For decades, we’ve heard endless brands and companies pledge their support for women with feminist messaging. We’ve seen the infographics on Instagram, the shared quotes from feminist icons and product campaigns condeming the partichary. But how many of them are actually practicing what they preach?
For too long, feminism has been a huge trend in the marketing world, with brands exploiting the essence of the cause for financial gain without doing the leg work required for tangible change. The phenomenon, known as ‘femme-washing’ or ‘femvertising’ is defined as “the use of feminist values in advertising campaigns for purely economic purposes.” This is essentially a deception tactic used by a company, be it intentional or not, where it leads its consumers to believe its products or brand ethos are more impactful in the fight against sexism than it really is. So, how exactly do we spot when this is the case, as opposed to a geniune act for change?
Here’s what you need to know to avoid getting sucked in by the exploitative trend…
The problem with femme-washing
While it can be argued that marketing campaigns encouraging hashtag feminism through social media buzzwords like #Empowerment or #GirlBoss once led to spreading awareness, their impact could only ever go so far (if anywhere at all) unless backed by a real attempt at making the systemic changes needed to dismantle inequality for women. Sadly, this is hardly ever the case when you take into account just how prevalent the gender pay gap continues to be.
In 2020, the Nordic Statistics Database reported that "men's gross hourly earnings in the Nordic countries are higher than those of women, with a pay gap above zero for all countries and for all years."
In the same year, Statistics Sweden reported that the median amount for the aggregate earned income in the age group 20–64 was SEK 313,800 for women and SEK 375,900 for men. For all persons aged 20–64, the median income was SEK 343,900. Women's income is thus 83 percent of men's income.
Last year, a data report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that women's annual earnings were 82.3 per cent of men's in the US in 2020, and the gap is even wider for many women of colour. What’s worse is that this is across nearly all occupations, meaning no matter what industry women choose a profession in, they will likely earn less than their male counterparts no matter how many feminist adverts we’ve seen in the past decade.
Photo: Getty
Why? Because femme-washing is simply surface level activism that ultimately aims to sell a product. Sure, some initiatives like Dove’s longstanding Real Beauty campaign (which grew the company’s worth from $2.5 billion to $4 billion) and Always’ famous #LikeAGirl campaign - both of which are few companies that preach about feminism and actually have a woman as CEO - have challenged age-old stereotypes and influenced young women in positive ways but they often fall short in other, more important aspects.
“Although femvertising diversifies the representation of women and girls in the media by challenging restrictive beauty standards and damaging rhetoric, it fails to accurately represent or reference the third wave movement by shying away from the feminist label and omitting mentions of intersectionality, sexuality, and storytelling,” writes Alexandra Rae Hunt in ‘Selling Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of Femvertising’ an academic journal published by Boston College University.
How to spot femme washing
Distinguishing femme-washing from real attempts at fighting the feminist cause can be tricky on the outside looking in. It is easy to look at a brand and be impressed by big budget advertising campaigns that centre issues affecting women and may even include some celebrity endorsement to push products aimed at their target audience, which of course, tends to be women. This is when you should ask yourself, what else is being done to achieve equality? Are these values reflected within the company itself in who they hire in top level roles and offer competitive salaries to? Are they using profits to support real grass-root causes that do on-the-ground work for the feminism movement? If the answer is no, then chances are they are simply exploiting feminism for their own financial gain, be it intentional or not.
For femme-washing to seem genuine rather than manipulate, brands have to put their money where their mouth is. They must make sustained efforts to not only empower women and girls but create a path to equality the way they position themselves to be doing in customer-facing marketing campaigns. Partnering with organisations or using their power to leverage some sort of impactful change that goes beyond a viral hashtag is a start. Promoting feminism whilst internally reinforcing a patriarchal system by perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards, discriminating against women or actively contributing to the gender pay gap is hypocrisy at its finest and should always be called out.