Gender Equality Commission
The executive vice president of CRUCH, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, assured that the universities that make up the organization “are developing various efforts to eradicate all types of gender violence.”.
The head of the commission, Rector Natacha Pino, stated that the initiative "allows us to convey to the rectors of the Council how necessary and urgent it is to take charge of these issues and promote, from our role, the necessary actions supporting our teams.".
“Today we reaffirm the commitment of our universities to create conditions that allow everyone to have the opportunity to develop their talents, without obstacles, without discrimination and without violence,” said Juan Manuel Zolezzi, executive vice president of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH).
During the commemoration of International Women's Day, Rector Zolezzi highlighted the work of the Council's Gender Equality Commission. "We know we still have a long way to go to achieve full equality, but we have made remarkable progress in creating gender policies within universities, thanks to the work of the Commission, which coordinates the gender equality or equity offices of each institution.".
For her part, the head of this CRUCH advisory group, the rector of the University of Aysén, Natacha Pino, defined the instance as "a significant experience of understanding and joint work.".
Rector Pino stated that the commission allows "to learn from the directors themselves how gender issues are implemented, addressed, and demanded in each of our universities. This is very necessary because, through the different areas of work, guidance is provided and activities are developed that contribute to progress in these matters.".
On the other hand, the authority of the University of Aysén states that this work "allows us to better convey to the rectors of the Council how necessary and urgent it is to take charge of these issues and promote from our role the necessary actions supporting our teams.".
Commission progress
The CRUCH Gender Equality Commission is made up of representatives from the 30 CRUCH universities, appointed by the rectors.
The body was created in 2018, based on the feminist student mobilization that emerged in May of that year, within the universities of the Council, demanding responses to various types of gender violence, discrimination and against sexist education.
The commission coordinator, Antonia Santos (University of Aysén), explained that “at that time, very few universities had the institutional resources to address gender inequalities. This synergy of evidence of equality barriers, recognition of situations of gender violence, and student demands allowed us to develop an initial proposal with guidelines and suggestions for establishing university bodies responsible for promoting gender equality in universities.”.
According to Santos, thanks to that work today “important results are evident in the universities that make up CRUCH: all universities have gender equality units or departments and protocols to prevent, address and punish situations of gender violence.”.
In addition, institutions have made progress in providing data by academic institution, which "accounts for the dimensions and perceptions of gender inequality; multiple activities have been carried out to promote and recognize women's rights and thus build a transformation process that allows the installation of gender equality policies in the university.".
Among the advances of this working group are the development of diagnoses of gender relations; the creation of Gender Offices or equivalent units in the CRUCH universities; the implementation of action protocols for cases of sexual harassment, gender violence and discrimination; the gradual incorporation of the gender approach into the curriculum; the institutionalization and mainstreaming of this approach in the different universities; the active participation in the development and discussion of the New Law 21.369 that regulates sexual harassment, violence and gender discrimination in the field of higher education; among others.
Regarding the challenges for this year, Antonia Santos stated that the Gender Equality Commission will work primarily on the proposal to define the indicators that will allow the design and implementation of gender equality policies, which will respond to the specific characteristics of each institution.
“The implementation of gender equality policies is an urgent necessity once the threshold of recognizing the inequalities experienced by women in university access, disciplinary training, recruitment, professional and labor promotion, scientific productivity, work-life balance, hierarchical position and participation in decision-making has been crossed,” the academic explained.
To learn more about the work of the commission, we recommend reviewing our website.
An open possibility
Currently, CRUCH is made up of 27 male and 3 female rectors: Natacha Pino, Marisol Durán (Metropolitan Technological University) and Elisa Araya (Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences).
Rector Pino points out that this “is a true reflection of what is happening in society today. We have witnessed the emergence of new leadership at all levels; women have been appearing in positions of high responsibility, such as elected positions; we have a gender parity agreement, and our universities are increasingly becoming part of these changes as well.”.
Regarding how to encourage the participation of women in academic activities and high-responsibility institutional positions, the rector of the University of Aysén stated that it is necessary to create “spaces for conversation, share experiences with those women who feel that it is possible to advance on this path and make it visible to our university communities that these changes are possible.”.
On the other hand, in Natacha Pino's opinion, it is essential that "university communities themselves allow themselves to be led by women; there is still a lot of prejudice (...) I invite you to open yourselves to that possibility. Those of us who are rectors and lead universities believe that it is time to convene in a closer, more direct, transparent, and above all, more human way with our communities.".
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