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

Abstract

Abstract The aim of the study is to analyze the evolution of gender roles and to generate, from a feminist and intergenerational perspective, a cognitive change in the participants, using film and discussion groups as mediating techniques, since they are considered appropriate to analyze the evolution of gender roles and to raise awareness, from a feminist and intergenerational perspective, about the importance of gender roles in people’s lives. To this end, an intergenerational project, called “ Women in the focus”, was created within the framework of the Master’s program at the Complutense University of Madrid, which allows 75 women, belonging to three different generations, to reflect on the concept of gender and the expectations linked to the term, through three films produced in different decades: The Red Cross girls by Rafael J. Salvia (1958); Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Pedro Almodóvar (1988); and My life whith out you by Isabel Coixet (2003). Once the films had been viewed, 21 focus groups were organized, made up of between 3 and 5 women of different ages and, in order to analyze the experience, the 21 coordinators of the discussion groups were interviewed. The data obtained from the interviews and the focus groups were analyzed following a qualitative approach, through the technique of content analysis. The results show that feminist thought has had an impact on the lives of Spanish women, but in different ways depending on their age, thus, there is a discrepancy regarding the roles that women have to fulfill, a difference based on the difficulties they have had to face. With respect to the choice of film and the focus group as research techniques, it is possible to affirm that they have worked, since they have allowed women of three different generations to dialogue and review their approaches to the social construction of gender from a diachronic perspective, generating an empathetic discourse of acceptance and sisterhood, which implies, in spite of the discrepancies, the recognition of the difficulties of each generation of women.