The Perception of Femwashing - A qualitative study of how women perceive femwashing

Abstract: Women and men are commonly seen in advertising and are frequently used to exaggerate products and encourage consumption. Studies show that such advertisements could include sexual objectification, unrealistic stereotypes, and unrealistic views of specifically women. Consequently, movements against this type of advertising have been made by empowering women through femvertising. However, more recent studies show that there are cases in which companies make marketing communication efforts that emphasize female empowerment, diversity, and equality, even though it might not reflect their actual practices, that is, they perform femwashing. Since femwashing is a relatively new phenomenon, a qualitative study with inspiration of a phenomenological approach was applied. This research examines how women perceive femwashing and thus, provides an understanding of the phenomenon. The research indicates that women perceive femwashing as negative since it makes them feel critical, skeptical, pressured, misled, naive and provoked. The results contribute to the currently relatively limited field of femwashing as it presents a conceptualization of femwashing from a consumer perspective through four dimensions. These dimensions are inauthenticity, non- transparency, inconsistency, and non- relatability.