Gender Equality Commission
The text, which compiles the experience of university teams in eradicating gender violence, is available at the CRUCH website, Publications section.
The rector of the University of Aysén and head of the CRUCH Gender Equality Commission, Natacha Pino, and the rector of the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences, Elisa Araya, highlighted the relevance of the document for universities, which will have to develop prevention, investigation and sanction models within the framework of the implementation of Law 21.369, which regulates sexual harassment, violence and gender discrimination in higher education.
The presentation of the text included the participation of the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Verónica Figueroa, and the president of the Federation of Students of the University of Santiago of Chile (FEUSACH) and spokesperson for CONFECH, Noemí Quintana.
The idea of building a model to address gender violence arose in 2019, within the framework of the meetings of the Gender Equality Commission of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH) and, after a collective work process, the document was published at the beginning of May of this year “Kaleidoscope Model: a proposal for addressing gender violence in the university context”, available on our website.
The text was prepared by a team of 27 members, including gender directors from CRUCH universities and their teams, as well as various collaborators, and thanks to the leadership of the Coordinator of the Violence Eradication Axis of the commission, Angélica Marín, from the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences (UMCE), and the professional from the same university, Lorena Pezoa.
“The development of this model is the result of several years of collaborative work among the CRUCH universities that make up this initiative, and it incorporates the experience of the institutions' own teams in eradicating gender-based violence,” stated Angélica Marín. “It has been a lot of hard work, work in which we have managed to find common ground and shared criteria. These are recommendations for action by the entire university community, since the task of eradicating gender-based violence is an institutional one,” she added.
The main objective of the Kaleidoscope Intervention Model is to collaborate in addressing and eradicating all forms of gender violence within the educational institutions that are part of CRUCH.
Regarding the model's name, Marín explained that "it is inspired by the movements and diversity of images offered by a kaleidoscope, which, when rotated, reveals different possibilities based on combinations of elements such as light, colored pieces, and mirrors. This alludes to the multiple aspects and dimensions that must be considered when addressing gender-based violence.".
Contribution to action planning
More than one hundred people connected remotely from various cities in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia participated in the presentation of the “Kaleidoscope Model” on May 3rd. On that occasion, Natacha Pino, Rector of the University of Aysén and head of the CRUCH Gender Equality Commission, praised and thanked the group for their work.
“For me, it is a great honor to be able to accompany you in the work you do. I believe that much of what has been achieved in universities is due to the drive and effort you have dedicated to it, and I think it is very important to highlight and acknowledge that,” the rector emphasized.
Rector Pino highlighted the document “as a contribution to planning our actions and concrete measures,” both in “the development of our policies and in the challenge of implementing Law 21.369, which regulates sexual harassment, violence, and gender discrimination in higher education.” In this context, universities will need to develop models for prevention, investigation, and sanctions.
For her part, the rector of the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences, Elisa Araya, referred to the document as “a gift.» She added that Chile’s current historical moment is ripe for generating change and expressed her certainty that “this network of institutions, of people, of women, of men, will continue working” with the purpose of “providing the country with alternatives for justice, peace, and sustainability.”.
Meanwhile, the president of the Gender Equality Commission, Antonia Santos, while acknowledging “the good work, persistence, interest, and willingness of the participants in this collective effort,” highlighted the progress made by universities since the commission was created in 2018, as well as the key principles that have guided the work: eradication of violence, institutionalization, and mainstreaming.
She then stated that it is necessary to "understand that violence and addressing violence are part of gender equality policies within universities and that the application of the model will be possible to the extent that we strengthen and increase this recognition and institutionalization of gender offices in higher education institutions.".
Regarding the next steps, Santos said that “we still have a long way to go to learn, debate, collaborate and build, in this commitment to gender equality in higher education institutions.”.
Incentive for inter-institutional collaboration
In the presentation of the document, the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Verónica Figueroa, stated that “talking about gender violence and having contributions that allow us to make it evident, that allow us to raise awareness about it, is not a task only for women, but for society as a whole, and certainly what we have to de-patriarchalize is society, and universities, institutions of higher education, are spaces of power that contribute significantly to generating social change.”.
Regarding university spaces, she stated that it is "painful" to recognize that "universities are not immune to structural gender violence and how, often, violence is reproduced in everyday life, from the examples used in the classroom, the lack of female role models in academic spaces, in positions of power, or how the university structure itself and the rules that govern within universities contribute to maintaining unequal conditions and even to fostering gender violence.".
Regarding the book's proposal, Figueroa indicated that "it can serve to generate or encourage both collaboration and the generation of new proposals in other areas of higher education institutions.".
She added that “we face many challenges at the Undersecretariat of Higher Education, and, as this book so aptly illustrates, no solution can be found in isolation. It requires forging alliances across various sectors to advance towards intersectional and inter-institutional policies that truly address gender-based violence as a structural problem in our society, not merely as a concern for higher education, but as a matter of public policy. We have embraced our identity as a feminist government, and this must be reflected in every action we take and every decision we make.”.
Paths that open up
Noemí Quintana, president of the Federation of Students of the University of Santiago of Chile (FEUSACH) and spokesperson for the Confederation of Students of Chile (CONFECH), also participated in the presentation of the text.
The student leader appreciated that the document "recognizes, from an institutional perspective, things that are raised by the students themselves, from the grassroots, and that are then reflected in laws. This is very positive, and we say, well, the struggle was not in vain.".
Quintana recalled the feminist May of 2018, which “was an explosion” that made visible the cases of abuse in universities and although “that moment was hard, it now gives us the opportunity to have a law that can regulate that situation.”.
She also thanked those who worked on the kaleidoscope model and said that the paths being opened up by the contributions of those who work on this every day are important. She expressed her hope that institutions can adopt and implement it, so that they can fulfill their dreams of one day eradicating gender violence and achieving the gender perspective that institutions long for.
The presentation is available below.
Publication Content
The full document, which is available on the CRUCH website, Publications/Books section, It is organized into four chapters: Introduction to the Kaleidoscope Intervention Model; Approaches to the Kaleidoscope Model; Dimensions of the Kaleidoscope Model; and Cross-cutting Aspects of the Kaleidoscope Model.
The first chapter provides an introduction to the model, its objective, and a summary matrix of the kaleidoscope model. The second chapter describes the model's approaches to addressing gender-based violence: the human rights approach and the intersectional approach.
Chapter Three presents three dimensions of the model. The first relates to the levels of gender-based violence (direct, cultural, and structural), the second to the levels of intervention, and the third identifies a continuum of nine lines of intervention: from promotion, prevention, care for affected individuals, reparation, protection, access to justice, socio-educational support, community reintegration, to knowledge generation.
Finally, the fourth chapter addresses cross-cutting aspects of the model, such as networks and intersectoral collaboration between the public, private, and community sectors. In this regard, Angélica Marín explains that “we understand this model as an institutional response from the university as a whole, not from the gender offices in particular or from the programs that work on violence in particular; it is a response that brings together different actors within our communities.”.
Another cross-cutting aspect is “the work of promoting egalitarian relationships and non-sexist education, where those fundamental pillars of gender equality are in place, allowing us to prevent or move towards the eradication of gender-based violence,” says Marín. Also crucial is the well-being of teams at different levels (institutional, within the teams themselves, and the individual responsibility of each of us working in the field of violence to take care of ourselves professionally).
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