Even advertising has a male gender!

We have left behind March 8, International Women's Day. Once again, it was as if women were granted their rights with flowery words squeezed into a single day; we read them, and we did not believe them. We did not believe them because internalizing gender equality is a long and arduous journey. It is important that it does not remain just words and is put into action.

Women, who fight for an equal life in every field, are forced to put up tough struggles to survive at home, at work, in the fields, in factories, in politics—in short, in every social environment where they exist. Most of the time, this struggle they wage remains unrequited and ends with their rights being violated. According to research, while women are expected to have a much higher level of education than their male colleagues in working life, they end up working for 20 percent less pay when it comes to salary. Moreover, the possibility of a woman becoming a mother is also seen as a danger in business life. While a man with three children is not seen as a problem by managers and employers, a woman with three children is treated as a "deficient" human being. While gender inequality seeps into the capillaries of life in almost every area from childhood, it becomes even more unjust when cultural influences are added.

How do you think gender inequality settles into the subconscious?

In the process of gender inequality seeping into these capillaries, the advertisements, words, and phrases you encounter every day ensure that an unequal approach is shaped in the subconscious from childhood. For example, while advertisements position women more as a figure who cleans, cooks, and washes dishes in the kitchen, it is always a male voice that explains how good the product is. We can say that this is just one of the elements that makes you internalize that power, strength, and decision-making belong to men. If the woman in the advertisement is not in the role of a mother or a woman washing dishes in the kitchen, she can then be presented to you as a sexual object in an ice cream commercial. In that case, it is not enough for her to be just a good wife or a good mother; she must also take on the model of a "superwoman" who has achieved physical perfection.

In this regard, the "10-Year Gender Equality Report Card of Effie Award-Winning Television Commercials in Turkey," conducted for the first time in 2018 by the Advertisers Association, stated that the gender of advertising is male. Yes, you read that right: in Turkey, the gender of advertisements is male!

It was revealed that only 35 percent of the main characters used in advertisements are women, while 65 percent consist of men. As for the voice-over used in advertisements, 89 percent are male, while the female ratio is 10 percent. In other words, that "trustworthy" voice telling you to buy the product always belongs to a man. According to the results of the same research, the sector where women are seen most in advertisements is home cleaning and care products with 91 percent, followed by fashion, textile, and accessory advertisements with 80 percent. The sectors where women are seen the least in advertisements are banking with 4 percent and telecommunications with 6 percent! I guess they think women can't be bankers.

This did not seem foreign to me at all. While it is seen that women in politics are generally represented at the ministerial level in areas related to the family, we never come across female politicians in the fields of economy, finance, or national security. The political analysts commenting on screens are men; the party leaders, group deputy chairmen, chamber presidents, association presidents, mayors, and even neighborhood heads (muhtars) are mostly men!

Social roles coded from childhood create a massive obstacle to the equal representation of women. Therefore, for equality in essence rather than just in words, it is necessary to first internalize equality and weave it into every area of life. Even advertising has a male gender; just imagine the rest!