During 2009, the Equality Unit of the University of Valencia has proposed as a priority objective, in accordance with the Strategic Plan, the development of the Equality Plan established by Organic Law 3/2007, of March 22, for equality effective between men and women. As a public administration, and as a company, the University must not only meet the aforementioned requirement, but also take advantage of it as an opportunity to publicize the existing dimensions of equality and inequality among its members, inquire about its causes and scope, produce debate and raise the measures needed to end gender inequalities. It is precisely in this sense that the Rector pronounced himself in a recent report to the Senate when he stated that “the University of València does not have nor has it come to pass a strict compliance with legal provisions. And although the Law obliges us to draw up an Equality Plan, beyond this legal mandate we are obliged by our statutory commitment to the principle of effective equality.”
The writing of an Equality Plan requires a previous diagnosis of the situation that helps to determine priorities and urgencies. The study presented, carried out by professors María Eugenia González Sanjuán and María Rosario Fernández-Coronado, commissioned by the Unit, fulfills the function of the first report from which the Plan's drafting committee has worked. The work has been carried out from a descriptive perspective, using secondary sources that have enabled the construction of time series on most of the aspects considered, and shows the differences in the presence and position of genders both among students and among teachers. and administration and services personnel; It also gives an account of the changes that have occurred in these three groups over the last few years and outlines the foreseeable evolutionary trends.
The Service of Analysis and planification has facilitated the task by providing its own data and coordinating the collection of data produced by other services. During the preparation of the report, we have had the participation of groups of experts who have given their collaboration by providing suggestions and criticisms, which have significantly improved the initial information and have proposed future lines of research.
ROSARIO FERNÁNDEZ-CORONADO GONZÁLEZ - M.ª EUGENIA GONZÁLEZ SANJUÁN
Despite the fact that the gender variable is regularly included in the statistics of our University and most of the time the information appears differentiated, the truth is that even today it is difficult to address some of the central issues in the equality analysis, such as the possible existence of wage inequalities or the different uses of time. Therefore, it is necessary to continue investigating to find more and better explanations about the situations of inequality, its causes and its effects and, thus, to be able to design and apply appropriate measures to ensure that in our university situations of discrimination do not occur for one or the other gender.
Among the university community, sometimes, the idea circulates that equality between men and women already exists or, in any case, that the most obvious inequalities will be resolved with time and individual effort. Therefore, no specific policies would be required. However, the content, conclusions and recommendations of the diagnostic report provide a more rigorous view of the facts and show that there are very persistent structural features of inequality, which will not be transformed by their own inertia if the appropriate policies are not adopted. The goal of gender equality that our statutes propose to the university community requires institutional planning and personal commitment.
