Gender Stereotypes Advertising Needs to Ditch

Stereotypes are low-hanging fruit that get peoples’ attention quickly. It can be tempting to use them when you’re creating products and the ads that sell them, but we can (and should) do better. Besides, the stereotypes that continue to fill our screens, magazines, and social media feeds are tired. It’s time to lay them down to rest for their final sleep while we elevate our ads so they show women, “Hey, we see you, and we hear you.”

Women are ready for something new, something fresh, and something relatable. The 600 women who participated in our attitudinal segmentation research and the insights we learned from them can help us advertisers usher in a new stereotype-free era.

It’s time to dispel four gender-based stereotypes for good.

1. Women love pink.

Do women prefer the color pink? If you look at available research, there isn’t a clear answer. Studies have shown that women prefer warmer hues than men, female toddlers pick pink objects over blue ones, and adult men and women choose blue over pink, though women prefer blues with red undertones. Now that the Barbie movie has surpassed $1 billion in global sales, you might wonder if pink does resonate with women of all ages.

We cannot distill color and gender into a simple choice, especially without considering other factors. Do toddlers show gendered color preferences because they’re already subject to gender-based conditioning? What can we say about women’s freedom to love pink if they want — or choose any other color but pink when buying products? Is a movie covered in pink iconography attractive to women because of the color palette, the nostalgia, or the messaging around gender dynamics (or a little bit of everything)?

There are so many shades of the color debate. Just as we can’t ignore the rampant product pinkwashing, we can’t ignore the automatic association that pink = breast cancer awareness. If there’s a pink stand mixer, we have to wonder, is it for breast cancer research or just to show women which products are for us (and not for men)? To what extent are these pinkified products beacons for what somebody else has decided a woman needs?

According to our research, about half of Boundary Pushers and Female Favorers strongly agree, “Most brands think ‘pink it and shrink it’ is sufficient to make products appeal to women.”

Women know what you’re doing when you slap a shade of pink on your products. They don’t like it, and it’s not enough to reach them. Advertisers, it’s time to be more expansive with your color palette.

2. Women are bad with money.

In a linguistic study by Starling Bank, 65% of financial articles analyzed categorized women as excessive spenders, reinforcing the stereotype that women are bad with money and prone to irresponsibly splurging.

Women are less confident with their finances.

Women are incapable of understanding their finances.

Women should stick to the household tasks and let the men in their lives handle the money.

All stereotypes. So what does the research show?

Women from our study have a range of household incomes—from less than $25,000 to $250,000 or more, fairly representative of the variety of HHIs you’d find across the U.S. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Nearly two-thirds of women provide anywhere from 50-100% of HHI.

Most women — about 400 out of 600 total — contribute the lioness’s share of their household’s income.

However, only one in three women used financial advising services last year, showing that half of those supporting their households financially aren’t using these services. But out of those who do, two in three are completely comfortable seeking financial advising services, starting to dismantle the myth that women are afraid to talk about finances. They’re also not shy about how they educate themselves and manage their finances — 75% of women who use financial advising services share that they’re doing so with others.

Our research certainly paints a more nuanced picture than common stereotypes, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, 77% of women say men and women are sort of or definitely viewed differently on finances. So how do we reconcile what women are doing with how they’re perceived? How do we remove barriers to access (social, emotional, etc.) so more women sign up for financial advising services? We change perceptions through better advertising.

3. Women are less confident as they age.

When we researched women over 40 in 2018, we learned that many of them feel even more confident, empowered, and secure in themselves in middle age, bucking the stereotype that women wither away into self-consciousness as they age.

Our taboo research further supports that women do not buy into the idea that aging is something to be ashamed of or that once women reach a certain age, they should remain silent about their experiences lest they make others uncomfortable.

Most (86%) women who bought products for aging in the last year are either completely or, for the most part, comfortable with those purchases. Most (71%) shared with others that they made those purchases. And most (81%) say aging-related topics should not really or definitely not be kept private.

Brand Approvers, who generally value privacy, are statistically more likely to say these topics should be kept private. But Boundary Pushers and Female Favorers don’t share that view.

We don’t either.

4. Women are not competitive (and too competitive).

What happens when women straddle two opposing stereotypes? Women are simultaneously perceived as averse to competition (specifically, compared to men) and also cutthroat against each other, especially if there’s only one seat at the table and more than one woman vying for it. Both stereotypes lack perspective.

The truth is women are competitive, but in different ways than men, especially if there’s a prosocial component. Women engage in competitive behavior IF there’s a benefit to those around them. They do it for the people in their lives and the communities where they belong. So why are there so few ads showing this behavior in women?

Perhaps it’s because ads are too busy encouraging women to compete against each other in subtle, indirect ways, like portraying mothers as Super Mom or airbrushing women to all hell. Women never asked for me vs. you competition in the race to perfection.

So what happens when women compete with each other (or with men)? Are women really cutthroat, or are they caught up in complex social behaviors in a dearth of resources (e.g., competing for a spot in the C-Suite at their organization)? What if there’s a different way to look at this? Could a woman striving for a C-Suite position be establishing a precedent for other women to rise too? Could she be reaching a higher level of success so that she can better support her family, donate more to causes she cares about, and be in a better position to elevate the women she’s in charge of at her organization?

How often do you see these complexities in ads? Perhaps the issue is that advertising allows itself to be limited by time, space, and stereotypes instead of striving for more real representation.

All segments from our research agree to some extent that women often feel the need to compete with each other AND that most women would rather support each other than be in direct competition.

Why not show women channeling their competitive nature to support others in your ads?

Why does this matter?

Our research shows we cannot encompass women’s perceptions and beliefs into a single sentence. Brands need to understand the nuances of these stereotypes and counteract the messages behind them.

Women don’t want to pay for products that are (or have advertising that shows) a shallow representation of their lived experiences. Don’t give her something she doesn’t want. Give her what she needs.

Women have been presented with certain products and options for decades, regardless of whether they reflect who she is, because “that’s how it’s always been done.” Instead, ask women what they want, what they’ve never had available to them before, and what they didn’t even know was a possibility.

Are you ready to kick stereotypes to the curb? We’d love to help you do it. Email us at hello@fancynyc.com to get started. You can also check out our executive summary for more research insights while you wait for our reply (we’ll be in touch shortly!).