Introduction Our research has focused on studying sexism, gender roles and stereotypes and attitudes towards women and men. This has been complemented by the study on the use of time by men and women, such as hours dedicated to housework, caring for others and friends and hobbies, in variables such as gender, age and student status. To this end, a theoretical review on gender legislation has been carried out, first in an international context and then focusing on Italy, and sometimes comparing with the Spanish legislation to try to find similarities and differences between the two countries. We have found that Spanish and Italian legislation share common articles, as they address fundamental principles underlining the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of gender. However, as described in our Doctoral Thesis, the most striking difference between the two countries lies in relation to family conciliation, since legislation by the Italian Republic insists that working conditions should allow women to fulfill their family function as well as ensure both mother and child adequate protection. By contrast, the Spanish Constitution addresses this aspect in terms of family generality (man and woman), without specifying that family conciliation is a matter for women only. Secondly, an exhaustive and up-to-date bibliographical review of the social reality present in Italy has been carried out. In general terms, despite the new Italian gender equality policies, the current reality is still far from a situation of real equality between men and women. In Italian society, women still maintain the main responsibility for the care and household functions; men participate in some of these tasks, but in general they are less involved than women. Studies indicate that Italy is still a country with high rates of gender discrimination and that numerous examples of sexist behaviors and degrading attitudes towards women can still be found. Although women in the last century have accomplished many achievements, especially in Western democratic countries, real equality of opportunity between genders is still very far away: women, who in fact represent half of the world population (in Italy a majority, 51.4%), remain largely underrepresented in many areas, the field of politics being one of the most visible examples. The aim of the Doctoral Thesis was to investigate whether, in line with the revised literature, the independent variables gender, age and student status have an important differentiating and mediating role in the dependent variables studied: old-fashioned and modern sexism, traditional gender role, attitudes towards men and women and uses of time in the form of time dedicated respectively to household tasks, care for others, friends and hobbies. Gender stereotypes have been analyzed taking only gender as an independent variable. This general aim was subordinated to the adaptation of the scales used to Italian population. Method Participants: The work included a sample of 340 participants living in the city of Milan, 242 women and 98 men, aged between 18 and 65 years, with a mean age of 32.5 years, from which 170 were students and 170 were non-students. Finally, 50% of the sample were married or lived as a couple. Procedure: Approximately half of the sample was collected through the mechanism known as "snowball" in which original participant’s acquaintances recruited other acquaintances and so on, whilst the other half, consisting of University students, was obtained through the University of Milano Bicocca, with participant students getting a training credit (1 UFC) for their participation. Instruments: The assessment instruments used for the study were the MS, Swin, Aikin, Hall and Hunter´s Old-fashioned and Modern Sexism Scale; the ARG-2, Matud's Gender Role Attitudes Questionnaire; the SRIS, Kalin and Tilby´s Gender Roles Ideology Scale; the DS, Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum ´s Semantic Differential with the evaluation of "man" and "woman"; and the ACL, Gough and Heilbrun´s List of Adjectives; although in this work we have only used those adjectives that Williams and Best study found that are representative of male and female stereotypes. Statistical analysis: To verify the adequacy of the scales used in the Italian sample we performed Correlation Analysis (Pearson), Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Once the adequacy of these instruments had been verified, we performed Bivariate Analyses: Differential and Correlational. First, Student's t and Cohen's d to get the differences between men/women, young/older people, students/non-students respectively. Secondly, Correlational Analysis has been carried out on the same groups: men/women, young/older people and students/non-students. Next, Multivariate Analyses were performed, starting with Discriminant Analysis to determine which group of variables discriminates between men/women, young/older people, students/non-students, and finishing with Mediational Analysis through Linear Regression Analysis, both simple and multiple. The last part of the analysis focused on the study of gender stereotypes for which frequencies, percentages and the % M statistic have been performed using 33% and 67% as cut points. Results Firstly, the scales used have been perfectly adapted to the Italian sample, although on the ARG-2 scale it has been necessary to eliminate two of its items. Secondly, from the differences analysis, we have found that women, young people and students present less sexism, both old-fashioned and modern and a less traditional gender role than men, older people and non-students respectively. In addition, the findings indicate that non-students and older people evaluate women more favorably than students and young people, with no differences in the evaluation of women between men and women. Also, women, older people and non-students spend more hours on household chores and care for others than men, young people and students respectively. On the other hand, women spend fewer hours on hobbies than men, and older people spend fewer hours on friends than young people. Regarding the study of gender stereotypes, the reduction in the number of adjectives in the male stereotype was confirmed compared with those obtained in 1990 by Williams and Best. Women were those who most contributed to the decrease in the number of adjectives of the male stereotype in relation to men. In contrast, the number of adjectives of the female stereotype, rather than decreasing its number as does the male stereotype, has increased compared with Williams and Best study. And, in an opposite way to the male stereotype, the men contributed more than women to the increase of adjectives of the female stereotype. Conclusions Firstly, we have adapted the scales to the Italian population so the results can be interpreted straight away without any problem. Secondly, we found that men, older people and non-students showed more sexism, both old- fashioned and modern, and more traditional gender role than women, young people and students. Thirdly, older people and non-students value women more positively than young people and students. On the other hand, women, elderly and non-students spend more time on household chores and the care of others than men, young people and students. Being a man, young people and student is associated with dedicating more time to friends and hobbies than women, older people and non-students. Likewise, gender stereotypes, as defined by the number of associated adjectives, decline in the case of the males but increase in the case of the females. In any case, interestingly, the option of assigning adjectives equally to men and women is represented by 54% of the adjectives. Lastly, a series of general reflections have been undertaken with the aim of raising the awareness of the Italian population about the importance of gender discrimination, as well as the appropriate measures that must be taken by the school, the family and the institutions to eradicate such discrimination problem. Thus, many authors point out that men and women have to be educated under models based on equality, without domination and submission, that are focused on eliminating sexist, racist and discriminatory stereotypes in order to build a more egalitarian and free society. In short, this social reality must lead to a transformation in Italian society, based on the use of realistic equality Policies that allow the development of work conditions and family reconciliation in both men and women, thus cushioning the effects of maternity in the professional career of women.
