Advertisers should use their influence to ‘break down gender stereotypes’ in society.

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have recently backed a campaign that aims to break down gender stereotypes - urging advertisers, for example, to depict women mowing the lawn.

Advertisers usually pick female actresses or influencers when trying to sell cleaning products and men when they want to sell power tools.

Speaking to Lunchtime Live, Barbara in Kildare said advertising has a “huge role to play in how we reflect ourselves in society” and the industry “can definitely steer the conversation.”

“For the first time ever, we’re hearing menopause being mentioned by advertisers,” she said.

“So, I do think it’s very much a part of advertising that reflects our society and you’d hope would steer our society as well.

“The power of advertising, if it’s done in the right way, it can really help to break down the stereotypes.”

A female engineer putting tools into a bucket truck

Another caller, Eilís, said she felt hugely inspired after watching women complete DIY projects online.

“I hadn’t given it any thought really until recently, [when] I’ve been looking at YouTube on how to do things in the house,” she said.

“I’ve never used a screwdriver in my life before.”

Cooking in a kitchen. Picture by: FreeProd / Alamy Stock Photo

Eilís said beforehand she had just done  “traditional women things” around the house, before finding the videos.

“I’m on YouTube and I see women putting up doorways and making frames for all sorts of things,” she said.

“There’s women out with their power tools and they can do all of this.

“So, I’m thinking, ‘I can do it too. Why am I waiting for a small jobs person to come to do all the little handyman works? I can do it.’

“So, if I can pick that up from something like Pinterest and YouTube, then surely we are being influenced by what we see in adverts?”

A study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in the US found that there are four times as many men in adverts as there are women.

Main image: A man with cleaning tools. Picture by: Alamy.com