Gender in Editorial Illustration: A Century of Gender Representation in The New Yorker

Within arts and culture research, the debate on gender representation has inspired many studies on visual culture as images are believed to reflect as well as shape social and cultural stereotypes. Despite the rise of new media, illustrations continue to be an important source of cultural output. Scholars argue illustrations to play an important role of learning gender among young audience and previous research has scrutinised gender roles in children’s book illustrations. These accounts have identified specific markers that indicate gender identities and assessed them on their potential to reproduce gender stereotypes. Yet, visual culture continues to inform gender frameworks throughout adult life and studies on advertisement have found distinct dimensions of gender display that define femininity and masculinity. Combining both approaches, the here presented research investigates gender representations in illustrations targeted at adults and asks: How are gender identities represented in editorial illustrations and how have they evolved throughout the last century? For the purpose of this study, a qualitative content analysis of almost one hundred cover illustrations of The New Yorker published between 1925 and 2023 was conducted. Through semiotic analysis, patterns in representational elements such as activities, clothing, and gestures were discovered. The examination of narrative and conceptual structures elucidated on conventions of gender representations within editorial illustrations and their changes throughout time in nexus with socio-historical developments in the United States. The research concludes that the portrayal of men and women in The New Yorker changes in congruence with socio-historical developments, i.e., ideologies promoted by feminist waves. However, the covers predominantly reflect the evolution of gender roles and visual markers with some delay rather than overtly challenge them. The illustrations continuously emphasise women’s roles as mothers and wives and rely on established male and female dress codes to express gender identities. Furthermore, Goffman’s dimensions of gender display in advertisement are not consistently present in the studied illustrations, which suggests that women are less infantilised in editorial illustrations and that other frameworks of representations may be more appropriate for the future investigations of this artistic genre. Lastly, this study shows that the combination of gendered narratives and concepts allows for the depiction of ambiguous gender identities, whereas the absence of gender markers results in the identity being read as male. This is of particular importance for creators and publishers who aspire for more egalitarian and inclusive representation.