Chapter 4: White working women's progression to upper-tier jobs in advertising
Chapter 4: White working women's progression to upper-tier jobs in advertising
Over the past 70 years, participation of women in the workforce increased greatly. Immediately following World War 2, less than 30 percent of women were in the labor force. In 2015, 57 percent of women were participating in the workforce (U.S. Department of Labor 2015). In 2016, women made up nearly 50 percent of the labor force (US Department of Labor 2016). Although women are still clustered in traditionally female occupations, women’s participation in traditionally male jobs has increased throughout the years (US Department of Labor 2016).
Advertisements pertaining to this time period have a different understanding of femininity and women’s role in the workplace. In these advertisements, women are portrayed in more professional attire and as having mutual relationships with men. There are still a good amount of advertisements depicting women with traditionally female job; however, there is certainly an increase in the number of women in upper-tier jobs, which are more professional, managerial, administrative and technical jobs (Hesse-Biber and Carter 2005).
Data on working women suggests that in 2016, about half of women are employed. Ten most popular jobs for women, in a decreasing order, are nurses, secretaries, school teachers, cashiers, nursing, retail salesperson, customer service, waitresses, managers and supervisors of sales workers. Looking at the data today, there is a turn of events in how working women are displayed. Managers is still in the top ten for women’s occupations, however falling behind nurses this time. Looking at the advertisements, white working women are displayed more as in higher-tier jobs then they are displayed as nurses.
How women are portrayed in these advertisements redefine femininity as strong, independent woman. Even the Coca Cola advertisement depicting the woman as a waitress, a traditionally female job, positions the woman with a strong posture and confident of herself. Therefore, through these advertisements, white working women’s position in the workplace is constructed and redefined.
