Evolution of Gender Stereotypes in Spain: From 1985 to 2018

Gender stereotypes are the images, beliefs, or expectations that people have about men and women. Have these stereotypes changed in Spain in recent decades?

In this study we present data on gender stereotypes in Spain in two different time periods (1985, N = 1060; and 2018, N = 802).

Results indicate that of the four components of the stereotypes analyzed (traits, role behaviors, occupations, and physical characteristics), the stereotypes in three of them have changed. In role behaviors and occupations, people perceive that men have increased their presence in female-linked gender roles and occupations, and that women have increased their presence in roles and occupations that are traditionally male-linked. Women in 2018 are more associated with physical characteristics traditionally associated with men, but men are not perceived as more associated with physical characteristics traditionally linked to women. In personality traits the stereotype has not changed: In agentic traits there were no differences between men and women in 1985 and in 2018; and communal traits were more attributed to women than men in 1985 and in 2018.

These results show that although gender stereotypes still exist in Spain, they have changed considerably, at least in several dimensions.