For many years, the marketing industry has been criticized for portraying an unrealistic image of women. Recent research among women in the UK states that women think their representation in advertising has gotten better over the last five years. With 41% saying that female representation in advertising has become a little more positive over the past five years, and 7% saying the representation has become much more positive. In addition, they claim to have noticed a shift in representation of females from ethnic minority backgrounds in advertising: almost two-thirds (65%) say they’ve noticed an increase over the past five years, with only 3% saying they’ve seen less representation.
Hold on, the majority of the respondents mention a little more improvement in representation is still needed, which leaves plenty of opportunities for brands to jump on this brandwagon (if they haven’t already do so). As attitudes towards gender equality are shifting and traditional gender roles are evolving, the way women want to be represented will change accordingly. It’s important to keep track of what’s going on in the lives of todays’ women to know where you, as a brand, can add value. But the way is getting paved, let’s continue the good work! And let’s start prepping for the masculinity shift too.
