Images of Decision Making in Families: Reinforcement of Family Roles, Stereotypes and Gender Bias in Mutual Fund-related Advertisements in India

Due to the increasing awareness of gender sensitivity, the depiction of women in advertisements has been shifting away from objectification, male gaze, and stereotyping. However, prevalent notions of gender roles still persist in the financial product segment. This study analyses select mutual fund-related advertisements in India to understand whether it carries the images of archaic gender norms in conventional families. The study focuses on how the presence or absence of women gender in mutual fund ads invokes lack of representation, gender-bias and reinforcement of existing norms within families in matters of money and how the power is exercised in decision making. It has been observed that the niche of such advertisement segments is still male dominant and the texts are made to appeal to men to a great extent.The study is built within the framework of Alice Eagly’s Gender Role theory which states that defined roles of different genders reinforce their behaviour and create imbalance of power within any systems and structures. The theory predicts that ‘gendered behaviour will change when gender roles change’. Hence it is important to rethink depiction of gender roles in decision making related to financial matters within families in advertisements in order to address the gender gap and power imbalance. The researchers analysed advertisements released in the past ten years by conducting a content analysis through classification of elements such as ‘brand ambassador’, ‘niche audience’, ‘protagonist’. By using the content analysis, the researchers intend to reveal bias, reinforcement and stereotyping aspects of mutual fund advertisements in India.