Author details

Gender has opened up new lines of research in the field of marketing. Expanding the market perspective with the current social situation, conditions and context of women and men in mind can be advantageous for brands and companies. If we want to reach everyone, women must be included in the analysis of the exchange relationships, taking into account their viewpoints, which may differ from the predominant ones, and starting to think about new methods, new

Although the gap between the female and the male realms is gradually shrinking, the marketing discourse still remains somewhat sexist, limiting women to the private sphere, confining them into preset images and definitions that do not describe their reality. The distribution of tasks continues to prevail, and it is easy to see that certain household products are only offered to women, men not being considered potential consumers. Women are still being used as a constant lure to sell and to seduce men, an object to be used, desired, had, purchased, enjoyed and discarded. Doing away with these degrading images and continuing to progress towards a gender perspective that pervades the entire marketing sector must be one of the priority

It is also important to recall that men are now facing new responsibilities, a certain identity crisis, new places in the private sphere, etc., whereas women are experiencing changes and social pressures and feeling that yearned-for "independence" that is starting to be a constant in their lives. Marketing professionals who are knowledgeable about these new needs will create better strategies to reach their audience better. Let us not forget that all current studies indicate that women take more purchasing decisions than men. On average, women affect 83–87% of the purchasing decisions in households and many brands and companies are attempting to attract female clientele because it is becoming clear that they are the ones who make the

Market segmenting is one of the fundamental strategies of marketing. By integrating the gender perspective into product and service management, companies more effectively respond to the public's needs, developing new product ranges and, in this way, building loyalty.

There is still a long way to go, and we must free ourselves from the traditional marketing approach that held a completely masculine world view, endeavouring to abandon that old way of viewing and facing the world. We must support inclusive marketing that seeks to fulfil the needs of all human beings and respects and integrates human dignity in all its sales

In this chapter, we have examined the work done by the United Nations to defend and implement equality for women throughout the world from the time it was created until the fourth and final United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing. Of the three periods into which the chapter is divided, the first focused on describing the period of legal defence of women's rights, spanning from 1945 to 1970. Originally, the fight was aimed at

strategies. Marketing should promote justice and full personal development.

approaches and new instruments that are more aligned with the new social reality.

goals set by this sector.

90 Marketing

6. Conclusions

decisions and, thus, are the ones that must be swayed.

Pilar Gimenez Armentia\*, Carmen de la Calle Maldonado and Sonia González Iglesias

\*Address all correspondence to: p.gimenez.prof@ufv.es

Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain
