Gendered Advertising During the 1940s
Gendered Advertising During the 1940s
In this page, we will explore characteristics of telephone advertisements featuring men versus women during the 1940s, showing the ways in which gender norms and expectations shaped the marketing strategies of telephone companies. Before the Second World War ended, the early forties saw telephone advertisements that suggested that telephones were a part of the war effort. In these advertisements, men were oftentimes dressed as soldiers or as working men installing phone lines. This was starkly contrasted by advertisements featuring women during this period because women were often seen smiling with a phone in their hand with a message saying that switchboard operators work with a smile and stay positive while they are on the phone to do their part in keeping up wartime morale. The contrast between how men and women were portrayed in these advertisements reflects the gender roles during this period and their relation to the telephone.
“The Service with a Smile” campaign was an initiative started by Bell Telephone System company as part of the war effort. During the world wars, women dominated the field of switchboard operators. Initially, the job had been done by teenage boys up to the 1910s but they were not the best people for the job because they did not have the proper work ethic and manners for serving customers.[1] As a result, telephone companies began employing women to replace them.[2] This change was beneficial not only for the betterment of customer service but also for practical reasons as well. During the yearly decades of the telephone, male voices were less audible than female voices as women were, on average, more likely to enunciate and speak in a tone that was better suited for the telephone.[3] This led women to dominate the field of switchboard operators and be seen as the main face of the telephone during wartime.
The text in Figure 1 is asking Bell users to do their part to ensure speedy service by making calls during off-peak hours. The way this advertisement is written includes many linguistic features that are stereotyped as feminine, such as exclamation points to represent enthusiasm and language that is not assertive, and the advertisement ends with a “thank you!” This gives the advertisement a pleasant and familiar tone which matches the smiling woman beside it. In contrast, advertisements featuring men (see Fig. 2) use assertive language which is associated with masculinity and does not use exclamation points and does not thank the reader, giving the advertisement a serious and direct tone. This linguistic trend of polite women and assertive men is seen throughout telephone advertisements during the forties.
Figures 2 and 3 show the contrast between the presentation of men and women in advertisements for the telephone. In Figure 3, there is a poised woman desk working for the Telephone Business Office with a telephone. At the top of the advertisement, there is an image of two soldiers setting up telephone equipment. In addition, the advertisement (Fig. 4) uses the blatant masculinization of the telephone by placing it on the battlefront and describing it as a “weapon of war.” These hypermasculine advertisements tell the audience that this is not just a phone they are advertising, but a powerful tool that will serve the average man no matter where he is. The differences between the advertisements featuring men compared to the advertisements with women show not only the perception of how men and women exist in relation to the telephone but also demonstrate social expectations for men and women during this time.
“Are You Half-Way Polite on the Phone?” (Fig. 5) is an article explaining telephone etiquette to the reader. At the beginning of the article, it tells men that when they ask their secretary to make a phone call for them, they should be prepared to answer the phone the article also the term “voice with a smile” referring to women—referring to secretaries and switchboard operators—on the telephone. This points to the importance of women having a friendly and approachable demeanour on the telephone, and pointing out problems men have in terms of telephone etiquette.
Figure 5 is also an interesting article because it points out the narrative surrounding how women use the telephone in the 1940s. The article stereotypes women as having a lot of free time and loving to chat on the phone and the idea that women have an abundance of free time is a baseless and unfair assumption. During the 1940s, women were expected to do domestic labours such as caring for the family, making meals, and cleaning the house, which does not point to life with unlimited leisure time. This article is important for studying the 1940s perspectives on the telephone because it suggests that women are the primary users of the telephone and are more likely to use it for long conversations. Comparatively, the article suggests that telephone usage between men and women is different. For men, it is largely assumed that they will be using the telephone for business rather than leisure for the most part. It is also assumed that in many cases, men will have assistance from a, presumably female, secretary.
Considering the social perspective of telephone usage, women are the primary users of the telephone and are most likely to use them for leisure in the home rather than men. This suggests that for advertisers, the advantageous approach would be to target advertisements for the telephone towards women. They are the demographic that is likely to use the telephone in the home, which is the important demographic to target rather than businesses, as households would represent the largest market of buyers, they would have to persuade to get a telephone because they were owned by 36.8 percent of American households in the 1940s, which was a 4 percent drop from the 1930s (see Fig 6).
[1] Emily Yellin, Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us: Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives (New York: Free Press, 2009), 26-27.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.