and Paksoy 1989; Sengupta 1995; Wee, Choong and Tambyah 1995; Wiles and Tjernlund 1991; Wiles, Wiles and Tjernlund 1995). Although important and interesting, this research generally suffers from what Albers-Miller (1996) claims is a problem in most cross- cultural advertising research?lack of a priori justifi- cation. That is, many studies are based on data from countries that are selected on the basis of convenience rather than theory. However, Milner, Fodness and Speece (1993) did apply Hofstede's concepts to pro- vide a post-hoc explanation for Gilly's findings by suggesting that the results are ordered as Hofstede's taxonomy would predict: Australia (#35), the United States (#36), and Mexico (#45). These nations are on the masculine end of Hofstede's spectrum, which may explain why the results among the countries Gilly studied were not dramatically different. When Milner and Collins (1998) compared Gilly's data with data from Turkey, a feminine country, they found that, in contrast to the United States, Australia and Mexico, Turkish advertisements are less likely to feature pro- ductivity themes and are more likely to feature rela- tionship themes and portray minimal differences be- tween male and female sex roles. Wiles, Wiles and Tjernlund (1995) used Hofstede's taxonomy with mixed results in their examination of sex role portrayals in magazine advertisements pub- lished in a masculine country (United States) and two feminine countries (Sweden and The Netherlands). All three countries tend to show men rather than women in working roles; however, the authors found that these differences were less often encountered in Sweden and The Netherlands than in the United States. de Mooij (1998) links Hofstede's dimensions to ad- vertisements from different countries. For instance, she points out the following: Italian and German television commercials show bonding between men or between women. In mas- culine countries, one sees the combinations of fa- ther-son or mother-daughter, while in feminine cultures one also frequently sees the combinations father-daughter and mother-son....A German commercial...shows a number of housewives cook- ing together, a scene that would not be accepted in the Netherlands, where couples are shown cook- ing or cleaning the dishes together....Claims of masculine cultures are more task-or success ori- ented, whereas claims of feminine cultures will be more affiliation- and relationship oriented. Ger- man commercials for detergents tend to argue the effectiveness of the deter gent....The actress is cast in the role of her job of being an effective house- wife, not a caring mother. In a feminine culture like the Netherlands, a more affiliation-oriented approach will be more successful, casting the woman in her role of effective mother who has a happy relationship with her children (p. 194-95). However, de Mooij's evidence is anecdotal, and in consequence, not sufficiently rigorous for advertising research. Whereas Milner and Collins (1998) simply con- trasted Turkish television data to Gilly's pre-existing data, the current study presents the first major sys- tematic examination of television advertisements from a range of countries that Hofstede designated as mas- culine and feminine. Table 1 shows the placement of these countries on Hofstede's masculinity index. The selection of these countries clearly is not hap- hazard, for both endpoints on Hofstede's ordering are included. The United States and Russia provide addi- tional representative observations that are nicely spaced between the two extremes. Thus, two mascu- line countries and two feminine countries are utilized in the current study. The efficacy of Hofstede's rankings is corroborated by a number of classic measures of female welfare: legislative representation, employment rates, sala- ries and social supports such as daycare availability. For instance, in Sweden, 33% of parliamentary seats are held by women (MacFarquhar 1994). In the 70s, paid parental leave was introduced as well as child care expansion (Peterson 1993). Labor market par- ticipation is 85% for Swedish women with children under 6 (Gustafsson and Bruyn-Hundt 1991). Svensson (1995) notes that as of the late 1980s, Swed- ish women earned as much as 90% as men. In Russia until the late 1980s, there was a quota of 35% female representation in the Duma. However, when the So- viet Union collapsed, this external constraint van- ished, and women's representation has fallen to 9.8% of the total legislative number (Buckley 1997). Over 50% of the Russian work force is female, and there 70 The Journal of Advertising Table 1 Hofstede's Masculinity Index Rankings of Nations Studied Country Hofstede's Masculinity Ranking1 Sweden 1 Russia Lower Third2 United States 36 Japan 50 1 The higher the ranking, the more masculine the country. 2 Russia's placement was estimated by Hofstede in 1993; otherwise they are ranked as Hofstede ranked them in 1984. exists a policy of a three-year guaranteed maternity leave after the birth of a baby (Puffer 1993). During the Soviet era, women's pay averaged 70% of men's, though now it averages only 40% (Linz 1996). In Japan, only 6.7% of legislators are women. Japa- nese women earn 57% of men's earnings (The Econo- mist 1996). do Rossario (1992) notes that women's employment in Japan follows an "M" curve with al- most 80% of women between ages 20 and 24 working but by ages 30-34, only 50% hold jobs. After the chil- dren grow up, women frequently rejoin the work force. In 1991, the Japanese Diet passed the Child-Care Leave law saying that companies should provide par- ents up to one year of leave to care for new borns, but apparently this was promoted because of labor short- ages and was thus designed to make working more attractive to Japanese women rather than a concern for civil rights (do Rossario 1992). The Economist (1996) notes that government is now supporting child care. In the U.S., 11% of lawmakers are women (The Economist 1996; Congressional Directory 1997). Ac- cording to Sepielli and Palumbo (1994), 59% of adult women worked but Bellafante (1998) notes that Ameri- can women earn only 76% of what men make. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 mandates that in companies of 50 employees or more, an unpaid leave with health care coverage for an absence of up to 3 months in a 12 month period must be granted upon request by either a male employee or a female employee to care for family (Mathis and Jackson 1997). These indices of female well-being show that there is no place where women are better off than men; how- ever in the feminine countries of Russia and Sweden women have, in a relative sense, more opportunity and advantages than their counterparts in Japan and the United States. Hypotheses The first essential element in Hofstede's masculin- ity dimension is the preference for masculine or femi- nine values in a culture; for whereas masculine soci- eties strive for material success, achievement and productivity, feminine societies value relationships. Research (Albers-Miller 1996; Albers-Miller and Gelb 1996; Milner and Collins 1998) shows that themes related to these values appear in print and television advertisements. Thus, commercials in feminine coun- tries are predicted to feature more relationship themes for male and female characters whereas television advertisements in masculine countries are predicted to feature productivity themes prominently for both sexes. This leads to two hypotheses: HI: Characters are more likely to be depicted in relationships with others in feminine countries than in masculine countries, and there will be a rank ordering with Swe- den featuring more characters in relation- ships than Russia, which will feature more characters in relationships than the United States,
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