For my research of gender roles in today's society, I decided to take a look at how men and women are portrayed in advertising. I watched three hours of prime time television commercials to see which products were directed at which gender. I developed criteria for my research to distinguish between commercials of and for men and commercials of and for women. I looked at location (inside or outside of the home), roles (professional, domestic), product type (home, child, outdoor, car), and gender of central character and whether or not they had a spouse and/or children present. My secondary research came from journal articles published on the same topic and from our class textbook.
The first criterion I focused on was the role of families in the commercials. …
