Organic Law 3/2007, of March 22, for the effective equality of women and men, directs all public powers the mandate to eradicate discrimination based on sex in their different manifestations and determines the general guidelines of action in relation to equality. Among other measures, the law establishes the transversality of the principle of equal treatment and opportunities between women and men in the development of the activities of the public powers Article 15) and expresses the need for them to adopt specific actions in favor of women to correct obvious situations of de facto inequality with respect to men (Article 11).
In order to promote equality in the workplace, article 45 of the Law implements the obligation to draw up and apply equality plans in companies and organizations of more than two hundred and fifty workers, and stipulates that the drafting of said plans must be preceded by the elaboration of a previous diagnosis. The University of Valencia, after the realization of a diagnosis that found the existence of multiple inequalities by sex both between students as well as the teaching staff and the administration and services staff, began in April 2009 the process of preparing the Equality Plan. On December 1 of said year, the I Plan of Equality of the University of Valencia 2010-2012 was unanimously approved by the Council of Government (ACGUV 204/2009).
The equality plans, as established by Organic Law 3/2007 in its article 46, will establish the objectives to be achieved, strategies and practices to be adopted and will have evaluation systems and track the goals. However, the Law does not provide the basic guidelines to carry out the evaluation, and although it is true that in recent years numerous evaluation guides in the field of Public Administrations, each institution adopts its own own approach based on their roles.
There are an abundance of definitions of evaluation (of programs, plans or public policies). A synthetic and operational definition is the one offered by the State Agency for the Evaluation of Public Policies and the Quality of Services (AEVAL), the body that defines the evaluation “As an integral process of observation, measurement, analysis and interpretation, aimed at knowledge of a public intervention - rule, program, plan or policy - that allows us to reach an evaluative judgment, based on evidence, regarding its design, implementation, results and impacts ”(2010: 13). The purpose is “to determine the relevance and achievement of objectives, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the plan or program ”, and provide rigorous and useful information for decision-making (OECD, 2010: 21-22). The evaluation presented in this report has sought to assess, analyze, assess and judge the implementation of the I Equality Plan of the University, gathering evidence that indicates what is has done and to what extent they are close to the planned objectives. It should be noted that the execution of our Equality Plan is programmed in the annual Operational Plan of the University of Valencia, document that guides the general university policy, according to the Statutes of the UVEG in Article 83. The Annual Operating Plans specify the actions to be carried out, the bodies managers and managers, the budget items linked to such actions, and the indicators and evidence to monitor annually. The commission in charge of this The task has documented the execution of the activities carried out during the years of validity of the plan and its link to objectives and actions.
Consequently, the follow-up that has been carried out has been the starting point for evaluating the overall plan. However, the evaluation methodology also requires ad hoc evidence that allows knowing the degree of implementation of the proposed actions.
In this way, the results of the evaluation will be able to form the basis on which to define the next plan. The new plan will contemplate the main challenges that the University of Valencia has to continue promoting within the scope of equality between women and men, in accordance with the current legislation and after the experience and results obtained during the period of validity of the first Plan.
The I Equality Plan of the University of Valencia 2010-2012 is structured in five axes that articulate eleven dimensions or areas of action. For each dimension, some objectives, the total number of which amounts to 35, are specified in 118 actions through which we hope to reach them. The following graph shows the arrangement of the Plan.
