Representation of Women in the Algerian TV Advertisement

Abstract

Representations of gender in the media, particularly in advertisement, have developed and changed with time to reflect the cultural and sociological changes in society. However, female stereotypes continue to appear in some media texts. This paper focuses mainly on investigating the representation of women in the Algerian TV advertisement. To achieve this objective, three hypotheses were set; the first contends that women are represented as mothers, wives, and housewives and are attributed domestic and passive roles. The second is size related where women appear to be shorter than men. The third and last one expounds on women’s depiction in the Algerian advertisements and reflects the Algerian women’s realities in relation to their roles, status and freedom. In this respect, the present study relied on the image analysis and the semiotic approach of Ivring Goffman (1979). The withdrawn results confirmed that the stereotypical portrayals of women depicted by Goffman are still applied in the Algerian TV advertisements. Women are still shown shorter than men, they are still represented doing domestic and passive roles and still put in their typical social roles which are mothers, wives, and housewives.