The gender perspective in prevention of road safety and drug use prevention campaigns

Abstract

An analysis of campaigns to prevent the consumption of addictive substances and to favor road safety in Spain from 2011 to 2020 is carried out from a gender perspective. The results reveal how women have been represented in such campaigns in recent years. A quantitative methodology is applied based on longitudinal and categorical content analyses. The corpus used in the investigation comprises 81 pieces from 24 campaigns run by public and private institutions at the national, autonomous community, or local level of the Valencian Community. The methodological design is constructed around 20 variables, with gender considered as a cross-sectional variable. The results indicate the low presence of women in such campaigns, which can hinder their identification and reduce awareness in relation to the problems addressed. A masculinization of most of the campaigns aimed at a younger audience (25-35 years) is also observed, regarding both legal and illegal substances, which may influence their adequacy among the population at risk. In both emotional and rational messages, there is a greater presence of men, reinforced through real images and sounds, with creative strategies and resources of both an informative and emotional nature. The number of campaigns exhibiting gender parity had decreased by 80% as of 2016, in contrast to the increase in the consumption of substances such as alcohol and psychotropic drugs by women. This therefore does not follow the recommendations of the National Drug Strategies in recent years regarding the need to incorporate a gender perspective into such campaigns. In addition, reinforcement of gender stereotypes and traditional female roles is observed.