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Dalia Francheska Márquez Añez

PhD Programme: Gender Studies: Culture, Societies and Policies
Research group: SBRlab – Social & Business Research Laboratory
Supervisors: María Inmaculada Pastor Gosálbez

Bio

Dalia Francheska is a human rights defender, peacebuilder, and researcher on gender issues. She is a lawyer with a master's degree in family law and a specialization in family law and graduated with a Magna Cum Laude distinction. She is co-founder of Juventud Unida en Acción, an NGO with a global reach that works for the SDGs and the UN 2030 Agenda, and for the last 9 years, she has coordinated, implemented, and evaluated initiatives and projects related to the development of public policies for the empowerment of girls and young women, reducing gender bias and applying a gender perspective in their work. Also, She has stood out as a representative and speaker in high-level spaces such as the Youth Forum of the Americas, the UN Science and Technology Forum, the United Nations Environment Assembly UNEA, and others. In 2018 she received the distinction of Ibero-American Woman. In 2020, she worked as a fellow for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States. Currently, she is linked to various initiatives and networks that promote a more peaceful and inclusive world as the Committee of Women Leaders of the Americas of the Documentation Sciences Foundation, a Member of the 16x16 initiative from the UNDP -United Nations Development Program-, is the Global focal point for SDG 16 at the United Nations Major Group of Children and Youth as well as she is Fellow alumni of United States Institute of Peace (Cohort 2018) and Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) Fellow.

Project: Equality policies in the Spanish university: a study of the Gender gap in academia

In recent years, both in Spain and in the European Union, an important development of equality policies between men and women in science and in universities has been promoted. This process has required different legislative and political strategies, which have materialized from directives, framework programs, national laws, and significant institutional development.

Since 2000, with the publication of the ETAN report, the European Union's policy in the field of research and innovation has been oriented towards achieving equality between men and women. Since 2003, the European Union has published the reports and studies "She Figures" on the situation of women scientists and/or academics in European universities and research centers. These studies identify inequalities between men and women and have provided empirical evidence of the barriers that exist in the functioning of scientific institutions and universities. One of the most contrasting conclusions is that the inequalities identified affect the development of the professional careers of women scientists, in comparison with their male counterparts. Given such evidence, a series of actions have been articulated to promote equality between men and women in science. Recently, with the approval of the Horizon Europe framework program for research and innovation (R&I) of the European Union (EU) for the period 2021 -2027, the commitment to achieve equality between men and women was consolidated, including the integration of the gender dimension in the content of research and innovation, defining actions to correct existing barriers in research institutions.

In Spain, the development of the scientific policy of equality between men and women has carried out thanks to the approval of Organic Law 3/2007, of March 22, for the effective equality of women and men (LOI) and was complemented with the Organic Law 4/2007 of Modification of the Organic Law of Universities (LOU). Both laws regulated the creation of equality units and equality plans within universities, becoming key elements for the development of equality policies in said institutions. Recently, Law 17/2022, of September 5, which modifies Law 14/2011, of June 1, on Science, Technology, and Innovation, integrates gender mainstreaming in all areas of science, technology, and innovation. Also, we highlight the Organic Law 2/2023, of March 22, of the University System, which brings special attention to the incorporation of the gender perspective in its articles, aiming at the elimination of gender biases and a balanced composition of women and men in governance bodies, proposing a more optimistic path for the academic career of women.

This entire process of implementation of equality policies has been a central element to be able to advance in the elimination of types of discrimination that have negatively affected and continue to affect the advancement of women's scientific careers. In the case of universities, there are two factors that can be highlighted for their potential to help build more egalitarian organizations: the creation of equality units within the university structure and the development of equality plans. These instruments have also served to detect the elements that can hinder the progress of equality policies in the universities themselves and in the scientific system in general. Identifying these elements is key to being able to promote the most appropriate measures to address the inequality gap in academia.

The main objective of this project is to know the impact of these policies on improving the professional career of women and reducing inequality gaps in universities. It is also interesting to analyze which are the most relevant challenges that arise to achieve more effective equality policies in the field of science and, specifically, in European and Spanish universities, exposing the persistent barriers and emerging resistance, while defining new indicators that make it possible to measure inequality gaps, paving the way for the design of transformative measures and policies.

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