Gender stereotypes are preconceived ideas that people hold, consciously or unconsciously, about the characteristics, behaviours and roles of men and women exhibit in society. These ideas portray women as understanding, empathetic, conciliatory and caring (referred to as "communal" traits in the scholarly literature), while men are seen as enterprenurial, competitive, confident and possessing leadership skills (i.e., having "agentic" traits, according to Eagly and Wood, 2016). Social role theory (Eagly and Karau, 2002) suggests that these stereotypes are the result of the different roles that men and women have traditionally held and continue to hold in society today. Stereotypes can be harmful when they limit people's ability to develop their personal skills or make certain life decisions regarding their education or profession (Ellemers, 2018). To what extent do people (especially younger people) identify with the traits and roles traditionally expected of women and men?
 

This article presents the results of the GenYstereo online survey, conducted from 16 to 29 December 2022 throughout Spain. The survey was answered by 5,012 respondents constituting a representative sample of the Spanish population aged 16 to 75.

 Figures 1.a and 1.b show the differences between men and women in the degree to which they identify with 16 personal qualities, according to the question: "Think of the following traits that define people's personality; to what extent do you think they define you as a person? Please give a score between 0 (Im not like this at all) and 10 (I'm totally like this)." In figures 1.a and 1.b, the value 0 indicates absence of differences in the mean value of the response between men and women; positive mean values suggest that men identify more with those qualities, while negative values indicate that women identify more with them.
 

The first eight characteristics refer to the development of personal fulfilment and leadership and are traditionally associated with the idea of masculinity: ambition, competition, conflict, entrepreneurship, independence, leadership, risk taking and confidence. In contrast, the last eight attributes are oriented towards the consideration of other people's well-being and are more typically associated with the idea of femininity: affection, kindness, understanding, empathy, having an ability to listen, concern for what other people think or about their well-being, and concern for their physical appearance (Trapnell and Paulhus, 2012).
 

Figure 1.a shows that, on average, men identify more than women with agentic traits, especially competition, risk taking and leadership, with the sole exception of independence. On the other hand, women identify with communal attributes, especially empathy and concern for other people's well-being. Figure 1.b shows the same gender differences in identification with the various personality traits by age group and suggests that the differences are very small in the youngest group (except for empathy and concern for other people's well-being), whereas the 26 to 40 age group shows larger gender differences.
 

Figure 2 summarises the answers to the question "In general, which of these 16 personality traits do you consider to be more typical of men or women?". The possible answers were "more typical of men", "more typical of women" and "men and women equally". Specifically, the bars on the right-hand side indicate the percentage of respondents who stated that the eight agentic traits were more typical of men, while the bars on the left indicate the percentage who indicated that the eight communal traits were more typical of women. The percentage of responses showing a traditional vision of typically feminine traits  in society is higher than that of masculine traits (compare the percentages on to the left-hand bars with those on the right). For example, as many as 30% of the respondents stated that listening to other people and caring about their image are typical traits of women. In contrast, of all the traits perceived as typically masculine, the response percentage was notably higher than 20% in only one (risk taking). Furthermore, in the case of some masculine traits such as independence, leadership and confidence, the response percentages were below 10%.

Gender stereotypes can also be measured based on people's perception of the roles men and women perform in society (Ellemers, 2018). We asked the respondents in the study: "Some people think that men and women have different abilities and talents. In the following situations, who do you think is better suited to...?" The answers ranged from "definitely more men" to "definitely more women", via "somewhat more men", "men and women equally" and " somewhat more women".
 

Figure 3 shows the differences between men and women in the percentage of respondents who think that women are better suited for for caregiving to the elderly or sick relatives, and caring for young children (i.e., response categories "somewhat more women" and "definitely more women"), and the percentage of respondents who think that men are better suited ( i.e., response categories "somewhat more men" and "definitely more men") to lead work teams, be a spokesperson for a political party or launch a new business idea (startup). The results are ambivalent. On the one hand, the overall response percentages for the roles traditionally associated with men (such as leading teams or getting a new business idea up and running) are relatively low, exceeding 7% only in the case of leadership of work teams, which suggests that citizens are overcoming the stereotype that women are less able than men to perform this type of role in society. In this respect, there were no relevant gender differences.
 

On the other hand, the general response percentages for the roles traditionally associated with women (such as caring for elderly or sick relatives and caring for  young children) are higher, as 35% of participants think that women are better suited for these types of tasks, thus confirming the stereotype that women show greater caregiving skills. Men are slightly more prone to express this stereotyped opinion on caregiving.

Lastly, we asked respondents in the study to state, in a total of 12 occupational fields, whether they considered them to be more suitable for the professional development of men, women, or men and women equally. Figure 4 shows the gender differences in the percentage of respondents who stated that each of the 12 fields is more suitable for women.

Again the results are ambivalent, as the percentages of those who state that the occupational fields are more suitable for women never exceed 15% of the total number of respondents. However, the highest percentages are concentrated in the more feminised sectors, such as health care, teaching, art or office work. Regarding gender differences, men tend to have slightly more stereotyped views than women, especially in the case of the healthcare sector, and show statistically significant differences compared to women.

The results of the survey point to the persistence of gender stereotypes in our society, especially with regard to the personality traits attributed to men and women, although some important nuances should be noted. Men tend to self-identify to a greater extent with traits such as leadership and entrepreneurship, and women with traits such as empathy and understanding, thus confirming the social role theory (Eagly and Wood, 2016). 
 

When respondents are asked to identify each trait as more typical of men or women in society, stereotypes emerge more clearly, especially for the case of women, who are associated with qualities such as empathy, being able to listen, or affection. Although conventional ideas of male leadership seem to be in decline among younger generations, men continue to be associated with entrepreneurship to a greater extent than women. But perhaps the clearest result is the linkage of women with care-associated tasks. Lastly, gender stereotypes persist in the professional context, especially in more feminised sectors (such as health care or education).
 

These results indicate that, despite advances in promoting equality between men and women in Spain, gender stereotypes continue to influence citizens' perceptions and decisions, suggesting that there is still a long way to go to internalise this progress. Overcoming traditional gender stereotypes is undoubtedly an unfinished business in our society.

EAGLY, A. and S.J. KARAU (2002): Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review 109-3.
 

EAGLY, A. and W. WOOD (2016): Social role theory of sex differences. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, ed. Nancy A. Naples.

ELLEMERS, NAOMI (2018): Gender stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology 69. 

TRAPNELL, PAUL D. and D.L. PAULHUS (2012): Agentic and communal values: Their scope and measurement. Journal of Personality Assessment 94 (1).