ABSTRACT
Sociologists, philosophers and feminists, to name but a few, have long been at pains to explain and differentiate experiences of men and women in order to better understand what it is to be male and what it is to be female. This ground has been trodden very carefully and rigorously in the past. So we might ask, what have marketing and consumer researchers got to bring to the table? There are two possible answers here. Firstly, the marketplace plays a central role in perpetuating norms and stereotypes of masculinity and femininity and these stereotypes have a very real impact on our everyday lives. Consider for example the role of advertising in promoting super thin female body ideals and couple this with the stream of adverts promoting diets, diet medications and low fat foods. Perhaps it is no surprise that eating disorders have increased by an average of 7 percent per year in England since 2009 (Beat, 2015). These market-driven stereotypes don’t only impact on image but also on roles and expectations. Consider the average washing powder or breakfast cereal advert which presents the ideal selfless mother figure working hard to meet the needs of her family. These stereotypes and norms are not just presented to us literally in advertising but more subtly in other ways through store environments (the pink and frilly world of Claire’s Accessories) or product design (Kleenex’s Mansize Tissues and Gillette’s ‘Best a Man Can Get’). So the marketplace sends us a series of signals about what it is to be masculine or feminine and how to behave as a man or a woman in society. Secondly, the marketplace positions us hierarchically in relation to one another through the opportunities it provides (in terms of jobs, housing, education, etc.). Research shows that very often access to these opportunities is still unequal between men and women. As such gender inequalities and indeed gendered experiences are inextricably linked with marketplace dynamics. As marketers and consumer researchers we are tasked with teasing out these links and understanding how inequalities are perpetuated and how they might be changed.
