"She's not a moron she's your wife"

After watching a documentary made in the 1990's titled "She's not a moron she's your wife" in one of our advertising workshops, I began to think about how does my gender effect me in my future? 


The documentary talked about how after WW2 women were making all the household decisions such as which food to buy and which domestic products to use. The documentary stated that women were the consumers who would make or break a brand depending on their loyalty, this was strongly influenced by various adverts and their techniques. 


After WW2 many women left their jobs which they had been doing, filling in for the men workers who had gone to war. Although some of them resumed at work many went back to being full time house wives. Many women were now the home maker, and companies used this ti fuel their campaigns; the idea that rebuilding of post war britain would start at home, and this was a huge responsibility of women. The advertising used was aimed at making women feel more valuable and important and that their decisions around the home and about what products to buy had a huge influence on the lives of their husbands, family and how they were presented/seen by others. It was important to be seen as a 'good wife' as demonstrated in a Kellogg's advert shown on the documentary. 


Women feared criticism of other women which turned to guilt, especially when the launch of frozen foods began:


- It was seen as convenient which suggests it is a substitute to the wife as a provider as they are no longer needed
- It was ideal for women who worked and had less time to cook 
- They tried to sell it as it was made for the consumer to BAKE themselves, when actually all they were doing was heating it


Cookeen and Viota came up with a solution to this, although at first they had the problem of already made cake mixes, which discouraged women, they then introduced mixes where you add an egg rather than just water. This made the women feel as though they were a part of making the cake and were getting involved. they could choose the egg themselves etc. Other similar convenience goods such as cheese slices were sold as 'quality' goods rather than the convenience goods they were.


New gadgets and convenience food meant that people were constantly gaining higher standards, it was no longer good enough to just look good things had to smell good and taste good too. There was good vs bad and clean vs unclean. The idea of washing being whiter, therefore cleaner and better became prevalent. whiteness symbolised cleanliness (which is "next to godliness")


Women had anew role after WW2 and advertising campaigns created the idea that they had a new enemy to focus on, germs rather than Germans. 


Unbelievably, I couldn't come to terms with the fact that brands such as Dettol and Flash had a lot of restrictions when creating there television adverts, due to social adverts there was a lot that couldn't be shown on television, for example on these toilet cleaner adverts there was a 9pm watershed before they could be shown, and even then they couldnt show the whole toilet, but simply imply that the cleaner was being poured into the toilet by showing the very top area which included the handle. The consumer was being protected from things they didnt need protecting from.


Here, I found an advert from the 1980's where it was now acceptable to include the toilet in the actual advert, although until about 20 seconds in I didn't think this was going to be the case:






One of the sections that I felt effected me the most throughout the documentary was the idea of stereotypes within women and how this influenced sales and success of campaigns. There was the use of 2 main stereotypes the 'bimbo and the opposite.


Bimbo adverts
-Included light heartedness and ignorance
-e.g hovis adverts
-How intelligence
-Kitchen towels "double thick"
-They were patronising 
-they showed women as a liability
-Eventually they faded out 


Opposite
-Sensible, down to earth women
-Often older, more experience
-Knowledgeable
-Usually over 40
-Scottish
-Bossing children around


For me I felt that the use of these 2 stereotypes, although probably effective was discriminative and patronising, I also though about how it can be seen today. In cosmetic adverts the women are usually more attractive and younger where as with food adverts\cleaning adverts the women are often more mature/family orientated. In modern day I feel these stereotypes work because you can relate to that particular type of women. For beauty products you are more likely to trust a younger, better looking woman that the products work and the same from cleaning products and a more mature character.


At the end of the documentary one woman commented on neotraditionalism and how she felt over the upcoming years women would revert back to housewives, implying that they could have done something better if they wanted but that they would CHOOSE to be a house wife and stay at home. I disagree with this statement and, although I feel she has been proved wrong, as over the last 20 years this has not happened as she suggested. I also feel that women are faced with more difficulties in breaking through this barrier to become as successful as men.


Within advertising, a higher amount of females take part in the degree courses than men, but more men end up working in the industry. Is this because men are more successful? Or because they are able to have both a family and a strong career whereas women have to sacrifice one or the other?