Advertising, Marketing & Stereotypes

Women make over 80 percent of purchasing decisions in the U.S. and are primary consumers of a wide spectrum of products and services, but they are significantly underrepresented in the advertising and marketing fields. The advertising sector is overwhelmingly male-dominated and managers and account executives continue to rely on sexualized and objectified images in their marketing. Such campaigns can be harmful to women and girls in reinforcing stereotypes about consumer preferences and gender roles. Marketing to “tweens” (ages 8-12) and teens has added new psychological and economic pressures on girls to conform to unrealistic standards and increase consumption.

Study: Correlation Between Wal-Mart Stores and Hate Groups

Teaser:

The Christian Post reports on a Penn State study that finds a correlation between the number of Wal-Mart stores and the number of hate groups in a given area, and on the reaction to the study by Concerned Women for America.

Editorial:

From the Christian Post:

The president and CEO of a national women's organization expressed her outrage this week over a study from Penn State University which indicates that the existence of hate groups in a particular county is correlated to the number of Wal-Mart stores.

Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, expressed her anger with the study in an article titled "Elitism of the Left," which appeared on her organization's website on Monday.

"Penn State must have had to do amazing mathematical gymnastics to correlate that the hard-working families who shop at Wal-Mart are members of hate groups," wrote Nance. "But that's the trouble with leftist elites. They hold fast to their egotism and preconceived notions, dismissing everyone who opposes their ideologies as ignorant and bigoted."

The study, titled "Social Capital, Religion, Wal-Mart, and Hate Groups in America," appeared in the April edition of Social Science Quarterly and was conducted by Stephan J. Goetz of Penn State University, Anil Rupasingha of New Mexico State University and Scott Loveridge of Michigan State. The hate group statistics used in the study came from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Mongtomery, Ala.-based civil rights organization.

Goetz, a professor of agricultural and regional economics, told The Christian Post on Thursday that Nance was wrong about the study in that it doesn't associate any particular demographic with hate groups.

[...]

Source:

Christian Post

URL:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/study-correlation-between-wal-mart-stores-and-hate-groups-74429/

Date:

May 7, 2012

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IPOs Are Still A Man’s Game, Study Of MBA Students Says

Teaser:

The Wall Street Journal reports on an experiment conducted recently at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business that reveals that "those firms led by women…were expected to have less share-price appreciation, and when asked to invest, respondents would choose to invest less,”

Editorial:

From The Wall Street Journal:

More and more women over the last decade have climbed the corporate ladder into top management, but if they’re leading a company that’s trying to go public, they’re more likely to run into trouble than men.

Female chief executives are perceived as less capable than males, according to an experiment conducted recently at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, and the companies that women lead are seen as less attractive investments.

“The big result of this study is that those firms led by women…were expected to have less share-price appreciation, and when asked to invest, respondents would choose to invest less,” said Assistant Professor Lyda Bigelow.

The negative feelings did not extend to companies with women in high levels of management, she added—just to the ones where women were chief executives.

[..]

A copy of the study, which has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Management, is here.

Source:

The Wall Street Journal

URL:

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2012/05/03/ipos-are-still-a-man%E2%80%99s-game-study-says/?mod=google_news_blog

Date:

May 4, 2012

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Understanding the Female Economy: The Role of Gender in Financial Decision Making and Succession Planning for the Next Generation

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 11:08am

The Barclays Female Client Group, now in its second year, has launched a White Paper entitled: Understanding the Female Economy: The Role of Gender in Financial Decision Making and Succession Planning for the Next Generation. The findings show important distinctions into how men and women approach financial decisions differently and is the only research of its kind in the market.

URL:

http://www.barclayswealth.com/about-us/sponsorship/uk/understanding_female_economy.htm

Obesity affects job prospects for women, study finds

Teaser:

An Australian study finds that obese women are more likely to be discriminated against when applying for jobs and receive lower starting salaries than their non-overweight colleagues,

Editorial:

From EurekAlert:

The study, led by The University of Manchester and Monash University, Melbourne, and published in the International Journal of Obesity, examined whether a recently developed measure of anti-fat prejudice, the universal measure of bias (UMB), predicted actual obesity job discrimination. The researchers also assessed whether people's insecurity with their own bodies (body image) and conservative personalities such as, authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation were related to obesity discrimination, as they are related to homophobia and racism.

Psychologist and lead researcher Dr Kerry O'Brien said the nature of the study was initially concealed from the participants to avoid biased results, and simply advertised as a study on whether some people are better at personnel selection than others.

[...]

Source:

EurekAlert

URL:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/uom-oaj043012.php

Date:

May 1, 2012

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In Our Best Interest: Women, Financial Literacy and Credit Card Behavior

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 10:21am

Prepared by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, this study finds that women with low levels of financial literacy were more likely to engage in costly credit card behaviors than men with low financial literacy. The findings suggest that increasing financial literacy can improve credit card management and reduce or eliminate gender-based differences in credit card behavior (released April 2012). The study is based on data from the 2009 National Financial Capability Study.

