Stellar point, Martha! Excellent!

I agree with you. Using human images for icons on the Degrees.info Website was a big mistake. The icons convey gender stereotypes about various professions. Who says all psychologists are men or all educators are women?

Some stereotypes are so engrained in our society that people are no longer aware of them. Little by little, we’ve been bombarded by media images and stories indicating which professions are appropriate for which genders, and over time people have begun to believe those stereotypes without question.

But many of us are only too conscious of those stereotypes, and we question them and want nothing to do with companies who promote them. I think companies need to be more aware of the subtle messages they’re sending their audiences. Females who visit the Degrees.info Website may not consciously think, “Well, I guess I can’t get a Graphics Design degree because the icon for the degree has a man on it.” However, they may get an uneasy sense that things are not exactly kosher with the company and decide to leave the site.

As a usability professional, I always tell people, “Web visitors are smart. They may not know exactly what’s wrong with a Website or a company in terms of the wrong fonts, the wrong images, the wrong colors, or the wrong message — but they will sense that something is not quite right and go elsewhere.”

Companies need to learn to be more careful of those “unconscious” messages they’re sending out with their content and their images!

Sincerely,

Martha Roden

I don’t think you’re reading too much into it at all. It’s funny how these things are so subliminal and only if you’re really paying attention do you see them.

I think as women we’re socialized to pick the “soft” jobs and almost everything that surrounds training and education supports this.

The best thing is to be aware and alert. And, also to use your voice, as you have done here, to point out:

“Hey, even if you didn’t mean for this to appear this way, this is how this looks to me.”

Women are always being told we’re too sensitive or that we read too much into matters. I like to think of it as an on-board B.S. meter and we should use it as often as we can.

That doesn’t excuse the fact that this company clearly didn’t have anyone with at least one marketing brain cell review this ad before they launched it.

On second thought, maybe they did…

Thanks for honoring yourself (and us) by speaking up.

-Lena

Holly- perhaps they only generated single-sex personae for each category!