• Over more than 70 years, men have overwhelmingly featured as the central figure in financial ads, finds research from Mannheim Business School
• Ethnicity is also a factor – white individuals feature more often than those from minority ethnic backgrounds
• New advertising regulations which ban gender stereotypes have improved gender representation

Gender stereotyping in advertising, portrayals based on assumptions around the roles, traits, and behaviours of men and women, is something we can see every day.

For women, this includes playing the role of caregiver or homemaker, focusing on beauty or domesticity. If you think about advertisements for kitchen appliances or cooking or cleaning products, how many predominantly feature men?

Mr. Muscle might now be the masculine, superhero embodiment of a clean kitchen, but it’s often a woman struggling with the cleaning in ads for various companies, ever so grateful for that new product. In 2021, an ad for a JML cleaning tool was actually banned for implying the task was solely a woman’s job!

Men in ads are more frequently associated with authority, success, and physical activities. Think of ads around sport, DIY, science, or even leadership.

Stereotyping men and women into different roles like this can perpetuate biased views of gender and influence perceptions and expectations of gender roles. This not only impacts individuals’ views of how others should behave and the roles they should perform, but also their own self-perception and choices.

Particularly when it comes to finance, such stereotyping could impact relationships with money.

In fact, studies have revealed that women exhibit lower financial literacy due to a lack of confidence. This has become such a prevalent concern amongst women that companies exist to help empower women financially.

Could gender stereotyping in financial advertisements be part of the reason behind lower financial literacy?

Men know all about finance – according to the ads

Imagine a printed advertisement in a newspaper for a bank. This ad features a banker in a boardroom doing something generic with figures and money. They’re trying to encourage readers to open an account with them.

Did you automatically imagine the central figure as a man or a woman?

If you did imagine a man, it’s not all that surprising, considering the prevalence of gender stereotyping in financial advertising over the years: Research from Mannheim Business School finds that men feature as the central figure in 84% of financial ads over a 74-year period.

Dr. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi, Professor of Finance, and Dr. Luisa Langer, postdoctoral researcher, analysed print financial ads in The Economist from 1949 to 2023, looking at the various depictions of men and women. Male and female participants in the study were asked to categorise the central figures in the ads according to their gender, role, age, and ethnicity, as well as perception of authority and expertise.

Women were found to feature far less often as central figures or experts, with men often portrayed in professional and authoritative roles.

When women do appear in financial ads, they are typically depicted in subordinate roles with limited knowledge of the financial product: 36% of male central figures, while only 15% of female central figures, are portrayed as having financial expertise. 

These differences can help explain women’s lower financial confidence and their reluctance to actively manage their finances.

“The internalisation of gender stereotypes in financial advertising could impede women’s ability to manage finances effectively, exacerbating anxiety and ambivalence regarding financial topics. This may influence women’s financial decisions, contributing to observed trends such as reluctance to invest in the stock market,” says Prof. Niessen-Ruenzi.

And it’s not just gender where this inequality is observed. Similar results from this study were found for ethnicity: 74% of central figures in the ads were White. Those of minority ethnic backgrounds are more frequently displayed in low status and low expertise positions.

Data from The FINRA Foundation National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) and the Personal Finance Index (P-Fin) finds individuals of certain minority ethnic backgrounds to exhibit lower financial literacy and higher financial vulnerability. If gender stereotyping in advertising can have an impact on women’s confidence with finance, could the same be said for racial stereotyping?

Representation has improved over the years – slowly

Despite the role of women in society changing since the rise of the feminist movement in the 1960s and the introduction of anti-discrimination laws in the 1970s, gender stereotyping in advertising has been slow to adjust.

Analysis does indicate a shift towards more equitable gender representation, with women represented in more professional roles in recent years. Since the mid-2010s, representation has hovered around 50/50 with women being portrayed as the central figure in more recent years, but gender stereotypes are still prevalent.

Female characters are still more likely to be displayed in gender stereotypical roles, although increasingly appearing in a working role with more expertise regarding the financial product.

Improvements in representation in recent years appear to follow new regulations banning the inclusion of gender stereotypes that are likely to cause harm or widespread or serious offence in ads.

What now?

For more than half a century, men overwhelmingly featured as the central figure in financial ads and the impact of that gender stereotyping may have had a significant impact on women’s relationship with finances. It will take more than just 10 years of attempts to show equal representation in ads to undo that.

Accurately representing men and women in financial advertising remains a crucial task for the industry and for policy makers to promote more diverse markets and financial inclusion.

By Kyle Grizzell

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