Barcelona, April 2006 efbonnemaison@dibat

1. Barcelona, April 2006 efbonnemaison@diba.cat

2. Index: • Spanish Context: overview of historical facts. • Barcelona Provincial Council • Evolution in gender policies at the Barcelona Provincial Council • Equality Plans • Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats • The future?

3. 2.- Spanish Context: overview of historical facts • 1975. Death of Franco (dictator), after 40 years of totalitarian government, beginning of democracy. • 1977. Sección Femenina (historical women institution of the “regime”) disappears. • 1978. Approval of democratic Spanish Constitution, which recognise legal equality and the obligation of public authorities to promote real equality (“facto”). • 1983. Creation of the Instituto de la Mujer (Governmental Women Institution). Start of the institutional feminism. • 1985. Law of Local Authorities (Llei Reguladora de Bases de Règim Local), which allows to act and promote activities that imply the general well-being of the population. • 1988-1994. Gradual creation of the regional/autonomic women institutions. At 1989 creation of Catalan Women Institute. At local level, creation of women’s town councillorships (political local level) and fostering of the creation of Women’s Boards (citizenship participatory level). • 1994. The institutional situation in Spain is comparable with Europe. • 2004. Equal number of women and men as ministers at central government.

4. 3.- Barcelona Provincial Council • Local government institution that promotes the progress and welfare of the province. • A network of 311 municipalities. • Provides technical, economic and technological support to councils. It also involves human, technical and material resources, applying economies of scale, sharing knowledge and preventing the duplication of structures. • Women’ Promotion: local level competenceattribute by the local law from 1985 (art. 28). In Catalonia the law 2/2003 promotes local activities on gender issues to complement the regional actions. • Some achievements in political sphere in the province of Barcelona:

5. 4.- Evolution on gender policies at the Barcelona Provincial Council: • 1996: Interdepartmental Commission of Woman. • 1997: Creation of the Technical Office of Equality Plan. • 2003: The Technical Office of Equality Plan becomes the Service for the Promotion of Equality Policies for Women and Men (SPPI) and is integrated into the Equality and Citizenship Area (2004). • 2004: Opening of the Francesca Bonnemaison Centre. • At present: SPPI gives technical and economical support to promote and foster equal policies for councils and citizenship. Advice and support, both technical and economically, to the 311 councils of the province. • 2005-2007: The Barcelona Provincial Councils approve the 2º Equality Plan as an instrument to develop gender equality policies.

6. 4.- Evolution on gender policies at the Barcelona Provincial Council, economic and staff indicators: • Staff: • The staff of the Technical Office of Equality Plan at its creation was of 8 people (1997). • At present, the Service for the Promotion of Equality Policies for Women and Men (SPPI), has a staff 73; which 50 are part of the School of Women (Escola de la Dona). The percentage increase is of 812,5% since 1997, less than 10 years. • Budget: • The increase of the budget between 2005 and 2006 is 9,35%, which is considered as positive given the increase of activities done in the Espai Francesca Bonnemaison. • Similarly, the budget has been increasing between 5 and 10%, annually, since the creation of the Service (1997).

7. 5.- Equality Plans In Spain, the different Equality departments of public authorities (governmental, regional and local) promote Equality Plans as a work tool. These entities or departments act as a coordinators, promoters and executers of those Plans. Equality Plans are constituted by a set of interrelated equality measures to remove the inequalities between women and men in different fields (social, politic, economic, cultural…). The first Spanish Equality Plan was approved in 1988 and the IV Plan, 2003-06, is now running. The first of Catalan Government was in 1989 and the V Catalan Plan, 2005-07, is now operating. The first one of the Barcelona Provincial Council was in 1998 and the 2nd Provincial Council Equality Plan, 2005-07, is now working. In the Province of Barcelona: around 40 councils has approved equality plans and other works under those guidelines.

8. MILESTONE GENDER EQUALITY GENDER EQUALITY’S STRATEGIES DUAL APPROACH GENDER TRANSVERSAL STRATEGIES SPECIFIC EQUALITY POLICIES GENDER EQUALITY PLANS TOOLS FOR PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

9. STRENGTHS of the Barcelona Provincial Council : (internal) • There is a women’s department with resources: personnel and budget. The staff is composed of professionals. • Creation of the Francesca Bonnemaison Centre. • Specific plan as a work tool. Plan was agreed and discussed in a participatory approval process. • Increase of the shared equality discourse in the institution and specific training on gender subjects.

10. WEAKNESSES of the Barcelona Provincial Council (internal) • Risk of considering the plan as something fragmented and without internal relation to achieve a global and common goal: gender equality. • Need to improve the communication strategy at internal and external level. • Few women at the higher levels of power of the institution. • Obstacles for women to access to decision-making posts: cultural factors, models of management, problems of work-life balance, great requirements of dedication to decision-making posts…

11. OPPORTUNITIES of the Barcelona Provincial Council : (external) • Political context: hard compromise to develop new laws to remove the inequalities between women and men. The Spanish government has approved new laws regarding gender issues: gender violence, equality law, separation and divorce law, marriage law (allowing gay and lesbian marriages), care law [welfare benefits for home carers]. The Catalan government: gender violence law and the equality law, in process of approval. • European framework: laws, funds, networks … to act on gender issues. • Strong and well organized women’s organisations. • Public opinion and mass media more gender awareness and more avalaible information.

12. THREATS of the Barcelona Provincial Council : (external) • Gender issue is understood as “acquired” and “internalised” in the organisation. Due to that, is not a real subject in the political agenda. • The participation of women’s organisations and citizenship in decision-making, planning of actions,..etc. is not well established, neither real nor effective. • Difficulties in rethinking the idea of gender equality as a key issue for a change in society and to improve the everyday life of women and men. • Lack of preparation in the face of future budget reductions on gender funds, gradually disappearing under the “mainstreaming and diversity” idea, as is happening in other organizations.

13. THE FUTURE? Source: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) 2006