The inclusion of the gender perspective in university teaching: real commitment or genderwashing

Abstract

Spanish universities have the responsibility of incorporating the gender perspective in all their functions and areas, including teaching, as required by law (Ley Orgánica 2/2023, de 22 de marzo, del Sistema Universitario). Hence this research article, whose objective is to know the degree of implementation of equality measures for teaching, and the type of measures they promote, in those Spanish universities where degrees in Advertising and Public Relations are taught. Of the 35 Spanish universities, public and private, that teach the degree in Advertising and PR (RUCT, 2023), the 30 universities that have renewed the teaching of the degree for upcoming academic years were selected for the analysis. Once the equality plans were recovered, a content analysis of them was carried out, excluding 1) the universities that did not have an Equality Plan or that did not have it publicly available online as of September 17 and 2) the equality plans that did not have a specific objective of including the gender perspective in teaching. Relevant conclusions are drawn from this analysis, which show that Spanish universities have made uneven progress in incorporating the gender perspective in university teaching, with a greater commitment observed in public universities.