Library and Information Science Commons^™

Gender Roles In Technology Product Advertisements In Library Trade Magazines, Julia K. Nims

University Library Faculty Scholarship

Several studies on the depiction of gender roles in high tech product advertisements have concluded that women frequently are portrayed as passive users of technology while men are shown as masters of technological innovations. I examined ten issues from each of four library and information science trade magazines published in 2007-2008 to discover if advertisements for high tech products in them contain gender role stereotypes or if they more accurately reflect the use of technology by women librarians. Two titles – Library Journal and American Libraries – are more traditional library magazines, while Computers in Libraries and Online are newer …