Attitude Toward Gender Role Portrayals in Advertising

What it measures

Twelve items measure a consumer's views on how accurately and fairly advertising depicts gender roles, with items covering beliefs about whether ads show women and men as they really are, whether they objectify women, and whether portrayals are improving over time.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• Ads which I see show women as they really are.
• Ads suggest that women are fundamentally dependent upon men.
• Ads which I see show men as they really are.
• Ads treat women mainly as 'sex objects.'
• Ads which I see accurately portray women in most of their daily activities.
• Ads suggest that women make important decisions.
• Ads which I see accurately portray men in most of their daily activities.
• Ads suggest that women don't do important things.
• Ads suggest that a woman's place is in the home.
• I'm more sensitive to the portrayal of women in advertising than I used to be.
• I find the portrayal of women in advertising to be offensive.
• Overall, I believe that the portrayal of women in advertising is changing for the better.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Adapted from Lundstrom and Sciglimpaglia (1977). Alpha reported as greater than .80. Items contain a mix of positively and negatively worded statements — reverse-coding should be checked carefully before computing a composite. See also Orth and Holancova (2004) for a related application.

Citation

Ford, J. B., & LaTour, M. (1993). Differing reactions to female role portrayals in advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 33(5), 43–52.

Keywords