this article is the result of the work carried out at a sociology seminar during the 1977-1978 academic year. On the basis of an analysis of a sample of various advertising spots, but whose common denominator is the presence of women, an attempt is made to see what the stereotype of the woman is conveyed by advertising. Drawing up a classification code makes it possible to locate women from advertisements at different stages of their lives and in the exercise of different roles: girl, girl, wife, mother, home, woman at work and breastfeeding. But in this diversity of situations there is never a contradiction, but a coherent and unique model: the girl and the girl are already women, and women always remain creatures; married while working, the woman is simultaneously a wife, mother and love. The two fundamental characteristics of this stereotype of women in advertisements are, on the one hand, the constant accentuation of its erotic and sexual dimension and, on the other, its systematic subordination to man. Advertising thus fulfils a dual function: reproduction of the dominant ideology, legitimation and strengthening of the same ideology.