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Nine out of 10 people pictured in charity posters are women

by 6 Comments

Is charity for girls? Glen Poole’s snap survey of charity fundraising posters suggests that we don’t care as much about men and boys. 
Last night I was on a train from London St Pancras to Brighton and decided to pass the time by taking a snap survey of the gender balance in the charity posters in the four carriages. This is what I discovered:
  • There were 8 different charities advertised
  • There were 11 different charity posters on display
  • There were a total of  19 charity posters
  • There were 10 women, 4 girls and 2 men pictured in the posters
  • Put another way, 9 out of 10 people pictured were women girls
  • Where the charities referred to the gender of people they were trying to help, 12 out of 15 (80%) were female
  • Where charities pictured the people they wanted to help, 100% were women and girls
  • 100% of children referenced were girls (no boys were mentioned)
  • Parents were referenced 9  times and 78% (or 7 out of 9) were mums
  • Nine people pictured were fundraisers, again 78% (or 7 out of 9) were women

Is charity just for girls?

So what does this tell us about public attitudes towards men, women, boys and girls? Big charities aren’t stupid. They know what sells. The top 1,000 charities in the UK raise £11.5 billion every year in voluntary donations. Charity is big, BIG business and big business knows that all of us, men and women, are collectively more tolerant of the harm that happens to men and boys. If you want to raise money, you’ve more chance of doing it if you tell people women and girls are suffering.

And what message does this send to men and boys? That we are less valued by society, that we are not cared for as much as women, that we are not as vulnerable, that we don’t need the help of others, that we are tough and strong and should “man up” and get on with our lives and not expect help when we face problems in life. Is it any wonder that men are less likely to access help and support when they need it, when the constant message that we give to men and boys collectively is that we don’t need and don’t deserve help and support from others?

I’m not going to pretend that this was a thorough, scientific survey but it has long been my experience  that charities favour women and girls in their advertising and this quick count confirmed that suspicion. Here’s a bit more information on some of the posters that were on display:

Combat Stress: Pictures the mother of a veteran impacted by combat stress, because it’s easier to sympathize with a soldier’s mum, that a big, strong male soldier.

Concern: asked us to stop hunger for children like Halime, who they made clear is a girl! Because starving boys can save themselves.

Macmillan: showed cancer sufferer Colleen and her friends raising money and encouraged others to do the same.

Breast Cancer Campaign: showed three women and a token bloke raising money for a female cancer.

 

Breakthrough Breast Cancer: ran a poster about a mothers’ day card that was never sent because mum died of breast cancer.

 

The National Brain Appeal: used gender neutral stick people to promote its Pyjama Party fundraiser.

The Alzheimer’s Society: used a word based poster to tell a fictional story of a man visiting his daughter and not remembering which stop to get off on the tube:

The RLSB: pictured a blind baby girl, Emma, and her mum and focussed on the feelings that mums feel when their baby girls are diagnosed with blindness.

 

 

 

 

Tell us what you think. Do you think men and boys are invisible in charity campaigns and does it matter? And next time you on a train, tube or bus, why not do a quick count yourself and tell us what you discover. 

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Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

  • Nigel

    Not a surprise. And I expect people may go on about the “stating the obvious”. But in fact it needs needs stating. Rather like the piece you did on expectations around work and breadwinning these things are simultaneously “obvious” and actually invisible. However one dresses this: “benign sexism”, “gynocentrism”, “misandry” and so on it is clear that boys and men get short shrift in our society. This needs to be known as it has real consequences for real people.

  • Darren Ball

    Examples of society favouring the needs of women over men, especially their physical needs, are so numerous and obvious that it’s now time to ask “why” rather than “if”.

    I believe it’s because we’re still living in a patriarchy (rule by the father), it’s just that father has mellowed with age and has stopped being the dominant abusive type of dad and become one of those dads who dotes on his daughters, trying to give them whatever they ask for.

    Feminists should reject this form of patriarchy completely (and some do) because it is the polar opposite of female empowerment and the precise definition of being patronised by the state, its institutions and our zeitgeist (the father).

    The great irony is that when feminism pushes against a door, that door is often opened for them by the traditionally conservative and gallant. Feminism and gallantry may have opposing ideologies, but they very often converge on the same answer: women first.

    This would explain the rapid advancement of feminism – it’s just changed the style of patriarchy, which is not that much of a shift.

