“Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender.  It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structure, and hormonal differences” (encyclo.co.uk).  There is no doubt here in the United States of America, that gender inequality exists.  Our right to vote, the significant pay gap in our work space, or even as simple as the products and services we buy.  Gender itself has been marketed to us as a young age and follows us into adulthood.  

Gendered Marketing Debunked

Consumption of gendered marketing is just as relevant as those who are actually marketing it.  It’s not just society’s influence on gendered marketing, but also the parents and or adults that are doing the consuming and buying into this marketing tactic.  Referring back to how gendered marketing starts at a young age, one must recognize the effects it will have in the future.  Instead of toys, once they are adults, gendered marketing is so deep in their everyday lives that in order for a man to still be in touch with his masculinity, he must buy the product that specifically states that it’s for “men”.  That is because of the social construct of how a “man” should act and how a “ woman” should act.  Masculinity and femininity ties also into gendered marketing.  At a young age, we are expected to confide in the connotations of what a male and female should look like, act like, and dress like.  With those habits, it follows when we are older in a more subtle way, like in our lotions, our shampoos, and even our shoes.  What if gender was just created for capitalistic purposes in order to gain more stock and riches in the world, where it is just seen as a really good marketing strategy?

    In the article, “Relationship Marketing, Gender, and Culture: Implications for Consumer Behavior” explores the concept of gender identity and the connection it has with a successful marketing strategy.  It also examines the topics of individualism/collectivism, biological sex and gender identity, and relational orientation.  As the text continues, a prominent statement is made,

“The distinction between sex, gender identity, and gender attitudes is an important one to make that has implications for consumer behavior… Often consumer behavior  research assumes there are differences between men and women with research to things like the products they buy or responses to advertising...Sex refers to biologically based categories of male and female.  Gender is used to describe the psychological features associated with sex.  Gender identity refers to the personality traits of masculinity and femininity and gender role attitude refers to attitudinal differences about the roles, rights, and responsibilities of women and men” (Arnold and Bianchi, 3).  

Consumers who identify with the product in anyway are more likely to purchase it do to that fact, hence how gender marketing has been so successful in the market.  Following with that statement, the reading suggests that “the more involved a person is with a product the more likely they are to be open to engaging in a relationship with the firms that sells the product… persons with feminine or masculine gender identities will be more involved and more relational with respect to firms or products of the corresponding gender” (3).  With that being said, identity is extremely significant to oneself when it comes to consuming products of any kind.  But what this paper addresses as well is that there are multiple identities that consumers hold which could include race, class, gender, and more.  In other words this would be called intersectionality which is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual group, regarded as creating overlapping independent systems of discrimination or disadvantage” (google.com).