While academic research has deepened our understanding of the theoretical and political dimensions of gender politics, less attention has been paid to how these concepts are perceived by the general public. This study investigates the images and ideas in people’s heads associated with three central terms in contemporary gender discourse: feminism, gender equality, and equality between men and women. Using an original pre-registered survey in Spain, where respondents were randomly assigned to define one of the three terms, we find that public understandings of gender politics are multidimensional, spanning discursive, emotional, and symbolic dimensions. The labels “gender equality” and “equality between men and women” received considerably more public sympathy than “feminism,” reflecting respondents’ ability to distinguish between them. Open-ended responses reveal ambivalence in how gender politics are interpreted. Policy-oriented themes were more common under the equality labels, while “feminism” was often linked to identity and activism, evoking stronger symbolic meanings associated with social movements. Although all three labels elicited mostly positive emotional reactions, “feminism” generated fewer positive responses, particularly among men, and was frequently associated with images of protest and resistance. Taken together, these findings illustrate the complexity of public attitudes toward gender politics and suggest a growing polarization in how these issues are framed and received.