  • Sean Dean

    This is just another example of the “Birkenhead Drill” that old stalwart of “women and children first” a very subtle and insidious form of programing where men are to be just seen as a utility and not as people or god forbid human! Advertisers know of this programing and exploit it ruthlessly to further there clients agenda or product. Humans respond better (by that I mean the response is more visceral ) to pictures of snotty nosed doe eyed infant girls being “forced” to collect water for there families, cut to the heart aching shot of a woman trying to breastfeed a sick infant and fade to company logo with heartfelt voice-over (ironically voiced by a man) pleading for money.

    Men are not shown because our model of society has no room for men that are in a state of need. Men are not allowed to be portrayed as a victim of anything, including war,( take a look at the reporting of the crisis in Gaza, very little mention of any male Palestinians being killed, the normal refrain from the news outlets was one of “mostly women and children killed”) this would destroy the narrative of eternal female victimhood and render the patriarchy argument moot for an awful lot of people.

    For men to be seen in a more positive way will be a long and difficult row to hoe. Women should come to terms with the fact that the world does not revolve around them, humankind is a binary star system where each needs the other to function and with the gravity of this system being heavily biased in favour of one star the whole lot will just rip itself apart and it will all go to hell in a handcart.

    Until we as men stand up and actually point out and refute the negative portrayal of men in our society then things will stay status quo.

    peace be with you

  • Nigel

    The Birkenhead Drill. It is interesting because it’s essentially a Victorian invention. Prior to the steam age very very few women went on ships. The “Drill” was a codification following notorious cases where women and children had gone down in the more traditional “every man for himself”. One of many Victorian innovations in Law and social etiquette which codified protections for children and women. In Work, Finance, Crime and so on, often as the result of lobbying from women’s groups, the women and children first society took shape. It is interesting that the very laws and mores challenged in the 60s and abolished in the 70s were historically recent ( often less than 80 years old) . Rather than ancient and ingrained. 
    In a way this is hopeful as it means that much we take as deeply held or even natural is in fact quite malleable. 

  • http://redpilluk.co.uk/ William Collins

    I fear it may be worse than just bias in the advertising. I suspect many charities for foreign aid are gender biased in respect of who receives the aid. I have recently discontinued monthly standing orders to two charities which had been running for decades because I became aware that they specifically target assistance on women and girls only. I am no expert in this area, but I have an uncomfortable feeling that in providing aid direct to women, and cutting out the men, poor African men simply loose all reason to exist – and so turn to alcohol or join militias. I didn’t want to contribute to that. Previously I had been naïve about charitable giving. But I now see that charities are political organisations – and hence potentially pernicious.

  • Steve Rusch

    Yeah, when I got home to Chicago from Haiti at the end of January, 2010, I hit the internet for news, and it was then that I discovered a U. N. program involving food aid for women and children only. Women— and children— ONLY! Blew— my— mind—

    I don’t have a link. Should be easy enough to google it up, if necessary. It’s there, I assure you. It has come up in other recent comment section conversations, after the Emma Watson brain-fart.

    Could it be that the women are in the pictures because the men are all in the field, doin’ the work? ;-] (Not really. There were plenty of good, sturdy women-folk workin’ that bad scene.)

    BUT, BUT… Ya wanna know how to execute a food drop to a large, famished tent-city without getting mauled to death? If you know what you’re doing, it’s almost a one-person job! (As long as you KNOW you can deliver WITHOUT RUNNIN’ OUT.)

    YOU ORGANIZE THE LOCAL MEN! They’ll get it organized, keep order, and see to equitable distribution at risk of dishonor among men. ( :-! ) See the following video, and note how many MEN are most directly involved…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHzYFFIYQqA
    Especially @ 03:58

    Most of those medical personnel pictured in the rest of the video are people flown in by another organization that I worked with. I lived at that airport for a while, in a tent, after setting up a residential compound for the docs, nurses and EMT’s. (Noise, anybody?) I saw all that stuff pictured in the opening shots. I did a bunch of gas-for-generator and household purchasing with one of these guys, a Haitian-American, first seen @— okay, it’s just his voice, heard @ 04:43. And then I did odds and ends in manual labor in a medical supply tent at the airport while waiting for a cargo-class return flight. I only regret that I couldn’t afford to stay longer than 2 weeks.

    It was a uniquely, ineffably thrilling experience. My highest recommendation?— If you EVER have the chance, do some volunteer work!! (!!!)