Abstract
Television is a primary medium advertisers use to sell products and services
through commercials and, commercials have the secondary effect of acting as socializing
agents for viewers. Moreover, studies have shown that, despite gains made by women in
the labor force, gender roles portrayed in commercials have not changed in the past
twenty years. In some respects, data in this study concur with these previous studies.
However, this study also analyzes gender roles in Internet-related commercials,
something that has not been done before. The results from the Internet-related
commercials offer interesting alternatives to the findings for other types of commercials.
Deviating from past advertising practices, gender role stereotypes were absent from the
Internet-related commercials in this study. In other words, men and women were
portrayed equally in terms of product authority and use.
