A systematic review of gender and advertising studies

Feminist studies have repeatedly analysed advertising, which is considered a socialization agent capable of maintaining traditional gender attitudes. In recent decades, the amount of scientific research related to gender and advertising has increased. In this context, using a quantitative method we examine concepts, characteristics, productivity and specific procedures used for measuring sexism in the field of advertising. For this purpose, we carried out a systematic review of 215 articles published in English and Spanish between 1988 and 2010 and included in seven national and international databases. Our results show that, despite an increase in the amount of research, the different elements of the advertising communication process have not been studied to the same degree and also that a variety of techniques have been used to measure sexism. Moreover, information about the instruments and measurements used in these studies is incomplete.