Men’s universities

WHEN FORMER Spanish vice-president Elena Salgado was studying to become an Industrial Engineer in the 70’s, she was the only female student in her year. To such extent was it unusual to have women at Madrid’s Politechnic University that there were no toilets for them, as she herself explained in an interview with El País in 2009.

MANY THINGS have changed since that time. Women are now a majority among university students (54% last year, according to the Ministry of Education), and even in technical courses female presence is far away from what Salgado experienced: last year one in three students in Engineering, Architecture and Science (Health branch not included) were women.

"Women are 54% of students, 39% of teaching staff and 20% of professors"

HOWEVER, there is a group who may still feel empathy with Salgado. According to data gathered from each centre’s website, only seven of the 76 universities who are members of the Rectors Conference of Spanish Universities (CRUE) -50 of them public institutions, 26 private centres- are led by a woman. That represents less than 10% (9,21%, to be precise), and only one in these seven is a public institution: University of Granada.

THESE FIGURES do not match with the reality of Spanish campuses. As mentioned above, more than half of the students are female. Besides, according to the National Statistics Institute, 39% of university teaching staff in year 2009-2010 were women.

SO, HOW ARE rectors elected? The Ley Orgánica de Universidades (LOU), the law that applies to the universities, establishes that in the public centres “the Rector will be elected by the faculty, or by the university community in a direct election with universal suffrage, according to each university’s statutes, among active members of the professors serving in it”. The first requisite is then to become a professor. To do so, the candidate must get the credentials after being examined by a commission, whose composition should be “balanced in terms of gender, unless the impossibility to comply is well funded”, according to the legislation. The commission decides on the candidate’s merits, based on her research work, teaching experience and management ability. In year 2012-2013, there were 10.906 professors, 20% of them women, data from the Ministry of Education state.

"Pilar Aranda is the first woman leading the University of Granada in 500 years"

THE ONLY FEMALE rector of a public centre, Pilar Aranda, considers this system fairer than the previous one, based on several examinations by a board. Aranda, 57, was elected for the position last May and became therefore the first woman to lead the 500-year old University of Granada. She believes women in her generation had it harder, but claims things are changing. “There are female heads of department, female deans”, she says. “I think it progressively will stop being news that a woman becomes rector”. Aranda demands more commitment, though: “The problem is women do not run for the job”. She cites as an example the recent election in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where all five candidates were men, although she also mentions the election in the Universidad de Sevilla. A woman is disputing the post with two men there. Aranda sees the recent changes in the Rectors Conference with optimism: “The new president, Segundo Píriz [Universidad de Extremadura’s rector], includes gender balance in his programme”. [Pilar Aranda is a member of Píriz’s team in the Rectors Conference, where she is also the only woman, together with the secretary general].

IN THE CASE of the private universities, the law just establishes that their governing bodies guarantee “that the different groups in the university community are represented in a balanced way, including men and women in equal terms” and that “the faculty and researchers’ views are listened to when nominating the rector”.