Las políticas de igualdad en España:construyendo el liderazgo del nivel subnacional

Abstract

The literature on male and female equality policies has undergone an extraordinary development in the last decade. However, few studies have addressed its implementation at subnational level in detail. This article was thus intended to help remedy this gap and explore such type of action in a highly decentralised country such as Spain. The objective was to analyse Spanish central and regional equality policies and to show that the so-called autonomous communities have gradually assumed leadership in this area. The article focuses on analysing gender mainstreaming to reveal the loss of central government leadership as this is the latest strategy in this area. It focuses on transcending traditional policies and generalises the goal of gender equality to government as a whole. Legislation and action plans carried out to date at both levels of government have been explored. A general introduction to mainstreaming is given, as is a description of the pertinent key tools such as new equality organisations and gender impact reports. It can be concluded that the autonomous communities have taken a leading role in Spanish gender equality policies and that their actions must be taken into account.