Gender stereotyping refers to preconceived assumptions about the roles, traits, and behaviours of men and women. This is something we see every day and is present in TV, film, literature, and advertising.
Consider the ads you might see on TV or in print for cooking, cleaning, or beauty products. The central figures for these ads are overwhelmingly women, depicting them in roles stereotypically applied to their gender: caregiver, homemaker, or someone preoccupied with their appearance and beauty.
On the other hand, men in ads are more frequently portrayed in roles denoting authority, independence and success, or physical activity, for instance, related to DIY, sport, leadership, or finance.
Stereotyping men and women in different roles perpetuates biased views of gender and influences perceptions and expectations surrounding gender roles. This not only impacts how individuals expect others to behave based on their gender and the roles they should perform, but also their own self-perception and choices. When it comes to financial advertisements in particular, gender stereotyping could impact people's financial literacy and financial decisions.
In our research, focused on the depictions of men and women in financial ads, we found that over a 74-year period, men feature as the central figure in 84% of financial ads.
We analysed print financial ads from The Economist published between 1949 to 2023. Male and female coders were asked to categorise the central figures in the ads according to gender, role, age, ethnicity, clothing and attributes as well as how they perceived their authority and expertise.
In our findings, women feature far less often as central figures or financial experts, with men often portrayed in professional and authoritative roles. When women do appear in financial ads, they are often depicted in subordinate roles with limited knowledge of the financial product: 36% of male central figures, while only 15% of female central figures, are portrayed as having financial expertise.
We argue that the internalisation of gender stereotypes in financial advertising could impede women’s ability to manage finances effectively, exacerbating anxiety and ambivalence regarding financial topics. This may influence women’s financial decisions, contributing to observed trends such as reluctance to invest in the stock market or to plan for retirement.
In fact, previous studies do suggest that women exhibit lower financial literacy due to a lack of confidence. Our findings demonstrate how women have been stereotypically represented in financial ads over seven decades, and this could potentially explain why women are more likely to lack confidence when it comes to their finances. If you are constantly exposed to the idea that women can’t be experts in finance, you may just start to believe it.
But it’s not just gender where we observed stereotyping; we also found similar results regarding ethnicity: 74% of central figures in the ads were White. Those of minority ethnic backgrounds are more frequently displayed in low status and low expertise positions. If gender stereotyping in advertising can have an impact on women’s confidence with finance, could the same be true when it comes to racial stereotyping?
Feedback from participants in the study suggests they are not oblivious to these stereotypes. Although unaware of the study’s objectives, female coders still identified and expressed concerns about gender stereotypes in the ads; they explicitly noted and reported that most central figures were White, middle-aged men. Male coders did not.
Despite the role of women in society changing since the rise of the Feminist movement in the 1960s and the introduction of anti-discrimination credit laws in the mid-1970s, gender stereotyping in financial advertising has been slow to adjust.
Promisingly, our analysis does indicate a shift towards more equitable gender representation, with women represented in more professional roles in recent years. Since the mid-2010s, representation appears to have hovered around 50/
However, despite these improvements, for more than half a century, men still overwhelmingly featured as the central figure in financial ads year after year. The impact of that gender stereotyping may have had a significant impact on women’s relationship with finances and it will take more than just 10 years of attempts to show equal representation to undo that.
Accurately representing men and women in financial advertising remains a crucial task for the industry and for policy makers to promote more diverse markets and financial inclusion.