Women 's Portrayal Of Women

In the beginning of television series with childless couples, the wife was the one that stayed at home, cleaned, cooked, and did the laundry. The husband was the one that made the money by going to work. Television series always portrayed women as the weaker characters. “Women in the early 1950s family were weak, secondary characters, and as such were usually dominated by their husbands and their own conceptions of marriage” (Hastings, 1974). Certain episodes of

In the United States, study after study continues to show that women have fewer opportunities to advance in the workplace than men. These disadvantages are a result of society’s views of women in leadership positions and how women may view themselves in these roles. Women have been making progress in terms of equality in pay and job positions, but significant gaps remain. Women who strive to be promoted into higher levels of responsibility in their companies often meet resistance that prevents them from achieving the goal of a senior or executive level of management. This barrier is referred to as the “glass ceiling” and it is a controversial issue in our country today. The glass ceiling called this because women are able to see the higher level positions, but can reach them because of an intangible barrier. One can look at the Fortune 500 companies, which are the most successful companies in the U.S. in terms of revenue to see how few women are in leadership positions. Clearly, women are significantly underrepresented in these companies, as less than 5 percent of these companies have female chief executive officers (CEO) today (Dockterman 105). Providing the opportunity for women to move into management positions, like CEOs, would bring a unique talent and a new perspective on how the company can operate to perform better (Buckalew 147). The “glass ceiling” is a real obstacle that creates an intangible barrier that puts women at a disadvantage in advancing in a company.

Throughout history women have been depicted and treated as an inferior to the male all aspects of life. It is without debate, that to this day, like many other countries, the United States of America is a patriarchal society, valuing men over women and using various tactics to oppress women by constructing gender roles. These gender roles are thrust upon people before birth and are reinforced through society within the media. This object here is to provide an overview of the portrayal of women in magazines from the late 1800’s to present day. As the years progress, so do the number of women’s rights. While women are still fighting for equality, the birth of feminism has done much to close the gender gap. Mass media, magazines in particular, facilitated in fostering a stereotype which became the standard, and continues to be, used by society. A society that continues to oppress and suppress its women. However, as the mass media has the capability to demystify, or to bring down and/or destroy a particular group or person, they also have the ability of mystification, or emulating a person or group into society’s graces. I plan to review how women were portrayed since this country’s inception with an analysis of how gender equality might be possible today.

Over the years the United States has grown to love each other as the way people are, especially women. Women have proven to be even stronger than what people expected them to be. You can see the strength, the courage, and the confidence they have gained. It has been discussed many years that women shouldn’t be allowed in combat for not being “strong enough”. Men have shown that they can be “manly” enough to do women or girl things, so why can’t women do “manly” things? If women feel like they can handle being on the frontline then we should respect their decision and allow them to go.

Media is one the most influential and powerful things we have today. Media is use a source of entertainment and even more important as a source of information. For most us media is a constant presence in our lives. Media power is so big that it can influence the way that we behave the way that we think, and that is when media can become extremely problematic. The way the media portrays women can be extremely damaging psychological and the physical well being of women.

What once started as every day, regular people appearing on television shows have now morphed into celebrities and want to be celebrities competing for attention and doing almost anything to receive it on primetime television. The genre of television, which was once jumpstarted by the appeal of relatable people, who could be the viewers’ next door neighbors, being featured has since disappeared and been replaced by a monstrosity that does not accurately portray reality and often stereotypes people (Huff). One specific group that has been targeted by what reality television has morphed into is women. The new version of reality television is specifically adequate at encouraging gender culture, the set of behaviors or practices associated with masculinity and femininity (Huff). Reality television enforces gender roles and negatively impacts feminism in today’s society. Reality television sexualizes women, portrays them as dependent on and less superior to men, and exemplifies them as dramatic, catty, and often only as homemakers. The portrayal and stereotyping of women on reality television is demoralizing and can be described as “the contemporary backlash against feminism” (“Reality TV”). These false and demeaning stereotypes are prevailed in all types of reality television shows, making their impact extensive, considering Americans spend one-third of their spare time watching television and of that time sixty-seven percent is spent watching reality television (“Reality

For years, society has encouraged women to engage in labor force participation and to create a career outside of the household. The feminist movement discouraged women to continue their roles as caregiver because it was considered a low status position in society. To be considered successful in life, one needed to achieve a high paying career and as everyone knows the job of mom is free of charge. The movement also portrayed the traditional family structure as a way to keep women confined to their homes, rather than a structure built with the main idea of women having complete focus on the most valuable job of their lives “Motherhood.” The feminist movement was to fight for women’s rights but at the same time the movement forced mothers to make a difficult decision of either entering the workforce and leaving children in daycare or continuing the homemaker’s lifestyle. After many years of liberation for women in the workforce there has been a decline in the number of women who continue a career after childbirth. Contrary to the feminist belief, mothers are finding a greater sense of fulfillment staying at home to raise children rather than focusing on a career. Data taken from the U.S Census Bureau in 2005 shows the amount of stay at home mothers is about 5.6 million (Zamora). More women are replacing the 1950s “housewife” stigmas and renouncing their roles in society with a new high status of “domestic engineers.” Although mothers who chose to stay at home might have a harder time reentering the workforce and many think it will make families struggle financially, more mothers of young children should stay at home instead of returning to the workforce. This will allow mothers to have more efficacious time to spend with children. Along with the unaffordable cost of quality child care causing

