Presentation of the Rosalind Franklin Awards for the best project with gender perspective

The vice-rector for Equal Opportunities, Inclusion and Gender of the UB, Montserrat Puig, opened the event by recalling that "every day is March 8" and calling for the "need to apply the gender perspective in all policies". Her speech was followed by Núria Vergés, Director General of Care, Time Organisation and Work Equity of the Department of Equality and Feminisms, who stressed the importance of "continuing to advance in rights" and gave way to the presentation of the awards.

Of the eighteen entries submitted, the winning entries in the fifth edition of the Rosalind Franklin Awards were:

• Honourable mention: “Autolesiones no suicidas, trastornos de la conducta alimenticia, regulación emocional y afrontamiento. Un estudio con perspectiva de género” (Non-suicidal self-harm, eating disorders, emotional regulation and coping. A study with a gender perspective), by Elisa Ramírez López, student of the master’s degree in General Health Psychology.
• Honourable mention: “Mujeres, sexo y deseo: Divagando entre las formas de vivir la relación entre feminismo y deseo sexual” (Women, sex and desire: Rambling between ways of experiencing the relationship between feminism and sexual desire), by Gaizkane Apodaka Aparicio, student of the master’s degree in Women, Gender and Citizenship.
• Accesit: “Problemas de la traducción poética: el caso de la poesía de Adrienne Rich” (Problems of poetic translation: the case Adrienne Rich’s poetry), by Laura Gonzalbo Pallarés, student of the master’s degree in Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature.
• Accesit: “Abrir el culo: subvertir los discursos, prácticas y espacios hegemónicos a través del arte” (Opening the butt: subverting hegemonic discourses, practices and spaces through art), by Paula Rodríguez Fernandez, student of the master’s degree in Women, Gender and Citizenship.
• First prize: “’Esto me ha hecho feminista’. (Contra)narrativas en torno a la violencia sexual y transformación subjetiva y social en mujeres supervivientes” (This made me a feminist. (Counter)narratives around sexual violence and subjective and social transformation in women survivors), by Magalí Garrell Ferrando, student of the master’s degree in Women, Gender and Citizenship.

After the awards, the secretary-general of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia, Laura Román, and the vice-rector for Equal Opportunities, Inclusion and Gender of the UB, Montserrat Puig, read the manifesto “Let’s break down gender barriers in university and research centres”, written by the Women and Science Committee of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia.   

In the second part of the event, the rector's delegate for the Management of the Equality Unit, Núria Ferran, led the roundtable "How to implement the gender equality strategy in the Catalan university system and, in particular, at the University of Barcelona". The secretary-general of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia, Laura Román, put into context the emergence of this strategy "within the framework of Catalonia's own institutional and normative regulation, especially in the field of universities and research, through Law 9/2022, of 21 December, known as the Law of Science". He explained its political genesis and highlighted that it is a four-year strategy "of a transversal and intersectional nature, which aims to create a new and very ambitious regulatory and institutional framework".

Sònia Estradé, lecturer at the UB’s Faculty of Physics and director of the Chair in Gender Perspective and Feminisms at Cornellà City Council, stated that "if things don't change, the system itself won't change". She noted that "we must go beyond the principle of inclusion per se, and advocate for very specific regulations, hiring policies, evaluation, merits where everyone fits and everyone can contribute to knowledge and which benefits everyone".

Finally, Jordi Garcia, vice-rector for Research, said that he is "moderately optimistic", and presented a series of figures that show an increase in the presence of women both in terms of professorships and lecturer positions. He added that "although there are fewer women rectors than necessary in Catalan universities as a whole, there are more women vice-rectors for research than vice-rectors". He also acknowledged that "much more emphasis needs to be placed on the gender perspective in the field of experimental sciences".

Rector Joan Guàrdia concluded the event with a brief speech in which he emphasised that "there is no slack effort in this area", despite recognising that "the reality outside the academy is much worse than inside. The university, in this sense, is not a rebellious institution, but it should be revolutionary". "Many things are done, but much more needs to be done," he concluded.