The Changing Role Of Women

The changing role of women:

• Nowadays, they have jobs, whereas previously this would've been less common. This is because the hegemonic roles of women have shifted over the last one hundred years.
• The changing of perception of women in society was because of the right to vote. This was the suffragette movement. They were previously not allowed to vote because they were viewed as unintelligent and therefore less valuable than men, because they contributed less to society. There was also an argument made, that women would only vote for the candidate they fancied.
• There was also a feminist movement. First wave feminism emerged roughly in the 1960's. The argument of the feminists were equal rights, and that is what they were fighting for.
• They also addressed other things such as the wage difference. This is arguably because of the old beliefs from years ago.
• Feminism is viewed as a challenge to patriarchal hegemony.

ideology - the messages, beliefs and values of the producer

hegemony - the rules in society which people follow, despite there being no consequences. 

anchorage - the way meaning is fixed

David Gauntlet - theories of identity

• Audiences are not passive and media products allow the audience to construct their own identities
• By way of examples, what subcultures exist around.
• genres of music
• certain genres of tv shows (eg - Science Fiction )
• certain genres of video games (eg - MMORPG's)

Pick and Mix Theory - Audiences can pick and mix ideologies which suit them, and completely ignore the elements of the product which they do not agree with. They can pick and choose whatever they want to get out of a product. It also allows audiences to ignore things they do not care about.

The articles show three differently priced kitchens, which are all relatively cheap. Even the £20 kitchen, although the highest price, is only equivalent to around £400 nowadays. This shows that the audience are working class.

Specific sentences associated with the pick and mix theory:

"So any girl can assemble it quickly." Some readers may believe the newspaper is simply being helpful and making it easier. Others may believe that they are being degrading towards women, because this implies are not as physically able as men. There are two different ideological perspectives explored: one, that a women's life should be made easier because they're working hard. Two, that a woman is less physically able than a man,

"A buy to last a lifetime of hard work." This could show the ideology that the product is simply just good and works well, because it can withstand a lot of use. Whereas it could also show the ideology that all a woman's life is, is to work in the kitchen.