Gender roles in Spanish cinema: a critical and creative process around the word ‘woman’

The study examines how Spanish women’s gender roles have evolved across generations and how film-based discussion can foster cognitive change. The context traces from Franco’s dictatorship, which curtailed women’s rights and confined them to domestic roles, through the late 20th-century expansion of women’s education and labor market participation, the persistence of the double workday and the glass ceiling, and into the 21st-century fourth wave feminism emphasizing identity, work–life balance, and self-care. Intergenerational differences and tensions arise from distinct historical challenges and feminist waves experienced by each cohort. The project Women in the Spotlight was designed to provide reflective spaces using cinema as a mediating tool to analyze gender stereotypes diachronically and build sisterhood across generations. The research question centers on how gender expectations are socially constructed and transformed over time, and whether film plus intergenerational focus groups can catalyze awareness and attitudinal shifts regarding gender stereotypes.

The theoretical framework draws on social work with groups aimed at awareness, attitudinal change, cohesion, empowerment, and liberation. It is explicitly aligned with Paulo Freire’s conscientization model: analyzing oppressive realities, engaging in social practice, investigating outcomes, and co-creating meaning through discourse. Prior research highlights rapid changes in Spanish gender expectations, intergenerational clashes, and persistent sexist stereotypes. Cinema is positioned as a powerful cultural artifact that encodes and naturalizes gender stereotypes within specific historical contexts and can provoke empathetic responses and critical reflection. The framework integrates feminist theory across waves (equality, difference, and fourth-wave perspectives including Butler’s performativity), and emphasizes how age and place of birth mediate gender socialization. This foundation supports using film as a reflective mediator and focus groups/interviews as discursive methods to surface the social construction of gender and promote cognitive change.

Design and approach: Qualitative, exploratory, and holistic design combining film forums with focus groups and follow-up interviews to access intersubjective meanings. Content analysis was used to code data against pre-established dimensions and variables (e.g., gender awareness, feminism, roles/expectations, sexuality, binarism, family, age, culture). Participants and recruitment: 75 women across three generations participated: under 35 years (n=32), 35–59 (n=22), and 60+ (n=21). Inclusion criteria: adult women (born 1950–2002) affiliated with collaborating entities and interested in participating. Recruitment was through MEDART’s partner organizations. Setting and collaborators: Implemented within the Master’s in Artistic Education in Social and Cultural Institutions (MEDART), with collaboration from Anxel Casal Integrated Vocational Training Centre (CIFP) and the Faculty of Social Work at the National University of Distance Education (UNED). Researchers’ backgrounds: two specialists in fine arts and one in sociology/social work. Procedures: 21 intergenerational focus groups (3–5 women each) viewed three films spaced across decades—The Red Cross Girls (1958), Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), and My Life Without You (2003). Participants first watched the films, reflected individually, and then engaged in group discussion analyzing female gender roles and their evolution. Subsequently, the 21 group coordinators were interviewed to assess the suitability of film and focus groups for feminist reflection. Data collection techniques: (1) Film as a mediating tool to surface the cultural imaginary and gender stereotypes across time; (2) Focus groups as conversational spaces to reconstruct social meaning through interaction; (3) Semi-structured interviews with coordinators to evaluate technique suitability. Data analysis: Qualitative content analysis with coding by dimensions and variables; evaluation of techniques discussed by the GIMUPAY research group at the Complutense University of Madrid. Ethics: Protocol of good practices following the Declaration of Helsinki; informed consent obtained; confidentiality and data handling procedures specified. Practical considerations: COVID-19-related attendance issues addressed with optional online participation; film selection was predetermined by researchers to ensure diachronic coverage and relevance.

