Machismo’s reckoning? Sexism in Spain

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Last summer, Spain seemed the epitome of a socially progressive European nation.

An Ipsos survey published in March 2023 found that 53% of Spaniards professed to be feminists, the highest proportion in Europe. In addition, the country has a higher percentage of female parliamentarians than the UK or the US.

Then came the Fifa Women’s World Cup, won by a much-acclaimed Spanish team. And then came that kiss. The then head of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales’ move to grab Spain forward Jenni Hermoso and kiss on her lips made headlines around the world. He later resigned and Hermoso filed a criminal sexual assault complaint against him.

Unlike in other countries, Spain’s ideological divisions are highly visible on the streets and in out-of-home advertising. During last year’s election, Madrid’s Plaza de Callao became the stage for the so-called ‘Battle of the Banners’, where political parties rented huge hoardings to broadcast hard-hitting messages. Right-wing party Vox used the spaces to accuse Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez of releasing hundreds of sex attackers on the country’s streets as a result of the Solo sí es sí – ‘Only yes is yes’ – law, which aimed to make consent an important factor in defining a sex crime, but also had the unexpected result of allowing some sex offenders to reduce their sentences.

Interestingly, this kind of combative communication has been appropriated by several Spanish brands, with a plethora of knocking copy lines. Heura, a manufacturer of vegan ‘meat’ splashed the message “Una hamburguesa de carne contamina más que tu coche” (‘A hamburger contaminates more than your car’) across its 18 x 14-metre banner. Galician water brands Cabreiroá and Fontecelta have gone to war in giant format – one of the latter’s banners read, “Podríamos decirte que somos la mejor agua de Galicia pero no queremos cabreiroar a la competencia” (‘We could tell you we’re the best water in Galicia, but we don’t want to piss off the competition’).

This streetfighting tone was startlingly absent from the rather vanilla responses of the Spanish Football Federation sponsors to the Rubiales-Hermoso case. From our experience conducting focus groups on equality all over Spain, Arpo and Thinktank know that such equivocation certainly won’t cut it for many Spanish women who think there is widespread discrimination in society.

“There’s inequality in marketing, advertising, sales, on the streets, how you’re treated, with salaries, with maternity rights. It’s how men talk about you… the jokes, the language,” says one Spanish woman.

Another notes that she was unaware that machismo was a serious problem in today’s Spain until she became a mother. “When I went back to work after my second child, I realised my company didn’t want me there,” she says.

More conservative Spanish males, however, deny the experience of inequality – or even state that the pendulum has now swung too far in favour of women.

“I come from a small town in Andalucia and, in my family, I have never seen any kind of inequality between my father and my mother, or my sister and my brother – never,” says one man. “We have all been equal in every sense. The way we have been treated, our rights, our duties. I have never witnessed any problem.”

“Women have all the rights in the world,” states another. “I mean, they have the same rights as I do, no less, no more. For me, it’s not a conversation we need to have.”

That said, there is also increasing awareness among Spanish men of the widespread discrimination the Women’s World Cup has brought to the fore.

“Inequality is palpable in management,” according to one man. “Sometimes, women quit or aren’t allowed to hold positions. There’s inequality of salaries. This doesn’t mean that I earn more because I’m a man. It only means that there’s still a long road ahead.”

“What is missing is awareness and consideration in Spanish society,” says another. “There are still jokes, comments and memes that may seem funny, but they aren’t. We seem advanced on equality, but we’re not.”

Sabine Stork is founding partner at Thinktank; Silvia Artiñano is managing founder at Arpo; and Diana Regidor is senior research analyst at Arpo.

This article was first published in the April issue of Impact.