The media are organizations that shape public opinion and promote social changes. However, as a part of society, media organizations are influenced by the same social aspects and biased conclusions as the rest of the community. This paper will consider sociological perspectives on media representations of gender.
Over the past decades, the media have become a significant force that has launched a process of change in gender inequality. Newspapers, television, and the entertainment industry discussed women’s problems in the workplace, such as unequal pay, harassment, prejudice, and lack of career advancement. Despite significant progress in gender issues, the media still often uses the notion of traditional gender roles and the division of labor (Krijnen & Bauwel, 2021). Masculinity and femininity are presented from the view of the functionalist perspective, where a man earns money, and a woman raises children. It cannot be ignored that in recent years, an enormous value of content has appeared on the achievements of women and their contribution to society. However, many of these works have been criticized for associating female attractiveness with a necessary attribute of success.
The 2019 Women in the Workplace (as cited in Beard et al. 2020) uncovered that women in the media continue to be denied access to top roles. At the beginning of a career, men and women are represented equally. Women are promoted faster than men, and they are more satisfied with their position in the company. However, the further growth of women’s careers is slowing down to a minimum. As a result, the owners and managers of media are mainly men.
The issue of gender inequality in the media has multiple manifestations and aspects, which ultimately create a field of various forces of influence where the relationship between sex and gender is built (Krijnen & Bauwel, 2021). Bias and gender inequality are also common in media organizations. From an interactionalist perspective, gender should be considered concerning other concepts such as class, age, disability, sexuality, and ethnicity. A seemingly obvious concept is often ignored. For instance, # MeToo was founded by a black activist as a tool to support victims of sexual assault but has since become associated with workplace harassment.
References
Beard, L., Dunn, J., Huang, J., & Krivkovich, A. (2020). Shattering the glass screen. Gender Equity in Media and Entertainment, McKinsey, Web.
Krijnen, T., & Van Bauwel, S. (2021). Gender and media: Representing, producing, consuming. Routledge, Web.