Even though women represent 59% of all bachelors degrees, they only account for 12.8% of the professors of Spanish universities; institutions like the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, or the Catalan Foundation for Research, have no women in their staffs; there is not one single female professor of Pediatrics or Gynecology and Obstetrics in Spain. These are only three examples which evidence the clear discrimination against women in the scientific and academic fields. Moreover, these are only a few of the many data presented in the document Women and Science, prepared by the Observatory on Bioethics and Law of the University of Barcelona.

In order to denounce this worrying situation and to propose a decalogue of measures to stop it, five women pertaining to this university observatory presented, on October 18, 2004 at the Convalescence House of the Sant Pau Hospital of Barcelona, a study proving the inequality between women and men in attaining positions of responsibility. The experience of a sixth woman, Neus Visa, professor of the Department of Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics of the University of Stockholm, allowed to expose a model to be followed –the Swedish model– in equal opportunities policies.

The presentation, also organized with the collaboration of the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists and the Esteve Foundation, included the following submitters: Roser González (professor of Genetics of the UB and coordinator of this study), María Casado (directrice of the Observatory of Bioethics and Law), Teresa Freixes (professor of Constitutional Law of the Autonomous University of Barcelona), Carmina Virgili (professor of Geology of the Complutense University of Madrid) and Rosa Virós (professor of Political Science and Public Administration and principal of the Pompeu Fabra University).