The Promotion of Gender Equality in Advertising

The Consumer General Directorate of Portugal – whose powers include the supervision and monitoring of commercial and institutional advertising and the conduct of administrative offence proceedings – has recently published a document entitled “Recommendation on the Use of Gender Stereotypes in Marketing Communications”.

In this regard, the Consumer General Directorate “reminds” the representative associations and the economic operators that advertising should neither reinforce the stereotypes of male dominance over women nor portrait men as unable to perform household chores or to take care of children.

Accordingly, this entity recommends the promotion of a diversified and realistic representation of the skills of both men and women in society and the usage of inclusive language. Furthermore, the Consumer General Directorate emphasises that the industry professionals shall contribute to the consumer’s information and education on such matters.

Will this cease the dissemination of the gender stereotypes in advertising campaigns? Maybe not. However, it undoubtedly represents an important step towards the end of gender inequality, sexism and misogyny in this industry and even in society in general, given the social impact of advertising.