[CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS/ GENDER

IDEOLOGIES ANALYSIS ESSAY]

Gender ideology refers to a systematic world view which conveys different

attitudes toward men and women in society. In other words, it means assumptions or
belief systems regarding those distinctions in their appropriate roles, rights, and
responsibilities. It is the fact that it can be implied by numerous ways and
advertisement should be mentioned. Besides the selling function, advertisement seems
to be a creator of structures of meaning in order to capture a comprehensive vision
about gender ideology; as a consequence, the connection between them is undeniable.
What do females usually do? What are males duties? For centuries, people
built some beliefs about the differences in what role women and men play in family;
thus, thanks to them, it is not too challenging to answer those questions. To be able to
get all ideologies is quite complicated, but we can partly approach to some aspects of
the most traditional ideas through advertisements. To put it another way, we can look
at the Omo washing liquid commercial to have a glance about the underlying
meaning. It has a common context that the child made clothes dirty by repairing car
and someone need to be there to help him wash them. Then, unsurprisingly, two
women, including his grandmother and his mother, are represented as persons who
carry out that responsibility. This advertisement shows that females appear to be
pulling more weight around the house than males such as doing chores and taking care
of children. To put it simply, according to Ungaretti (2013), men just go to work to
make money for the sake of fulfilling the primary breadwinner role and women still
stick with homemaker as well as parenting activities. This idea may be influenced by
the culture tradition from the far distant past. Considering many factors, since a long
time ago, people believed that females cannot do the males things and they should
stay at home; therefore, it is nothing strange when women do chores but it will be
weird in case they are managed by men. Women seem to be underestimated and their
rights to do other things are very limited. Nevertheless, they somehow are likely to
feel pleased with it and they are not motivated to pursue something that beyond
several old stereotypes about their abilities. This gender ideology found across the
adverts tends to strengthen the existing assumption that Men make home, women

Page 1

[CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS/ GENDER

IDEOLOGIES ANALYSIS ESSAY]

make house. The public still sees mothers and fathers in a different light when it
comes to evaluating the best work-family balance for children.
However, this belief may not completely meet the demand of some dramatic
changes over the past few decades. The role of females has adapted lots of new
perspectives and so does that of males. The latest Omo Matic washing liquid
advertisement did a good job in portraying that idea. In contrast with the former
commercial, although there is still a need to have childs clothes washed, the person,
who will be in charge of the duty, is different this time. Instead of mother or
grandmother, the child has his father at home. Corresponding with the traditional
ideology - "chores are women's works, the father acts like having no experience and
doesnt know how to take care of those clothes when his wife absents. The saying
You cannot wash clothes as clean as mother does of the child centers around the fact
that his father didnt have effort in doing housework before; as a result, the father has
to call his wife for helping. It is easy to see that she wears office attire and is working
at her office. As expected, she has no trouble guiding his husband how to wash and at
the end, the problem is solved. She seems to have no surprise when acknowledging
her husbands concern and feels really glad when he did well. As can be seen, the
advert demonstrated that men have changed their mind about their duties at home and
women also have taken on new responsibilities outside the home by joining the paid
workforce in ways that their grandmothers or even their mothers could only dream of.
To clarify, housework is not only managed by females and the old ideas tend to be not
suitable anymore. It is vital to have more equality in family; thus, males need to share
the burdens with their wives and pull their weight more as well. Although they may
struggle to do a good job, the work gap at home should be narrowed. Following this,
women have stepped into a distinctive world compared to the past. They have
opportunities to take some jobs that used to be done by men and try to play the
breadwinner role with their best abilities. They definitely have higher positions in
society; hence, there are surely more independence and fairness between two genders.
On the other hand, women cannot absolutely escape from homemaker along with
child care. Through the wifes detailed instruction to her husband, the wife shows that
Page 2

[CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS/ GENDER

IDEOLOGIES ANALYSIS ESSAY]

she is very familiar with that duty and seems to be one of her daily jobs at home. That
means, women still come home to the second shift after spending time in compensated
employment. Their primary role is still making house and they just can do other
things when they carry out properly the job at home. Pressures and difficulties are
unavoidable when both two important talks need accomplishing properly. All in all,
the gender ideology shows some positive developments and it is not entirely bound
with the traditional culture. While the husband's role has diversified into more
household chores, the wifes duties are not only being a housewife but also taking part
in other mens jobs. Men and women have been seen in a same light to some extent.
It is true that the women's roles have expanded to the point where a majority of
them tend to participate in the labor market, but at the work place, certain differences
in attitudes toward males and females still exist that drive a wedge between feminine
and masculine roles. One of them can be represented through Tam Binh colon
medicine advertisement. The situation is quite popular when a female employee is
required to have the documents signed by a male employer in his office. She has a
respectful tone and formal behaviors by addressing him as sp boss so that it is not
too hard to understand the performed gender ideology in this commercial. Despite
having numerous chances to show abilities in a professional working environment,
women still have been associated with homemaking and a relatively narrow range of
occupations while men have been expected to be opposite (Moore, 2011). This is to
say, females are ambitious to get up the ladder in companies but it is not an easy task.
People always seem to be in favor of males for some high positions such as Manager,
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, etc. and the lower ranks are often
undertaken by females; for the reason that they think men, who have better skills
along with greater visions, are smarter choices. In other words, men were the
dominant models for those statuses for a long time and boss image tends to be one
of the males concepts as well; meanwhile, women may feel like the underdogs. So the
advert reinforces the ideology that males still have more power in the workplace than
females, although this idea raises a question about their real potentials and creates a
controversial gap.
Page 3

[CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS/ GENDER

IDEOLOGIES ANALYSIS ESSAY]

The existence of gender ideology is unquestionable across various cultures

because both men and women have a lot of differences. However, inequalities still
remain and affect many aspects of live. From my perspective, all three ideologies in
those adverts need to acknowledge new views to have a bigger picture. There are
many changes over time; hence, the beliefs also should be transformed to be more
adaptable. It is important to improve the balance between the roles of males and
females. To put it another way, whether they are a woman or a man, everybody should
be able to access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities. Women
must have more chances to strengthen their positions in society such as becoming a
leader of organization or other high statuses like men, having more freedom to play
other roles besides homemaker responsibilities, etc. As a society, people need to go
beyond stereotypes and create better beliefs. It is fair and the right thing to do.
With this intention, the commercials should shift into new ways of advertising in order
to convey those deep meanings to people.
In brief, the strong relationship among the advertisements and the gender
ideologies has been proved. If we just look through the surface, we will not be able to
aware of several underlying beliefs; consequently, it is a matter of digging deeper.
Moreover, according to Wolska (2011), those gender stereotypes, based on
assumptions, may still appear frequently on TV Ads but in case people are ready to
open their minds with new perspectives, the future will be worth expecting.
Word count: 1509 words

Page 4

[CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS/ GENDER

IDEOLOGIES ANALYSIS ESSAY]

Appendixes
TRANSCRIPT FOR ADVERTISEMENTS
1. Video 1: Qung co Nc git Omo
Chu: B th khng b?
B:

B gi ri chu .o nhiu du nht qu!

M:

C vt xc xe p na n. Mnh phi cn mt th tt hn c bt git thng

thng m .

(Omo nc git lc xoy: ch cn chm mt vt, ch ln vt bn, cho vo git, nh

tan vt bn mnh gp hai ln bt git thng thng)
B:

Ch! Sch bay vt bn.

Chu: B i!
(Omo nc git m c nh tan vt bn mnh gp hai ln bt git thng thng)
2. Video 2: Qung co Nc git Omo Matic
Con: mnh gip cho. (Ni vi bn)
B:

Vt du nht . a y ba git cho.

Con: Ba h? Ba lm sao git sch nh m c.

B:

Em i. o con li dnh du nht, anh c v bng tay khng nh?

M:

Khng cn u anh.

( c Omo Matic mi, ch cn n, , ch, th. Omo Matic mi v banh git thng
minh s tm v xoy tan cc vt bn cng u. Hiu qu nh chnh tay m git)
Con: M i. Ba git o cho con sch nh m git vy.
(Omo Matic git sch nh chnh tay m git)
3. Video 3: Qung co Thuc i trng Tm Bnh
Nhn vin n:

Cho sp. Sp k hp ng gip em Sp sao vy?

Sp nam:

Ti b vim i trng, au bng, kh chu qu.

Nhn vin n:

Sp hy dng i trng Tm Bnh.

(i trng Tm Bnh h tr iu tr hiu qu vim i trng cp v mn tnh, vim

i trng co tht, ri lon tiu ha, au bng y hi, n ung kh tiu)
Page 5

[CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS/ GENDER

IDEOLOGIES ANALYSIS ESSAY]

Sp nam:

i trng Tm Bnh hay tht!

Sp v nhn vin:

Sn phm ca cng ty Dc phm Tm Bnh. (ng thanh)

(Tm Bnh Mang c tm tnh trong tng sn phm)

Page 6

[CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS/ GENDER

IDEOLOGIES ANALYSIS ESSAY]

Reference lists
1. Moore, T. (2011). Sex Roles - Sex-role stereotypes, Sex-role socialization.
Retrieved 2015, from: http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/575/Sex-Roles.html
2. Ungaretti, J. (2013, August). Gender Role Ideology. Retrieved 2015, from:
http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_15_August_2013/5.pdf
3. Wolska, M. (2011). Gender stereotypes in mass media. Case study: analysis of the
gender stereotyping phenomenon in TV commercials. Retrieved 2015, from:
http://krytyka.org/gender-stereotypes-in-mass-media-case-study-analysis-ofthe-gender-stereotyping-phenomenon-in-tv-commercials/

Page 7