In addition, she is a member of the Advisory Board of the Sociological Research Centre (CIS). She has published several research papers on the social situation of women in Spain, gender-based violence, youth and the family, and on women’s political participation. She is the author of a dozen books, has lectured in Europe and the United States and received, at the end of 2019, the National Prize for Sociology and Political Science for her more than 40 years of professional career. This Wednesday she presided over the defence of Lydia Candelaria González Orta’s doctoral thesis: “Women’s human rights and the transnational feminist movement. CEDAW’s procedures and local procedures and impacts,” directed by Capitolina Díaz.

The objectives of UNIFEM, now UN Women, are to reduce poverty among women, to end all forms of violence against them, to contain the spread of AIDS, to ensure their economic, social and political participation and to ensure the implementation of human rights in women. Has the emergence of feminism in recent years has influenced these issues? How?

One of UNIFEM’s key goals was the development of women’s work skills, a key issue of feminists since the early 1960s and 1970s. Another very important issue was the fight against all forms of violence against women. I believe that there is a close relationship between the works in general of the United Nations and the changes, and in particular UNIFEM and the feminist movement at the international level.

Where does Gender Sociology, of which you are an expert, walk in the next few years?

There is a great diversity of themes and perspectives. It started with what was called women studies, so it was to study above all the discrimination suffered by women at work, in education, in marriage, in the family... Now it is more enriched and is talked about much more positively on issues that need to be achieved. There is an important branch of Gender Sociology that has been linked to sexual orientation studies and that has had and is having quite a lot of development.

Do you think that progress has been made on gender or are we still at the beginning of a revolution?

I think a lot of progress has been made, gender studies are pretty settled. In the technical and scientific areas I think the gender perspective is less developed. In our country, it has been in Sociology where it started the most, in Political Science and Sociology and then in Law and History. For example, on American campuses it has been in Literature, especially, where feminist work began. Every country and every circumstance influences it but I think the studies are quite settled and above all I am very interested in it from the perspective of academic prestige, which was very difficult to enforce initially.

In the academic world, from which you come, how this social change has shaped the rise of feminism?

Universities are among the institutions that have resisted women’s entry the most. They are institutions with many years of experience, very hierarchical, structurally conservative. Women, in general, have had a hard time entering them at first. In Spain around 1910 they were allowed to enter under conditions similar to those of men, although there was previously some exception, although it had to be carefully considered. Given how old universities are, the incorporation of women under normal conditions has been very recent.

And in management positions?

Women have later reached the highest grades of teaching and also the recognition of the teacher category. However, the number of women is much lower than would correspond in the highest professional categories. It was from the 80s when there was a massive entry of women students and this has brought about an interesting change in Spanish universities, although the incorporation into the faculty has gone later. At the levels of authority and symbolic representation, the presence of women is still resisted.

Is it a resistance that for example the five main parties leaders of the Spanish state until a month ago were men as well as their candidates for election?

In politics the situation is similar to the university. First women had difficulty voting, then they had to get the right to vote, now fight within political participation representation, dignity and command. There is one very interesting thing about democratic politics, which is that once women were given the vote, they began to influence. Recently, parties have found themselves in the need to have representation of women in institutions and in the organs of power to vote for them, as it is a factor seen sympathetically by the electorate. The resistance of parties or universities is the result of the resistance that we have within for hundreds of years of socialisation in which authority and power have been masculine.

Is there a generational gap between young and older women?

I am very surprised and at the same time very happy about this resurgence of feminism among women and younger men, that is, in institutes, in universities... The demonstrations of 8 March, in Spain, in these last three years have been spectacular and above all very moved by young people. Maybe they haven’t been organised by younger women, but they’ve been so tremendously encouraged by groups of younger women and men. I find it interesting to see that many of these groups have lines, different and innovative ways of acting, a little rowdy and that sometimes they do not correspond to the works that I would do at the moment, but I find them magnificent.

Can the emergence of far-right parties in Europe mean a setback in the progress on equality achieved in recent years?

I find it hard to believe that there’s a setback, but yes, they’re really trying. One of the traits of what we call the most conservative or reactionary parties is not recognising women’s equality and the need to make that equality a reality. The tradition of conservative thinking has been to keep women at the forefront, with obligations and responsibilities, in non-participation in public and political affairs. Anyway, traditional thinking, and we know a lot about that in our country. And in reactionary politics, one of its key factors has been having women subdued.

What is your relationship with the University of Valencia like? Have you done any research in conjunction with this academic institution?

I came a lot even though I would have liked to come more. I have been in doctoral theses examining boards and also in the presentation of a book of mine about the Spanish family in which Carmen Alborch participated. I remember with great sympathy that event, in the historical area of the University of Valencia. It was a fantastic event. I have also collaborated with teachers such as Capitolina Díaz and Manuel Ferrer, among others.