Television could create the wrong perceptions and stereotypes about genders, but it could also be used to educate people about feminism, especially the newest form of feminism, the Third Wave Feminism, through the influential pop culture. One of the most influential feminist series would be Sex and the City, which despite of its extravagant and unrealistic lifestyle, has shown what feminist can do and educated viewers of the possibility what women could be should they opt for untraditional options in

Throughout history, women have been seen as incompetent compared to men, whether it is in the aspect of running a family, maintaining a job, or, simply put, completing any task of importance. It is no surprise that works of art depict the same misogynistic attitude. Such works include, but are not limited to, stories, comics, and television shows. Not only does this discrimination hinder on gender, but also race, socio-economic class, ethnicity, religion, and any other factors that deem one different from the “norm”. Most works state men as the competent being, but what they really mean is white men and, even more specifically, white men with money, so discrimination has been brought upon white females and both black males and females.

In many aspects of society, there are often unfair and inaccurate stereotypes on full display of certain people who belong to various demographics. Media, or more specifically TV shows, are no different in this regard. For example, men are painted out to be leaders, unemotional, and sometimes aggressive individuals who should be admired. Women tend to be shown as secretive and manipulative in order to get their way in a men driven society. It is also noteworthy that several homosexual characters are depicted as attempting to hide the fact that they are homosexual, and as feeble minded, even if the person in question is a male. While many times these stereotypes are untrue of the entire demographic being portrayed, people who attract to popular

The character trope of an independent woman in television has changed dramatically over the past 60 years. Women played minor roles and were never seen as a main character. They were used as props and were always seen with their husband and perfect children. The woman would play the perfect housewife and would make their man look good. Between 1970’s and now television has shown a wide variety of independent women such as single mothers, older successful divorced characters and happily married successful working mums. Television shows now depict relatable everyday female characters not picture perfect Stepford Wife types. This report will discuss and compare the past 50 years of independent women in television, from

Television is widely considered a more racial and gender friendly medium of popular culture. However, prime time television is not nearly as progressive as people believe, and is still a male dominated industry. In a report done by the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg, 11,306 speaking characters were evaluated and 66.5% were male, while 33.5% were female [1]. Moreover, 41.6% of females in television took leading or

The first video we watched talked about different areas in the media where women are discriminated. Women have the least protagonist roles in Hollywood movies and make only 7% of the movie director in Hollywood. When a woman is the protagonist in a movie, her role is usually about getting a man or being a sexual character. In TV commercials or magazines, women are presented as sexual objected and as easy prey. Many commercials try to show young teenager girls dressing very sexual

Many times women are discouraged from doing a “man’s” job. There is still a very strong distinction between a man’s job and a woman’s job. Women who try and enter a man’s job face discrimination due to old stereotypes. Women who are hired in such fields often resign because of the macho environment they have to endure. This narrows women’s opportunities of entering higher paying jobs and they instead end up in low paying jobs such as child care, fast food, and housekeepers. According to the National Women’s Law Center, “women are nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers and two-thirds of tipped workers” (www.nwlc.org). The lower paying jobs often have irregular hours which make it difficult for mothers, especially single mothers, as it makes it difficult for them to rearrange for a babysitter. Women get punished by reducing their hours when they continue to call in or be late due to their irregular working hours and trying to find child care. Data suggests that “reduction in work hours can be accounted for […] the fact that women provide more unpaid care in the home, at least in homes with children” (www.americanprogress.org). Many argue that if women cannot handle such conditions, they do not belong or deserve to work in that field. At the same time, women should not have to endure such hostile environments or inequalities based on their

Women are stereotyped very often. Sourced from Healthguidance.org, women are supposed to be nurses, not doctors, and have ‘clean jobs'. They are not supposed to be strong, or go to college. Women are supposed to stay at home, cooking, cleaning and doing other housework. They are not supposed to play sports or be politicians. They are supposed to be quiet and submissive while raising children. They do not have technical skills, are supposed to be damsels in distress, be pretty, and be looked at. Women are supposed to be good at and love singing and dancing, not play video games, be flirts, and never be in charge. These are both made as jokes that tell people it is okay to make fun of women, and the words that are oppressing women and holding