The portrayal of women in the Kenyan magazines advertisements

Abstract

Women have been portrayed in advertising in stereotypical roles for years. Typical stereotypes include the nurturing mother or the alluring seductress. Since the social climate and the roles of females have evolved through the years, the appropriate portrayal of women in today‟s media has become debatable. Findings from previous advertising research studies indicate that women are generally not depicted in powerful roles. This may limit the perceptions of women as it does not reflect their abilities and positions of power that they hold in real life. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the roles portrayed by women in magazine advertisements in Kenya. Data was collected from full-page and double-page advertisements appearing in two consumer magazines. The research method that was adopted is content analysis, which focused on the visual elements in advertisements - particularly the female model. The most prevalent role portrayal and the less prevalent portrayals in magazine advertisements was identified in the study. From the “other” portrayals, the study also identified new roles that had not been specifically identified in previous studies.