The Major Roles Of Gender Inequality In Television

One of the major sources of inequalities experienced for generations is gender inequality, which has perpetuated, but adapted socially and culturally, into the present twenty-first century (Ridgeway, 2011). Television (TV) essentially adopted a large role in administrating and promoting these social inequalities, and therefore it is important to assess whether or not there has been progress throughout the decades. The United States (US) is the national context focus, and the primary decades assessed are following the 1940s, considering this was the decade when television was introduced in America (Baughman, 2005). The essay argues how television commercials generally endorse the stereotypical role of females, yet evidence shows, through the

Additionally, they have also created a norm whereby men are ‘more sex driven’, whereas women are ‘objects of men’s sexual needs’ (Burgess et al 2012., p. 748). Once again, there is a shift in television portrayals, while it is becoming less appropriate for women in television commercials being filmed in stereotypical social roles, it is now more acceptable for them being framed as sexual objects. Three decades following MTV’s introduction, in 2004, 45 million households had access to this network (Wallis, 2011). A study comparing men and women analysed the type of content which MTV produced. Data showed that women would ‘touch their hair’ 38.35 percent of the time, compared to men at 1.24 percent; more so, when it came to ‘sexual self-touch’, women performed this act 15.57 percent of the time, in opposition to men at 1.31 percent (Wallis, 2011). With female social roles shifting, it ultimately questions the legitimacy of the television industry desiring to adapt the social norms created throughout the decades, this is considering they have yet to establish a neutral image of females. This eventually damages the progress of the second-wave feminist movement, and their effort to enhance the image of females in television and