Gender Roles And Power Issues - 2393 Words

A fresh university graduate looks for a job in the journalism industry. A number one fashion magazine in New York provides this opportunity as an assistant to the editor. The experience completely flips her life around, and changes not only her appearances but also starts affecting her personal relationships. The end of the film sees the character move away from the fashion industry and into a traditional newspaper agency. The two main characters present in The Devil Wears Prada are the fashion editor, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, and the assistant, Andrea Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway. There sub-characters such as Andrea’s boyfriend, Andrea’s father, and Miranda’s husband that play key roles in both Andrea’s and Miranda’s†¦show more content†¦Gender stereotypes â€Å"reflect percievers’ observations of what people do in daily life† (Eagly and Steffan, 1984) and remain if perceivers continue to observe a certain group engaged in specific activities, which then turn into assumptions that the group is able to perform such tasks. When it comes to gender roles, Heilman (2001) suggests that there are two roles that either gender can possess, agentic or communal. Agentic behaviour is usually associated with men, and portrays the idea of being achievement orientated and taking charge (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, and Hogg, 2013). Additionally, leadership and manager attributes such as, problem solving, risk taking, and being active are associated with an agentic, masculine figure (Heilman, 2001). Women, on the other hand, show communal attributes that are associated with care taking, helpful, and relationship orientated. Sczesny’s work (2003) introduced the common assumption that managerial positions are male dominated, â€Å"think manager – think male†, and crisis situations are associated with females (Haslam Ryan, 2007). An issue that many women still face in the corporate world is the glass ceiling NEED TO EXPAND Power and gender are common topics in movies and is especially prevalent in The Devil Wears Prada (Lee, 2006). The character of Miranda radiates power and Cunneen (2006) sees Miranda as a figure of