In Our Best Interest: Women, Financial Literacy and Credit Card Behavior (PDF 216 KB)

URL:

http://www.finrafoundation.org/web/groups/foundation/@foundation/documents/foundation/p125971.pdf

Black Women Leaders are Expected to be Assertive

Teaser:

A new study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that black women are expected to act assertively in the workplace.

Editorial:

From PsychCentral:

Researchers say this behavior is also condoned for white men, while black men and white women are often penalized for being too forceful.

The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Researchers determined that rather than being viewed as a combination of black men and white women, aggressive black women are accepted in work settings.

“Traditionally, women have been assigned to a more subordinate role,” said Robert W. Livingston of Northwestern University, who co-wrote the new study with Ashleigh Shelby Rosette of Duke University and Ella F. Washington of Northwestern.

Rosette explained that according to prevailing cultural norms, men are expected to occupy dominant roles, while women are typically prescribed to more communal roles.

Historical research has shown that when people think about a prototypical leader, they tend to think about a white man. If women behave in a way that is at odds with these prototypical roles – more dominant and less communal, for example – they will be perceived in a negative light.

[...]

Source:

PsychCentral

URL:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/04/20/black-women-leaders-are-expected-to-be-assertive/37625.html

Date:

April 20, 2012

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From beauty pageants to college sports, transgender people break barriers

Teaser:

Jenna Talackova, who was was born a man but began the process of becoming a woman at age 14 with hormone treatments and then had surgery at the age of 19, want to be Miss Universe.

Editorial:

From CNN:

The Miss Universe Pageant is owned by Donald Trump who, after much attention, changed his mind and said Talackova could compete. But, Talackova’s attorney Gloria Allred says, she and her client want the “naturally born” rule eliminated.

There are some pageants specifically for transgender women and transvestites, but Talackova wants to compete in mainstream pageants. Allred said allowing Talackova to compete but not changing the “naturally born” rule doesn't address the problem.

That rule has already been dropped from most sports from high school to the Olympics. Transgender people can compete in high school, college, the Olympics and the LPGA. The NCAA amended its transgender policy just last year.

Source:

CNN

URL:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/14/from-beauty-pageants-to-college-sports-transgender-people-break-barriers/

Date:

April 16, 2012

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Serial Career Changer Barbie Now Running For President

Teaser:

Barbie is running for President.

Editorial:

From Forbes:

Watch out, Mitt. Barbie has stepped onto the campaign trail and will officially announce her bid for President on Thursday.

The I Can Be…President Barbie doll by manufacturer Mattel and in partnership with The White House Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that aims to involve more women in politics, will be in mass distribution. Presale begins tomorrow, but Mattel expects it to hit shelves everywhere in August in four different races: Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American and Asian.

[...]

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/04/04/barbie-is-running-for-president/

Date:

April 9, 2012

Affiliate:

IBM's Rometty was at Masters, in a pink jacket

Teaser:

Virginia Rometty appeared at the U.S. Masters golf tournament in a pink jacket, not the green associated with membership in the male-only Augusta National typically bestowed on IBM CEOs, the AP reports.

Editorial:

From USA Today:

In a pink jacket, however, not a green one.

Rometty, sitting in a lawn chair, had a prime location just a few rows behind the 18th green. She is known to be an avid scuba diver, not much of a golfer. But she knew enough about the game to applaud several good shots into the final hole.

Rometty has brought the issue of female members at Augusta National back to the fore since being named IBM's new chief executive earlier this year. IBM is one of the longtime sponsors of the tournament, and its last four CEOs, all males, were invited to be members. Augusta National's chairman, Billy Payne, has refused to provide a substantive answer to that question, saying the club's membership decisions are private.

IBM has also declined to comment, and security around the company's hospitality cabin at Augusta was tight all week.

[...]

Source:

USA Today

URL:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/story/2012-04-08/masters-ibm-rometty/54118752/1

Date:

April 9, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women and Social Media in 2012

Submitted by asklar on Sun, 04/08/2012 - 11:46pm

BlogHer has been conducting studies about women and their social media habits for the past five consecutive years. Each year we look at emerging media platforms and measure the purpose, trust and influence levels for blogs and other social media channels.

Methodology:

The 2012 study was fielded across BlogHer's network (37+ million unique visitors) and 3,000 blogs. For the sake of comparison, the survey was also fielded to a total U.S. online general population on a panel provided by Vision Critical. There were a total of 2,071 women included in the combined BlogHer and U.S. samples.

URL:

http://www.blogher.com/women-and-social-media-2012

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NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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