Progress and challenges in gender policies and practices

Abstract

This article tells the story of the evolution of women’s education in Spain in the last thirty years. Spanish women now outnumber men in terms of both access to education and the educational level they attain. Although there has been a very important shift throughout the history of women’s education, gender equality has yet to be achieved. The culture that is transmitted at all levels of education, from primary schools to universities, remains androcentric, ignoring the existence of women in society and adopting the male perspective as the norm. The procedures and strategies pursued in recent years to reduce gender inequalities in education are explained through this historical process. I consider the policies and the actors which have been key in this process to achieve what we call “co-education” – a concept with a slightly different meaning from the English one. Although co-education has played a very important role in this process, it has still not facilitated full equality between women and men in education. The current political and economic problems in Spain are now posing a serious challenge for efforts to achieve full gender equality in education.