Filipino Women Ad-Makers’ Standpoint on their Professional Environment’s Regard of Women and Women in Beauty Product Ads

Abstract

This paper rests on a premise that women ad-makers’ experience in the act of making advertisements (ads) of beauty products places them in a complex situation of ‘encoding’ ad content. They are not just making any other advertisement, but ads of products that have them as target consumers by virtue of them being women. Using Sandra Harding’s Standpoint Theory and employing an interpretivist paradigm, this article answers the question: How do Filipino women ad-makers perceive their environment’s regard of women as workers and of women characters in the ads they make? Using maximum variation sampling, twelve (12) women advertisement makers were included in in-depth semi-structured interviews; and another twelve (12) were included in two (2) focus group discussions (FGDs). Qualitative analysis reveals that the ad-makers have a strong situated procedural knowledge on how the professional standard of the advertising industry either impedes on or facilitates how women maneuver through their work life.