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Australian Women: As Advertised Versus The Real Thing
Author(s) -
Wyndham Diana
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.1983.tb00761.x
Subject(s) - happiness , project commissioning , publishing , poverty , pace , advertising , sociology , gender studies , media studies , psychology , political science , social psychology , geography , law , business , geodesy
In the 1970s advertisers portrayed all women as housewives in a cosy world of mum, dad and two charming children. Happiness was simply a matter of having a whiter wash or a more beautiful complexion. Single parenthood, two‐income families, poverty, discord or divorce did not receive a mention. This paper examines the extent to which advertisers have kept pace with the changed and expanded roles of Australian women in the 1980s. Most women ‘as advertised’ are still shown as either housewives or sex symbols with only a few being portrayed in a more realistic and non‐sexist range of roles.