Idea One: Representation and Sexualisation of women in the media over the years.
Looking at how the way women are portrayed in the media, and reviewing how much this has changed across the years. In a society that claims to be more equal than it ever has been, this can easily be questioned due to the thousands of adverts using women to sexualise their products, along with the consistent use women of women in television and as a love interest for the protagonist or a non-speaking role.
Idea Two: Why sexism towards women exists.
As something that appears to have existed for many years, it would be interesting to know why exactly women experience such sexism, where it came from, and how it developed.
Idea Three: Why we need feminism in modern day society.
There is often a stigma against the feminist movement in modern day society - many saying we don't need feminism any more, it often being pushed aside as a dated concept. But in a society where only 25% of the people running our country are women and where the pay gap remains at 10%, it is starkly obvious that there is still a need for the change that the feminist movement could bring.
As all three ideas are quite similar, I have done a SWOT analysis to cover all three.
Strengths:
I am passionate about this issue, and I know that my interest in any of these ideas would be sustained. There is a large amount of information on this subject. For all three ideas, there is a huge focus and debate in the Western world on feminism and sexism, so there will be lots of information, statistics and opinions on it. More specifically for idea 3, the media is extremely vast and involves many mediums: television, film, magazines, newspapers, the internet and advertising, for example.
Weaknesses:
There is the possibility with idea two that it is a limited question that may not provide enough scope for an EPQ, and there is also the possibility that with idea three, there is too much information or the topic is too broad to do an EPQ on. It may be with all of these that first-hand research is quite difficult to carry out, but it would be easier with idea one as this is based around our (extremely accessible) media.
Opportunities:
Although these ideas don't directly relate to any specific subjects for university, doing an EPQ on this topic would show that I am interested in current events, social justice and the importance of media in society (which is ever growing). It also shows that I have passion for something and any EPQ shows dedication and commitment, which is a good trait to be able to prove when competing for a university placement.
Threats:
As previously stated, this is a very current topic in the Western world. This may mean that there is a lot of information, a lot of opinions, and it may be hard to stay focused on the main idea of my project and to not stray off into the several branches of feminism and sexism that there are. However, this is also a strength in a way, as this means there is lots of resources to consider and research from.
