The boomers and the millennials They do not seem to differ too much with respect to the ideas they associate with gender stereotypes, despite the fact that they have an entire generation between them (the X). This is one of the main conclusions of the study. Are gender stereotypes still alive in the 21st century?from the Social Observatory of the ‘La Caixa’ Foundation, which maintains, despite this striking data, that these stereotypical ideas are already quite diluted in Spanish society.
Based on the survey carried out, the boys and girls of the generation millennial They are the ones who feel most identified with those personality traits that have traditionally been assumed to differentiate gender. To the question “to what extent do these traits define you as a person?”, the participants responded with a score between 0 (not at all) and 10 (completely). They felt identified with “agent” attributes such as competition, risk, leadership or conflict with 0.46 points more on average than them; Women felt more attracted than them—0.52 points more—to “communal” characteristics (affection, empathy, listening, understanding, kindness…).
“The differences between genders are not enormous, considering that it is a scale that goes from 0 to 10, but for there to be no stereotypes, everything would have to be the same,” explains Marta Fraile, researcher at the Institute of Policies and Goods. Public of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and one of the authors of the study, who tries to give context to the results: “On the one hand it is true that the generation millennial It has the effect that it has been educated in democracy, with institutions that ensured that they tried to fight against gender inequality and recognized it. On the other hand, some studies have shown that when men and women form families, they tend to reconnect with social gender norms.”
According to the survey, women in this age group felt, for example, markedly more empathetic than their peers, with a difference of 1.13 points, and men claimed to define themselves as competitive 1.04 points higher than them, the highest differential values of the entire original graphic (which separated the results into eight ‘agentic’ and eight ‘communal’ traits).
In this sense, the boomers They follow very closely, very much, the millennials Regarding the gender differentiation of this “agent” self-perception, they obtain almost identical results: men of this generation tend to identify more than women with these attributes, with a difference of 0.45 points, only 0.01 less than those who are in the age range of 26 to 40.
Something notable about this study is that the two generations of women that are furthest apart (the boomer and Z), practically share the same results: those whose age is between 55 and 75 years and young women between 16 and 25 say they feel more detached from those personality attributes traditionally associated with the female gender than those who are in the “intermediate” generations (X and millennial).
“The communal” as something more typically feminine
But there is a nuance, since when asked not about what qualities they felt represented by, but rather if they considered that some of those qualities were more common in boys or girls in general, 17.75% of millennials They considered the “agentic” as something more common in the male gender and 31.37% associated the “communal” as something more common in them, so it is not even close to unanimity.
The generation in which, in terms of self-concept, the least differences are seen depending on gender is Z, with them being 0.26 points above them when identifying with “agentic” values and they being 0.29 points above them when identifying with “communal” attributes. However, it is the Zs who seem to have the most “stereotypes” when answering the second question: “Do you consider that some of these traits are more typical of men or women?” 30.88% claimed that the “communal” was more frequent in them and 16.87% associated the “agentic” as something more typical of them. The author’s hypothesis in this sense is that it is at these ages when we tend to be more hyperaware of ourselves, others, and what society expects of us.
In this second question, the perception that varies the most between generations is that related to the traits traditionally considered “feminine”, since the younger generation relates them more to them in this 30.88%, the millennial by 31.37%, the X by 24.75%, and the boomer by 22.87%, so the difference between the highest and lowest value is eight percentage points. However, the difference in the perception of all these generations in terms of traits traditionally considered masculine is less noticeable, since the lowest value is held by boomersof which only 12.87% say they associate these traits with the male gender, and the highest is Z, of which 16.87% affirm it. There are four points difference, half.
The older generation, paradoxically, is the one that comes out better stop in this aspect. Friar conjectures that, although it is at younger ages that we are more hyperaware of the expectations of others, at later ages these differences are much less relevant to us.
They are more risky, they are more concerned about their physique.
Risk, conflict and competition are the traits most popularly associated with them. The physical appearance is the most attributed to them, followed by listening, the tendency to give importance to what others think, and empathy.
However, there was no true consensus among respondents on any of these statements, as none exceeded 30% agreement.
Where a significant gender differentiation was appreciated by the people surveyed is with regard to the performance of some activities. 38% of men and 33.5% of women considered that they were better at caring tasks (taking care of young children, elderly people or sick relatives). However, the consensus was greatly reduced in terms of those tasks traditionally associated with men (such as launching a new business idea, leading work teams, or being a spokesperson for a political group). Less than 10% considered that these activities were best done by them (7% of boys and 5.48% of girls).
Fraile gives two explanations for these results: “The first is that it has to do with the public and private dimensions. That is, the traits and characteristics that are associated with femininity, let’s say, are unconsciously associated with the intimate, the personal, and there it is more difficult for the stereotypes to blur.” The second explanation, she explains, is that “until now there has been a lot of this ‘American’ vision that part of these inequalities has to do with the fact that they are not agentic enough, because they care too much about others… That we are the ones who “We have to be like men if we want there to be equality, and, on the other hand, all the discourse regarding the qualities associated with femininity has been softer.”
The final conclusion of the study, he assures, is that “we have made a lot of progress in overcoming some gender stereotypes, but very traditional ideas about femininity and the role that women play in society still unconsciously underlie.”
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