Equality Law proves a serial truant at nation's universities

One hundred years after women were permitted to walk the corridors of enlightenment at Spain's universities, female lecturers and professors are still subject to a sturdy glass ceiling.

Although women account for more than half of the total number of students, only 36.7 percent of teachers and 15 percent of professors are female. Of Spain's 74 university deans, nine are female.

The Equality Law has failed to make a dent in the traditional male preserve, despite universities being one of the first sectors to have a formula for equilibrium applied to it. The General Law on Universities (LOU) dictates that the panels awarding teaching positions at universities should comprise "a balanced composition between men and women."

A case emerged at Madrid's Carlos III University where a panel to elect a professor in Civil Law was all-male with a female professor as a substitute. "It seems that people think it is fine for women to pay to study Civil Law and to give classes, but not to join the professorship," said José Miguel Rodríguez Tapia, who was a candidate for the post. "It's pure sexism and medieval backwardness."

The university countered that it is hard to form balanced panels because of a shortage of female professors. At Carlos III, of 118 professors, only 10 are women.