Gender Roles Depiction in the Media

[Audio] Gender Roles Depiction in the Media. A power point presentation by Rehaana Mohamed..

[Audio] The Influence of television is quite impactful towards everyone, especially children. On television programs, men are often portrayed as aggressive, active, and adventurous, compared to women. Women are usually given the housekeeper role and sometimes depicted as victims or shy. Young children are very likely to imitate the behaviors that they see, which can make them develop gender-biases attitudes that they see on television..

[Audio] The background of this study consisted of the involvement of previous studies that were conducted. Santoniccolo et. Al (2023) discovered that the exposure of stereotypes and the enabling of gender role norms have contributed to sexism, harassment, and as well as the development of eating disorders. Moving on, Oosten et. Al (2015) found that hypermasculinity and hyperfemininty convinces and persuades adolescents to participant in presenting themselves as sexier. Lastly, Ward and Grower (2020) founds that gender stereotypes are strong enough to affect the functioning of many areas of the brain, such as social behaviors, interests, attention, and memory. As a result, various outlets of media such as social media, TV shows, and movies influence the portrayal of gender roles in people, such as the development of eating disorders, psychological functioning, and hypermasculinity/hyperfemininity..

[Audio] This study includes three research questions. First, we want to know what is the association between society and gender roles? Additionally, we want to find out what is the link betewen early childhood and gender roles? Finally, we are looking to find what the link is between culture negatively influencing gender roles?.

[Audio] The sample size of the participants consisted of 16 people. People from York College were recruited and a couple of family members, too..

[Audio] The method of this study included a 6 item questionnaire, in which data was collected. The survey included questions such as "How many hours do you spend watching television every day?", "Have you seen any positive portrayals of women that you have seen in the media (e.g., movies, television shows, magazines)? If yes, can you describe what was being portrayed?", "Have you seen any positive portrayals of men that you have seen in the media (e.g., movies, television shows, magazines)? If yes, can you describe what was being portrayed?", and to "Rate the level of gender bias in your environment.".

[Audio] The results shown on the slide showed that 13 out of 16 participants expressed seeing positive portrayals of women in the media. One participant said that they have seen women being played as doctors, superheroes, and even mentioning the Barbie movie. On the other hand, some people have expressed that they have not seem much positive portrayals of women in the media..

[Audio] On this slide, the results of the study continues. As you can see, I gave participants the statement "Changing a child's diapers, feeding the children, and putting them to sleep are the mother's responsibilities. The outcome showed that 8 participants agreed with the statement, 1 strongly agreed, 4 participants neither agreed or disagreed, 3 disagreed, and zero participants strongly disagreed..

[Audio] To conclude, the purpose of the study was to analyze and seek how gender roles were depicted in the media, as well as to investigate the association between society and gender roles. 13 out of 16 participants had expressed that they have seen positive portrayals of women in the media. In addition, most of the individuals agreed that changing a child's diapers and feeding and bathing them are the mother's responsibilities..

[Audio] Throughout the history of television, women have often been stereotyped and underrepresented. The implications of this study showed that most individuals have agreed to have been seeing positive representation of women in the media..

[Audio] Two of the limitations include that there was a small sample size. For my study, I could only find 15 participants that were willing to participate and help. Additionally, my study sample size only consisted of individuals from New York City. I would like if my study were more diverse so that I could obtain data from other regions and determine whether that has a factor on why they selected the response that they did..

[Audio] Future directions or studies for me would be to increase the sample size so that I could have produce stronger and reliable results. Additionally, I would like to incorporate more responses from different regions just to see how the responses would differ region to region. Lastly, I would like to explore how the depiction of women in the media can negatively affect one's perception; meaning, how does the portrayal of women in the media lead to the way one negatively views women?.

[Audio] Thank you for watching and listening.. References.