According to a UNICEF and Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (GDI) report, Indian television commercials reinforce gender stereotypes.
The study, titled ‘Gender Bias and Inclusion in Advertising in India,' looked at over 1,000 television and YouTube commercials that aired in India in 2019.
Women and girls dominate screen and speaking time, according to the findings. However, their portrayals still adhere to gender stereotypes.
The advertisements' Indian women are more likely to be married and have children. They're much less likely to work for a living.
Female characters accounted for 59.7% of screen time and 56.3 percent of speaking time, according to the report.
However, they were also used in advertisements for cleaning supplies, food, and cosmetics.
Female characters are also three times as likely as male characters to be moms.
Female characters are also more likely than male characters to go shopping, clean, and prepare meals, according to the report.
Males, on the other hand, are more popular than females in advertisements where intellect is a part of their personality (32.2 percent to 26.2 percent ).
Male characters in commercials are often almost twice as likely to be funny as female characters (19.1 percent to 11.9 percent ).
Geena Davis, actress and Founder and Chair of the GDI, commented on the study's findings of inequality:“Misrepresentation and harmful stereotypes of women in advertising have a significant impact on women – and young girls – and how they view themselves and their value to society.While we do see female representation dominate in Indian ads, they are still marginalised by colourism, hypersexualisation, and without careers or aspirations outside of the home.”
The UNICEF report's results also call attention to the topic of race.
In contrast to 52.1 percent of males, two-thirds of female characters (66.9%) have light or medium-light skin tones.
It "promotes the discriminatory notion that light skin tones are more desirable," according to the report.The report concludes that Indian women and girls have exceeded parity of representation in terms of presence and voice.
UNICEF Representative in India Dr Yasmin Ali Haque says,“Gender socialisation is a learned behaviour from childhood.Children observe and learn social cues from parents, family, and the society around them, including the advertising they see around themselves.This report will help us challenge biases and advocate more effectively with the Indian advertising community, and across South Asia with all businesses, to support our goal of achieving gender equality for the benefit of all children.”
IAA will collaborate with members to initiate efforts to deconstruct negative stereotypes, according to UNICEF.