Young women as social actors. Participation in organized groups and the feminist empowerment of young people in Catalonia (Spain)

Abstract

In this chapter we analyse the case of young women as social actors based on a study carried out by the Research Group on Youth, Society and Communication (https://www.upf.edu/web/joviscom/inici). We focus on the perspectives of young women and their awareness and discourses on feminism, as well as on the empowerment they gain from participating in organized groups or associations that are not defined as explicitly feminist. Based on qualitative and ethnographic research carried out between 2017 and 2019, we focus on the different ways in which young women in different cities in Catalonia (Spain) think about and experience gender and equality relations. In this chapter, we will present the results of life histories to explain how different intersectional variables are interrelated with autobiographical and family components and we will also carefully analyse the role of social networks. The research shows very different images of the participants according to the study method used. While in their Instagram profiles young women contribute to the objectification of their bodies and reproduce the established canons, the interviews showed that they had critical discourses about the representation of women in social media.