Self and Identity of Being an Ideal Woman: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Ranjitha G.P. and Anandakuttan B. Unnithan

IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, 2018, vol. 7, issue 1, 33-44

Abstract: Gender roles and their stereotyped behaviour is influenced by various factors, both external and internal, during the course of an individual’s life. But, the identity of being an ideal woman is allegedly triggered by marketing. It seems to create an identity benchmark in the society and a pressure in women to comply with these identity standards. These efforts to adhere to the ideal woman benchmark is reflected in women’s consumption. But, what does it mean to be an ideal woman? To explore this, we conducted 20 interviews. The study identified that being an ideal woman is being beautiful and feminine, and to have stereotyped perfect bodies and behaviour. These seem to be driven by the expectations from men, which bring transitions in a woman’s public and private self. The study also discusses the implications to marketing and advertising.

Keywords: Self; identity; ideal woman; compliance pressure; ideal consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277975217733883 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:iimkoz:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:33-44

DOI: 10.1177/2277975217733883

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().