​Amalia Verdu

I had the pleasure of visiting the Women´s University Institute at the Madrid´s Autonomous University in June. This is a very special place not only because of being my alma mater but also because it was the first University Women´s Institute in Spain.

 

The Institute was founded by Prof. Angeles Duran in 1973 as a seminar on women’s studies. During my stay, I was also able to meet her. She is a fascinating woman who worked as Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous University and who always tried to promote research from a feminist perspective. Later in 1993 the Seminar became the University Institute being now Prof. of Philosophy of Law Cristina Sanchez the Director.

 

The core aim of the Institute relies in promoting and mainstreaming the gender perspective in all researches. Therefore, its interdisciplinary character allows multiple collaborations among researchers from different disciplines, resulting in the constitution of an interdisciplinary research group coined as “feminism and gender” to promote the research on both feminism and gender in all disciplines.

 

     Picture: Amalia Verdu

I had the chance during my stay of attending one of the most important Institute’s event organized since 1983, the interdisciplinary research seminar. This seminar aims to promote the feminist and gender research and networking among senior and younger researchers. This year was the XXII Jornadas de Investigación Interdisciplinar  with the title “Displacements, violence and gender”. The presenter’s focused on women´s migration and Diasporas, all in connection with an Institute’s project on political violence. This supposed rich and different approaches to the issue due to the broad approach to the understanding of displacement which includes not only physical but also geographic and symbolic displacements. All presentations were based on research projects analyzing the role of violence and moreover, the violence against women suffered in different displacement and Diasporas. The presentations analyzed the violence produced and reproduced in the specific event of women migrations. The roots, sources and process of displacement and Diasporas varied enormously depending on sex. Sex and sexuality become important factors in the analysis of forced mobility as women compromised their security as much as men but also their sexuality. Dangers and vulnerabilities become specific to their sex in which also their sexuality becomes a negotiating factor.

 

The outcome of such seminars usually crystallizes in a book edited with the selected presentations. In parallel to the seminar the Institute awards the prize Angeles Duran to the best year’s book on women and gender. This year the prize went to Cristina Tarzibachi with the book Cosa de mujeres about the women´s menstruation´s economic and social impact throughout history, describing and analyzing a different and original approach to a very specific women issue. An special recognition was granted to  the book written by Ana Maria Romero Burillo and Cristina Rodriguez Orgaz, called La proteccion de la victim de violencia de genero (the protection of the victims of gender violence) where they analyse the ten years implementation of the gender violence law in Spain.

 

Picture: Pixabay

I spent a very fruitful month in Madrid with the possibility of meeting other researchers working on women and gender. I was able to witness also the sudden change of government that resulted in the first government in the world with a majority of women.  Although, I must say, this event was shadowed by the judicial decision of conditional freedom for the gang of rapers called La manada.  These to contradictory events highlight the paradox of the XXIst century; women can be equals but still keeping their sexual object position. ​

 

Amalia Verdu is a PhD researcher at the University of Turku