Barcelona sets its sights on the glass ceiling this 8M

Breaking the glass ceiling to increase the presence of women in positions of responsibility and to expand the role models that inspire future generations of leaders and directors. This is the objective on which the Barcelona City Council has focused its campaign for this March 8, "so that today's girls become tomorrow's research chiefs, rectors, film directors, and CEOs."

Thus, the City Council has organized this institutional campaign within the framework of Women's Day to help break the glass ceiling. To this end, it has planned a program that will kick off on the morning of March 8 with the reading of a manifesto, which will address these limitations for women to access decision-making positions. This is a reality that the City Council combats with tools such as the Projecte Lidera to foster female entrepreneurship and leadership, and the promotion of 70 social and solidarity economy initiatives led by women, as recalled by the director of Feminisms and LGTBI Services of the City Council, Maria Rengel.

The institutional 8M campaign will feature as one of its highlights the delivery of the Premi 8 de Març - Maria Aurèlia Capmany. Annually convened by the City Council, the award will be presented on March 11 in the Saló de Cent. The award aims to recognize initiatives aimed at defending and promoting women's rights, and this edition also focuses on the glass ceiling. It thus shares the theme of the institutional campaign, designed by creative director expert in communication with a gender perspective Patricia Luján, and illustrated with portraits of girls and young women by photographer Tanit Plana.

The campaign's program will have as one of its central events the Converses Feministes (Feminist Conversations) conferences, which will be held at the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) Auditorium on March 22 and 23. They will do so with the aim of debating and seeking answers to the main challenges to advance towards real and effective equality, and will feature leading women in various sectors. The conferences will gather proposals and interests arising from working groups that met in January, and from them will emerge a series of commitments to continue advancing in policies focused on guaranteeing gender equality. Thus, from this meeting will emerge "a collective reflection on where to intervene and on how to act from the municipal sphere," according to Rengel.

Vertical segregation has repercussions on the wage gap and pensions, as well as on the loss of talent and the absence of female role models in leadership across all sectors

The meeting will continue on Saturday with six dynamic and simultaneous workshops that will address various aspects and roles of women in society, such as one on youth and participation, with the former president of the Federation of Young Women and the youngest deputy in the Congress of Deputies, Ada Santana. The director of Iniciativa Barcelona Open Data and president of Dones en Xarxa, Lourdes Muñoz, will lead a workshop on data technology with a gender perspective, while the writer and activist Desirée Bela will lead a session on women and anti-racism.

The workshops will be completed by Communication: digital and media violence by the writer and journalist Carmen Domingo; Porn and the construction of desire by the specialist in sexist violence Marina Marroquí, and Metacícliques by the director, actress and activist Lydia Zimmermann. The conferences, which require prior and free registration, will conclude after the workshops, with the reading of the commitments acquired in them and with a closing by councilor Raquel Gil.

The figures reflect that only a third of people in management or executive positions in Catalonia are women

This vertical segregation also has repercussions on the wage gap and pensions, as well as on the loss of talent and the absence of female role models in leadership across all sectors. This is reflected in the figures: only one third of people holding executive or managerial positions in Catalonia are women. The glass ceiling is also palpable in the university sphere, as only two of the eight universities in Barcelona are led by a female rector.

This is a proportion that is reproduced in the various stages of women's lives: they only represent 27% of students linked to fields such as engineering and architecture and 24% of senior group leaders in research centers. The gap is not only in the distribution of positions, but also in the allocation of resources, as Catalan research projects with a woman as principal investigator receive close to 30% of the resources granted competitively.

"The data supports that there is a lot of work to be done, and that is why we wanted to put them not only on the table, but on banners and posters, so that the city sees that we are not just talking about a slogan against the glass ceiling, but about data," Rengel highlighted. The Director of Feminisms recalled that the figures are replicated in multiple areas, ranging from cinema to information technology professionals, including politics, as only 23% of Catalan municipalities are led by a female mayor. Thus, the City Council has focused its annual 8M campaign on combating a phenomenon that occurs in all professional and social spheres, and that has implications not only for the affected women individually, but for society as a whole.