España

Spain/ 4.2 Specific policy issues and recent debates
4.2.10 Gender equality and cultural policies
The issue of gender equality is clearly a major challenge for Spanish society, which has been addressed in the 3/2007 Act for effective equality between women and men. It establishes special recommendations for cultural policy making in recognising the duty of the authorities to implement theright of equal treatment and opportunities for women and men in all aspects related to the creation and artistic and intellectual production and their dissemination. The Act also provides for the implementation of active policies, translated into economic incentives, and the promotion of balanced participation of men and women in artistic and cultural public offering. To this end, the Institute forWomen has established, since 2010, a new line of funding specifically aimed at promoting equal opportunities between men and women in the field of art and culture. This new strategic commitment seeks to provide all citizens with equal access to culture and establish positive actions that raise public awareness, make women more visible and correct situations of inequality in the artistic creationand production of women. In addition, the National Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts has recently launched positive discrimination measures for women's productions. Thus, projects with a woman author or director receive more points in the assessment process. Moreover, the category "Especially recommended for the promotion of gender equality" has been established for films and otheraudiovisual works. In the same vein, the 7/2010 Act on Audiovisual Communication aims to prevent and eliminate gender discrimination in the context of the provisions on advertising and media included in the 1/2004 Act on Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence and the 3/2007 Act.
In 2007 the Ministry of Culture created the Portal Women in Culture, which contains resources related toactivities, publications, grants, awards, scholarships, etc. leaded by women (see also http://en.www.mcu.es/MC/Mujeres/index.html). In 2011, the Ministries of Gender and Culture launched the seventh edition of "Ellas Crean" (They Create). With the launch of this festival, the creative potential of women has become more visible, increasing year by year both the number of creative participants andthe public. The festival has crossed the Spanish border through the Cervantes Institute, developing its activities in thirty cities from five continents. In March 2010, the Ministry of Culture launched an initiative in the field of culture and equality, pioneer in Europe, based on museum itineraries around women and art in the 17 state museums. In October 2011, Granada (Andalusia) held the FirstWorld Congress of Gypsy Women organised by the Roma Cultural Institute, a public foundation under the Ministry of Culture, and the Council of Europe.
According to the Cultural Statistics Yearbook 2010, in 2009, 40.3% of persons employed in the cultural sector in Spain were women. By economic activity, there is a clear predominance of women in libraries, archives, museums and other culturalinstitutions and editing (representing 52.1% of total). This is a longstanding trend resulting from the strong female presence in arts education and in specific training in cultural administration.

Gender barriers to cultural participation do not appear to be a problem.
Female political participation : data and figuresWomen's participation in parliamentary assemblies, see also Women and political lifein Spain tables

a) Women's representation in the Congress of representatives (national level)
b) Table 1 shows the evolution of the return of women elected to Congress (data per party and per legislature) From 1979 on, the number of women MPs has increased threefold, rising from 6% to 15,7%. The most significant progress occurred during the 1989-1993 legislature, when the percentage...