• Gender as social construction and intergenerational contrasts: Older women often had not previously questioned the meaning of ‘woman’ and viewed gender as natural; younger women emphasized continual critical reflection on gender and its patriarchal construction; middle-aged women focused on visibility of the gender gap, the glass ceiling, and the need for work–life balance measures. - Roles and motherhood: Older participants highlighted motherhood and care as defining roles, framed as natural and fulfilling; younger participants viewed motherhood as a choice that does not define womanhood; middle-aged participants described sustained anxiety and constraints balancing work and family, including reliance on grandmothers for childcare. - Sexuality and reproductive issues: Contraception was positively valued across generations. Abortion was normalized among younger cohorts and morally opposed by many older women. Sexual orientation was seen as person-centric and largely irrelevant by younger women; older women expressed reservations and perceived recent visibility as atypical. Transgender identities were viewed as part of everyday reality by younger women; skepticism persisted among older participants. Notably, three transgender women participated, all under 25. - Family roles and overload: Younger and middle-aged groups stressed the burden of reconciling productive and reproductive roles; older women emphasized emotional mediation and moral guidance within families. All three generations agreed that the accumulated burden disproportionately affects women and requires solutions. - Reception of films: Younger women initially struggled to relate to The Red Cross Girls until understanding marriage as a path to socio-economic independence; they identified with the anxiety depicted in Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and endorsed the self-care theme in My Life Without You. Middle-aged women empathized with older generations’ hardships, recognized their own overburdening in Almodóvar’s film, and valued self-care reflected in Coixet’s film. Older women related strongly to The Red Cross Girls, had difficulty with Almodóvar’s exaggeration, and admired the protagonist of My Life Without You as devoted yet self-aware. - Attributes (Table 2): Across films and generations, older cohorts emphasized sensitivity, caregiving, and family mediation; middle-aged cohorts highlighted toughness, anxiety, guilt, and survival; younger cohorts emphasized strength, change agency, identity, freedom, and self-care, with some rejecting the concept of gender altogether. - Evaluation of techniques: Coordinators and participants deemed cinema ideal for analyzing evolving gender roles, placing women center-stage and enabling diachronic comparison. My Life Without You garnered the strongest identification across ages. Woman on the Verge foregrounded mental health and overburden, spurring discussion on shared responsibilities. Film language helped reveal the symbolic underpinnings of gender stereotypes. Focus groups facilitated cognitive and attitudinal shifts, empathy, and transversal learning (e.g., restructuring preconceived ideas). Intergenerational composition was considered a success, fostering solidarity and consensus on co-responsibility, work–life balance, and challenging beauty stereotypes. - Practical challenges: COVID-19 fears impacted attendance; some participants preferred to choose films themselves; older cohorts required conceptual framing provided by younger participants. - Quality assurance: Findings and methodological suitability were reviewed by the GIMUPAY research group, reaching positive consensus.

The study demonstrates that coupling diachronic film analysis with intergenerational focus groups effectively addresses the research aim: fostering awareness and cognitive change about gender stereotypes. The findings mirror the historical imprint of different feminist waves on cohorts—older women naturalized gender roles; middle-aged women confronted institutional barriers and work–family conflict; younger women question the very category of gender and advocate for self-care and identity. Film served as a phenomenological catalyst, destabilizing assumptions about gender’s ‘naturalness’ by contrasting representations across eras, thereby enabling participants to recognize gender as a social construction shaped by time and place. Focus groups transformed individual reactions into shared meaning, building empathy and sisterhood despite disagreements over motherhood, abortion, sexual orientation, and transgender identities. While the qualitative design precludes statistical inference, shifts in the language and attributes used by participants indicate stereotype reappraisal and intergenerational rapprochement. The results align with broader societal trends (increasing co-responsibility and women’s public presence) and underscore cinema’s value as a mediator between reality and fiction that reveals symbolic structures underpinning stereotypes. Methodologically, the integration of artistic mediation and social work with groups provided an effective interdisciplinary pathway to engage intersubjectivity and promote attitudinal change, though potential bias from coordinator-led data collection and intra-university evaluation warrants caution.

The project achieved its two objectives. First, regarding gender and its social construction, participants’ discourses reflected generationally distinct feminist influences and revealed cognitive changes in how gender stereotypes are perceived. Older women often regarded gender roles as natural and centered on motherhood and caregiving; middle-aged women emphasized the glass ceiling and the burden of reconciling work and family; younger women highlighted identity, freedom, and the deconstruction or abolition of gender categories. Despite divergences, participants recognized the impact of time and place of birth and acknowledged that women across generations—often anonymously—enabled others’ educational and professional progress. Second, cinema and intergenerational focus groups proved suitable and effective techniques: the triad of films offered a diachronic lens to track evolving gender roles; focus groups catalyzed reflection, empathy, and sisterhood, enabling a shared discourse that recognizes each generation’s constraints and contributions. Beyond these outcomes, participants developed transversal skills, including reframing preconceived notions, practicing otherness, and cultivating empathy. Future research could broaden inclusion (e.g., men and non-binary participants), diversify film selections and cultural contexts, enlarge and diversify samples, incorporate longitudinal follow-up to assess persistence of cognitive change, and employ independent data collectors and evaluators to strengthen validity.

• Qualitative, exploratory design focused on cognitive change; findings are not intended for statistical inference or generalizability. - Data collection by group coordinators involved in the project may bias discussions and results toward project goals. - External evaluation by GIMUPAY reached positive consensus, but evaluators were from the same university, potentially limiting independence. - Participant pool comprised women affiliated with collaborating institutions and specific age cohorts in Spain, which may limit transferability. - Older generations’ limited familiarity with feminist theory required in-session conceptual scaffolding by younger participants. - Practical constraints included COVID-19-related attendance issues and the predetermined film selection (some participants preferred self-selection). - The study did not include male or non-binary perspectives, and the number of transgender participants was small (n=3), all under 25.