Unit of EqualityUnit of Equality
PRESENTATION
The right to gender equality between women and men has been recognized by the United Nations as a universal legal principle and collected by the constitutions of democratic countries. But equality before the Law, which represents a major milestone for women and society as a whole, has proved insufficient to achieve real equality. Society faces now the challenge of banishing stereotypes and promoting the conditions for gender equality between women and men to make it real and effective.
Women have increased their presence in the different areas of society. The incorporation of women to education, and specifically to higher education, which was banned for them for decades in our country, is a good example that there have been significant progress on the road to gender equality. However, several reports on the position of women in university prove the persistence of inequalities and imbalances in their access to academic education and career developement, as well as in their presence in representative bodies.
The evidence of this inequality, regardless of the causes producing it, warns on the development of active policies to overcome and prevent the reproduction of these inequalities, and fulfill the principle of equity.
With this purpose, the Governing Council of January 2008 agreed the creation of the University of Alicante's Gender Equality Unit, in compliance with the provisions of the twelfth additional provision of the Amendment of Law modifying the Spanish University Act on Universities (LOMLOU), which states that "Universities will established gender equality units among its organizational structures to promote the development of the functions related to the principle of equality between women and men".
