The Representation of Women's Roles in Women's Magazines Over the Past 30 Years

Demarest, Jack; Garner, Jeanette

doi:10.1080/00223980.1992.10543369

Cited by 28 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…These findings are generally supported by Sullivan & O'Connor (1988) who investigated women's role portrayal in magazines from 1958 to 1983. Similar observations were made by Demarest & Garner (1992). Ford et al (1991) have also pointed out how traditional female stereotypes, particularly those relating women and domesticity, continued well into the 1980s.…”

Section: Gendersupporting

confidence: 49%

Good Guys : A Cultural Semiotic Study of the Print Advertising of the Oil Industry (1900-2000)

Vang¹

2014

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Section: Gendersupporting

confidence: 49%

Good Guys : A Cultural Semiotic Study of the Print Advertising of the Oil Industry (1900-2000)

Vang¹

2014

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“…Although there are a number of studies that explore the representation of women in media (e.g., Barthel, 1988;Scott, 1993) and in magazines in particular (e.g., Andreasen & Steves, 1983;Busby & Leichty, 1993;Demarest & Garner, 1992;Murphy, 1994;Prusank, Duran, & DeLillo, 1993;Walsh, 1999), there is little empirical research focusing on the depiction of mothers. Kaplan's (1990Kaplan's ( , 1992 psychoanalytic feminist analysis of mothers in 1980s popular culture found that the representation of mothers perpetuates patriarchal norms by separating female sexuality, work, and motherhood into distinct spheres: Female sexuality and work are still constructed as threats to the construction of the ideal mother.…”

Section: Maternal Double Bindsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lack of discussion of work/family issues or even articles balancing personal interests, volunteerism, or public-sphere issue involvement with the care of children presents an illusion that at-home mothers do not experience the "fundamental ambivalence of motherhood" identified 30 years ago by Rich (1976) and more recently reiterated in popular press books by Wolfe (2001) and Crittenden (2001). Walsh (1999) and Demarest and Garner (1992) noted that the paucity of substantive issues in women's magazines and the limited change in magazines' representations of women's roles over time may be due to the advertising-dependent and consumer-oriented nature of general interest magazines. However, the absence of articles and messages empowering mothers to be involved in public-sphere issues that affect them as women and mothers seems to be less a threat to consumerism than a threat to patriarchy.…”

Section: Success/failure Themementioning

confidence: 99%

Undermining Mothers: A Content Analysis of the Representation of Mothers in Magazines

Johnston

Swanson²

2003

Mass Communication and Society

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Mother wars, the pitting of at-home and employed mothers against each other, dominate public discourse. Mother roles are contested and, as a result, mothers are inundated with contradictory messages that affirm a particular mother role and simultaneously condemn a mother for achieving it. This content analysis explores 4 maternal contradictions in contemporary women 's magazines: (a) Buxton (1998) and Maushart (1999) contended that we are living in a historically and culturally unprecedented era of contested mother roles and ideologies. Mothers have choices in how to define their mother role, but with choice comes conflict. Maternal feminism has risen slowly in the wake of the feminist movement (Gimenez, 1980;Graglia, 1998). Feminist theory neglects to recognize women's desires to be both mothers and feminists (Allen, 1983;Fox-Genovese, 1996). Caregiving and feminism together are constructed as an oxymoron, and caregiving has been condemned for embroiling women in dependent and powerless family roles (Graglia, 1998). Studies of third-wave feminism reveal that an increasing number of young women resent the feminist movement for neglecting family roles (Fox-Genovese, 1996;Peters, 2001). MASS COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY, 2003, 6(3), 243-265 Requests for reprints should be sent to Deirdre D. Johnston, Department of Communication, Hope College, Holland, At this point in history, mother wars-the pitting of at-home and employed mothers against each other (Buxton, 1998)-dominate public discourse. Contemporary mothers are living in the culture's zone of contested identities (Hall, 1996). According to Hall:Identity … is a matter of considerable political significance, and is only likely to be advanced when both the necessity and the "impossibility" of identities, and the suturing of the psychic and the discursive in their constitution, are fully and unambiguously acknowledged. (p. 16) Bakhtin (1934Bakhtin ( -1935Bakhtin ( /1981 further described the importance of discourse to this process: "Individual consciousnesses … come together and fight it out on the territory of the utterance" (p. 360). Grossberg (1996), discussing the paradox of how a person can be both the cause and effect, both the subject and the subjected, contended that the task is to locate the "machinery" by which identification and belonging are produced and assimilated into structures of individuality (p. 98). The purpose of this study is to explore the prevalence of maternal identity contradictions in the public discourse of women's magazines. MATERNAL DOUBLE BINDSThe mother wars are fueled by contradictory messages that affirm particular aspects of mother identity but sanction others (Buxton, 1998). When expectations and condemnations are tied in such a way that to achieve the expectation is to invite the condemnation, a double bind is present (Bateson, 1972;Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson, 1967). Double binds have the effect of undermining confidence and engendering feelings of guilt and inadequacy (Bateson, 1972;Watzlawick et al., 1967). In a cultural ...

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“…Women were portrayed as being dependent on men, uninvolved in important decisions, belonging only in their homes, and Asian Journal of Communication 353 primarily as sexual objects (Courtney & Lockeretz, 1971;Loughlin, 1981). Even though the stereotypical representation of women decreased with the gender-related developments in society (Demarest & Garner, 1992;Dow, 1996;Hovland, McMahan, Lee, Hwang, & Kim, 2005), to the present women are still subordinated to men in more subtle aspects of advertisements (Eisend, 2010;Furnham & Paltzer, 2010;Lindner, 2004;Mager & Helgeson, 2011). The lagging rate of media portrayal of women is especially prominent in Asia.…”

Section: Media Content and Social Changementioning

confidence: 93%

Feminism and social change: women's place in Taiwanese newspapers and public opinion

Shaw

Tan

2014

Asian Journal of Communication

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This study used a content analysis of editorial articles to explore the portrayal of gender in women's pages of Taiwanese newspapers between 1975 and 2009. In addition to topical themes and editorial format, we focused on how women's pages present political messages in terms of the topics addressed, style of argumentation, methods of challenging traditional gender roles, and the promotion of provocative actions. We compared the content analysis data with social development indicators and public opinion polls in the contexts of the evolution of the market and the women's movement in Taiwan. We found that in the early stages of the women's movement, the women's pages mainly played the role of shaping a collective identity among the female public. During the postfeminist period, the women's pages mainly address social problems rooted in the domestic realm and provide self-development advice.

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The Representation of Women's Roles in Women's Magazines Over the Past 30 Years

Cited by 28 publications

References 12 publications

Good Guys : A Cultural Semiotic Study of the Print Advertising of the Oil Industry (1900-2000)

Good Guys : A Cultural Semiotic Study of the Print Advertising of the Oil Industry (1900-2000)

Undermining Mothers: A Content Analysis of the Representation of Mothers in Magazines

Feminism and social change: women's place in Taiwanese newspapers and public opinion

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