A Comparative Analysis of Female Images in Chinese and Foreign Advertisements

摘要：本文旨在对中外广告中各种女性形象进行对比，分析其差异的原因，特别是广告中的女性形象与社会性别差异的关系。在有限效果论和社会角色理论框架下，通过网络调查和阅读相关文献的研究方法对比各种案例，得出了三个结果。本论文发现，除了有相似之处外，中外广告在许多广告类别中，女性形象的差异很大，造成差异的五个原因包括政策、商业文化、广告体制、社会构成和社会意识形态因素，并且女性形象与性别歧视的关系是相互影响的。因此，本研究从三方面提出了改善广告中女性形象的方法，以此对社会女性表示尊重，促进大力推进性别平等。

关键词：女性形象，中外广告，性别关系

Abstract: This paper is aimed at contrasting various female images in Chinese and foreign advertisements and analyzing the causes for the differences, especially the relationship between the manifestations of ads and social gender gap. Under the theoretical frameworks of the limited effect theory and social role theory and via the research methods of online observations and reading relevant reports, this study has achieved three findings by contrasting various examples. This thesis has found that aside from sharing similarities, Chinese and foreign advertisements differ a lot in terms of female images in the majority of the selected advertising categories. Five reasons causing the differences include policy factors, commercial culture, advertising system factors, social formation factors and social ideology factors. And the relationship between female images and gender discrimination is two-way. Therefore, this study suggests three ways to improve the female images in advertisements so as to show respect towards females in society and vigorously push forward gender equality.

Key words: female images, Chinese and foreign advertisements, gender gap