I’m waiting on a phone call from my husband at any minute.

Here’s why: Since my daughters are going back to middle school from holiday break this morning, they have a new semester schedule… and one of the electives they put on my older daughter’s schedule was incorrect. Since they didn’t get this updated schedule until the last day before break, we haven’t had any time to get it fixed (it was different than what we were given as her year-long schedule on the first day of school last summer). So, it has to be taken care of this morning; as my husband drops them off on his way to the office, it was easier for him to go in and speak with someone about it. However, there’s not a lot of faith that it will be a successful effort, and I’ll have to make a slew of follow-up phone calls myself.

Why, you ask? I can think of no other reason than “I’m the Mommy.”

Regardless of the fact that I’m not (nor have I ever been) a stay-at-home mom, and my husband is as engaged (if not even moreso) in caring for our children as I am, when it comes to their welfare – whether it’s had to do with nannies, preschool, school, medical care, or any product or service related to caring for them since the day they were born – the whole temperament, expectation, and experience has been geared towards me. It’s like he’s almost invisible, and he hates it! I’ve often gotten frustrated and asked, “I’m sorry, did I fall into a time warp and come out in the 1950s or something? Are dads not allowed – and not encouraged – to be involved with their kids’ schooling and personal welfare?”

Regardless of how far we *think* we’ve progressed, there are still many false gender stereotypes, and a lot of them are perpetuated in today’s marketing and advertising. When was the last time you saw a commercial with kids at home or coming home from school, and there was a :::gasp::: DAD waiting for them with some goodies? When was the last time you saw a family together in a commercial where the dad was anything more than a griping, irritated, cranky sidekick – or just acting like one of the kids himself? Or a cell phone commercial that claimed women or teenage girls did anything besides talk all day? A perfect example of that is the new Virgin Mobile ad campaign; see a link to one of the ads below this paragraph. Though this campaign is purportedly geared towards women, it’s done from a stereotypical man’s point of view: Not only does it focus on the stereotype about a woman’s endless talking, it also makes a lame attempt at trying to empower a woman by including inappropriate “locker room talk” on the phone about her boss. Grrr, I’ll just let you watch for yourself:

Virgin Mobile TV ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1myX82TuWA

The funny thing is, I don’t think this ad hits the mark on either women or men. It’s just sort of lame.

Regardless of how “progressed” we’re supposed to be today, these kind of generalities and sexism still pervades a majority of industries… and it causes a lot messaging, branding, and advertising to completely miss the mark to both genders.

I’m not saying that men and women don’t have different criteria when making purchasing decisions! Plenty of studies have shown that there are generally two very distinct differences:

• Men generally purchase based on a check-off list of criteria, so they tend to scavenge Websites, to see if they can find the features they desire;

• Women tend to really focus on the value they’re getting, including the connection or relationship with a product/service/company they feel is best in the long run. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that today’s fastest adopters and users of social media are – you guessed it – women!

So, unless you have a product or service that is undeniably geared at only men or women – and there are really very few – when you’re developing the messaging for your product or service, you have to make sure you address both genders, the way they make their purchase decisions, and how they would relate to it in terms of today’s world – not the 1950′s!

:::sigh::: Now, if you’ll excuse me, as expected, I must call the guidance office at the middle school…

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