"I LIKE A WOMAN to be a woman”. This sentence sums up former Spanish Prime Minister’s José María Aznar personal tastes. However, his conception of what being a woman means may not include holding a position as a minister. Aznar was one of the Spanish PMs less prone to appoint women for his cabinets, only behind the first democratic governments. On the contrary, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose Administration passed the Gender Equality Law, has led the only governments in the current democratic period where women stood side by side with men.
DURING THE YEARS (2004-2011) when Zapatero ruled the country, female presence in the cabinet never fell below 40%, according to data gathered from La Moncloa’s website. Except for just one year, women proportion within the socialist’s governments ranged between 47 and 50%. These figures placed Spain among the countries with a highest ratio of female ministers, on the same level as Sweden, Finland or Norway. By that time, EU average was about 25%, according to European Commission data.
Source: La Moncloa
EUROPEAN STATISTICS start in 2003, so it is not possible to compare Spain with other bloc’s countries before that date. In March 2003, with José Maria Aznar as PM, only one in four ministers was a woman. This was in line with the European average (24%) and high above France (21%) or Italy (9%), but far away from the Nordic countries. Six months later, Aznar reshuffled his cabinet and included another woman, Julia García-Valdecasas, as Public Administration minister raising female ratio to 31%, the highest level in his two terms. There is a gap in European data between the fourth quarter of 2003 and the first three months of 2004. Nonetheless, using data from the third quarter of 2003 as a reference, this 31% would place Spain on the same level as the Netherlands and above Denmark. However, Aznar does not appear a great gender equality supporter: half of his eight years serving as Primer Minister saw less than 20% female presence in his government.
"29% of Rajoy's government members are women. The European average is 27%"
MARIANO RAJOY'S ARRIVAL at La Moncloa meant a fall in female ministers ratio compared to that in Zapatero’s cabinets. Still, his bet on women was much stronger than that of Aznar. In December 2011, four out of fourteen ministers were women (29%), six percentage points above the European average and the same female rate of Mr. Rajoy’s last government. However, between April and December 2014 Popular Party’s cabinet reached its highest proportion of women, 36%.
THE LATEST EUROPEAN data from summer 2015 show an average of 27% women in the bloc’s governments. Norway and Sweden are way ahead the rest of the countries, with half their cabinets composed of women.