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In the present research we explored how women are perceived as a function of their reactions to a harassing situation (piropo). Piropos, which are very common in Spain, are appearance-related comments directed by men to unknown women on the street. In Study 1, participants read hypothetical vignettes where a woman reacted positively, negatively, or indifferently (between-participants design) to a "mild/gallant" piropo. Men and women (n = 118) evaluated the competence, warmth, capacity for leadership, and superficiality/profoundness of the target of the piropo. Study 2 (n = 289) was similar to Study 1 (only with a within-participants design) and included additional dependent variables concerning the target's likeability and participants' intention to establish interpersonal relations with the woman in the scenario. Results showed that both male and female participants expressed less liking for the woman who reacted positively to the piropo as well as a lower intention to establish interpersonal relations with her; they also viewed this woman as less competent and more superficial. The relation between the woman's reaction to the piropo and her likeability was mediated by the superficiality and competence with which she was perceived. The results of both studies revealed negative consequences for women who react positively to situations in which male strangers pay attention to their body. Policymakers, media, activists, and educators should be aware of how the conformity of women with traditional gender stereotypes--in this case feeling happy because they are valued by their physical appearance--can also have negative consequences for them similar to other hostile forms of stranger harassment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream media's promotion of dangerously thin female images likely lowers self-image satisfaction and contributes to pathological body concerns and disordered eating among women. We tested upward and downward social-comparison effects on self-evaluations by exposing 145 Spanish women to images of thin (upward) or overweight (downward) models. We also tested whether explicitly asking or not asking participants to compare themselves with the models would moderate social comparison effects. Exposure to thin models deteriorated body image while increasing body dissatisfaction and anxiety. Conversely, exposure to overweight models improved body image and decreased body dissatisfaction but it did not affect anxiety. Whether participants were asked to compare themselves to the models explicitly or implicitly had no effect on the participants' responses. Furthermore, pre-existing body image concerns were not associated with the pre-to-post exposure effects. We propose that increasing the representation of normal weight and overweight women in media advertisements could help to neutralize or at least reduce the negative impact of media's practice to idealize thin and overly thin women as symbols of female beauty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender inequality is embedded in men's greater labor force participation and women's greater assumption of domestic roles. These inequalities are at the same time rooted in people's projections about their future lives, which influence future behaviors and values. The current research analyzes factors that influence these projections about the gender division of labor. A sample of 230 male and female Spanish university students reported their expectations about gender equality in their own future life. Data are also presented from 113 female university students from the United States, who completed the same measures. In an experimental design, these participants were also assigned to envision a possible future self as a married parent who was employed full-time, part-time, or not at all and whose educational attainment was a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree. When reporting expectations for their own future lives, more female than male Spanish participants expected part-time work, marriage, and parenthood. In most aspects, the experimental conditions, with their assignments to particular future situations, yielded the same expectations for the male and female participants. Notably, as hypothesized, participants of both sexes estimated that greater employment would enhance their attainment of career and respect goals but compromise family goals. We discuss the effects of employment expectations on the division of labor and gender equality, and additionally provide a cross-cultural interpretation of the differences observed between Spain and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family-to-work conflict and enrichment indicate how participation in the family can influence negatively or positively participation at work, respectively. These experiences have been proved to co-occur within individuals at different levels and explain their well-being in a more nuanced way than conflict and enrichment in isolation. This study examines how Spanish women and men experience conflict and enrichment concurrently in different types and the consequences to their subjective health. First, in line with social role theory and the gendered division of household labor, we hypothesized on gender differences in the types of combined conflict and enrichment experiences. Second, incorporating theory on conservation of resources and identity, we hypothesized on the consequences of the specific types of combined conflict and enrichment to subjective health from a gender perspective. Using chi-square test on a sample of 236 women and 165 men, we confirmed that women and men differed in their types of combined conflict and enrichment experience: the beneficial (higher enrichment than conflict) and active types (similar higher conflict and enrichment) were mainly composed of women whereas the passive type (similar lower conflict and enrichment) was mainly composed of men. Using a MANOVA, we confirmed that the types of combined conflict and enrichment explained significant differences in subjective health in a similar way for women and men. Overall the findings debunk the belief that higher participation in family roles interferes with work more negatively among women, or that higher participation in family roles affect their health more negatively than men. We discuss theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extending the first Special Issue about gender research in the European country of Spain (Gartzia and Lopez-Zafra ), this Special Issue presents a new collection of original studies conducted in Spain that address some of the reasons for the maintenance of gender inequalities in this cultural context. Our approach is to capture the complexities that accompany changes toward gender equality in Spain as in other nations, whereby subtle forms of discrimination coexist with gender awareness-raising policies that ultimately allow for women's steadily advancement. With the view of providing background about the situation of gender research in Europe, we offer a review of the evolution of gender research across several European nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain's evolution from an authoritarian regime to a well-established multi-governed democracy in a short period of time, has been accompanied by incredibly rapid social change and a varied (depending on the governmental period), but overall steady, consideration of gender equality as a political priority. This has also led to the rapid development and consolidation of women's and equality machineries-state feminism-and well-established policies devoted to promoting gender equality over the last three decades, both at national and regional governmental levels. This article aims to present a consolidated policy area which has enough elements to survive and to keep on developing, although in an increasingly fragmented manner, among regions, despite the ongoing economic crisis and the conservative political turn. Based on theories of state feminism and discursive politics, this article analyzes four important elements for understanding this claim and the evolution of national and regional Spanish gender policies and institutions during the last three decades: women's machinery, the relations between that machinery and women's and feminist movements, the policy discourses present in gender equality policies, and the policy instruments used by those machineries and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Spain experienced rapid societal and gender equality changes after the end of the dictatorship in 1975, the development of gender equality in Spain has differed from other European countries and the United States. Therefore, the results of Spanish studies conducted on gender and leadership might differ from those conducted in countries with other historical backgrounds such as other European countries or the United States. We systematically reviewed the current theoretical and empirical literature on gender and leadership with a special emphasis on this comparison. Thereby, we focused on four essential aspects: (a) the underlying mechanism of gender inequality (e.g., traditional gender roles), (b) gender and leadership behavior, (c) the relation of female representation in top management and on boards with organizational performance, and d) female representation and non-performance-related organizational outcomes. Further, Spain is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis. On the one hand, such a crisis might provide a chance for gender equality development; on the other hand, it might trigger a regression toward traditional gender roles in society. Thus, in our discussion, we relate the results of our comparison to these two different but possible consequences of the crisis. To conclude, we outline directions for future research that we hope will provide answers to important questions in this area of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

lthough the participation of men in household activities has increased, this has not prompted an equitable division of household activities among men and women, since Spanish women continue to perform a greater share of these activities than Spanish men. This article explores the explanatory potential of three theoretical approaches (traditional gender division, role-strain and the resource-bargaining approach) to account for the emergence of different patterns in the division of unpaid work among Spanish dual earner couples. Using a representative sample of 2,877 Spanish workers and through logit ordered models, our study reveals that the three models contribute to the explanation of the different patterns of household labor and, therefore, may be regarded as complementary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]