Womens role in the development of American consumer culture - Essay Example

Women’s role in the development of American consumer culture There is a perception that women’s role in the development of consumer culture has remained unchanged ever since the colonial times, whereas the reality is that women have become much more active and protagonists of the consumer culture today than they were in the past. Jewish women in America have been engaged in business as small-scale proprietors and merchants ever since the colonial period. Women in those times manufactured light consumer goods in the big cities as well as on the frontier.

Some of them like Beatrice Fox Auerbach gained major regional reputations (Heinze, 2015). The business activities of the American women in the colonial period were oriented around the well-being of their home and family, so things like fashion were of tertiary importance to them. Unlike them, the modern American women get in fashion as soon as they reach adolescence. Modern American women smoke and drink in public, and embrace consumer culture. One way in which the role of women has significantly changed in the consumer culture in America since the colonial period is that women today have become the means of propagation of consumer culture both through consumption and through advertising.

The ad of a new car is incomplete without a lady oozing sex appeal standing next to it in the poster. Women have become more of sexualized objects in the media unlike women of the colonial period. The sexual objectification is voluntarily portrayed in ads to draw increased attention of the consumers. Besides, gender equality and women empowerment have made women equally strong consumers today as men. References:Heinze, A. (2015). Advertising and Consumer Culture in the United States. Jewish Women’s Archive.

Retrieved from http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/advertising-and-consumer-culture-in-united-states.