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CAPITOLINA DIAZ MARTINEZ In the third and final session of the 5th CIS Conference on Sociology of Gender, Capitolina Díaz Martínez, current recipient of the 2025 National Prize for Sociology and Political Science, gave a presentation entitled "Sociology without female sociologists. Anatomy of a disciplinary expulsion ." “The historical absence of female sociologists is the result of an epistemological and institutional process that has defined who can produce legitimate knowledge. It is not an empirical deficiency. It is not due to oversight or a lack of quality or output. It is a structural effect, not academic negligence.” In a detailed epistemological exposition, she has meticulously outlined how the sociological canon has been constructed through a series of mechanisms that have excluded women, compiling a list of these exclusionary practices. She illustrated this with the cases of four pioneering women in sociology: Harriet Martineau, Jane Addams, Marianne Weber, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The list of exclusion mechanisms — “or erasure mechanisms” — includes, according to their research: excess, absorption, particularization, silencing, and displacement. Capitolina Díaz concludes that these pioneering women were rejected because they were “too much”: too empirical, too committed, too situated. “What is not cited, what is not transmitted, what is not taught, ceases to exist.” When a female sociologist discovered a theory and received recognition for it, her identity was diluted, even if her discovery was incorporated into the canon, but without a name. The topics of her study were considered minor because they were everyday or natural; issues such as reproduction or caregiving were excluded from analysis, and instead of being considered scientific and theoretical, they were categorized as activities labeled as having a lower academic level: philanthropy, travel journalism, or activism. For Capitolina Díaz, these mechanisms of exclusion, invisibly, continue to operate today in a similar way to how they did in the erasure of the pioneers.   CARLOTA SOLÉ I PUIG Carlota Solé, winner of the 2023 National Prize for Sociology and Political Science, focused her speech on describing the situation of immigrant women entrepreneurs. “Immigrant women are interested in and committed to entrepreneurship despite different forms of oppression and adverse conditions. They stand out for their resilience and their resolute attitude towards risk.” Solé i Puig detailed the challenges faced by migrant women entrepreneurs through examples from different nationalities and ethnicities: limited language skills, social networks confined to the home or a few friends, linguistic and cultural barriers, lack of understanding of legislation, and difficulties accessing financing. “Digital media represents an empowering alternative for migrant women entrepreneurs.” “The family plays a very important role in the process of creating and maintaining a business. They are influenced by the sociocultural environment, family dynamics, self-perception, and the interaction between their status and their expectations.” The professor explained how the key to success and progress lies in new technologies: the connected mobile phone can boost, even in hostile contexts such as that of refugees, access to entrepreneurship for immigrant women. “The use of digital tools facilitates their communication, discussion and decision-making, access to courses or online marketing, but it also represents a digital divide that can separate them.”   She also highlighted some characteristics of their entrepreneurial approach: work-life balance is practically nonexistent, they employ other women of the same ethnicity, they tend to diversify their clientele, and they create small businesses with low technological requirements that are usually established in the home context. For these women, starting a business is a means of upward mobility. Their motivations center on the need to escape a discriminatory market and on self-affirmation. “This work deserves to be supported, valued and reinforced with training and mentoring programs, access to microcredits and specific funds, support networks and associations, or legal and administrative advisory services.”   INSTITUTIONAL CLOSING CEREMONY At the closing ceremony, the Secretary of State for Migration, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, spoke, thanking the organizers of the conference for "being able to listen to those who know, those who understand." And he asserted: “Talking about migration today is revolutionary. We must construct a narrative that allows us to reclaim essential issues such as human rights. There are 58 forgotten crises.” The Director General of the CIS, Silvia García Ramos, concluded the event by stating that "thanks to the research of sociologists, today we know more about how inequalities are constructed and, above all, how they are overcome." The president of the CIS, José Félix Tezanos, reiterated that the five women awarded are “a treasure of knowledge and ability to present” and announced that the intention of the Center for Sociological Research is to publish a book that compiles the presentations from these conferences.

INÉS ALBERDI “Feminism taught us that the personal is political” At the second Gender Sociology Conference at the Center for Sociological Research, Inés Alberdi focused her presentation on the role of women in the Spanish Transition and on feminism as the driving force behind that social change. “We learned that the personal is political, and the Spanish Transition was a profound sociological transformation.” Alberdi recounted the most significant changes that affected women's social and political status and their evolving mindset. In the 1960s, two key factors transformed everything: emigration to Europe and the rise of tourism . "It had an emulative impact," Alberdi explained. "Spaniards who emigrated often returned to their hometowns in the summer to spend their holidays, because paid vacations existed in Europe. And they shared their daily experiences." Alberdi explained how the phenomenon of tourism acted as a driving force for social change. Their behavior served as a point of comparison, allowing Spaniards to observe the differences between their respective lives. They learned about what was happening abroad: political freedom, a free press, democratic organization, unions, and more open romantic relationships. "Everything that was prohibited in Spain was considered a right beyond its borders: desires for democracy, personal autonomy, and geographical mobility emerged. We began to look at Europe with admiration and envy. Fashion, bikinis, and music were the most visible aspects." But if there was one group that truly experienced this difference, it was women. “We arrive at the most important aspect of the influence that tourism had on women's behavior and aspirations. A desire for modernization emerged: women envied sexual freedom and access to birth control, and they began to wonder how it was possible to be with a husband without getting pregnant.” In the spring of 1975, a fundamental reform arrived: the Law of May 2nd, which restored women's legal capacity . “For the first time in Spanish history, women achieved the equality that came with the 1978 Constitution, which established equality in civil and criminal matters and within marriage. The family model changed, and the status of women in society rose enormously.” Alberdi emphasized that, although we live in a more prosperous society, challenges remain in areas such as employment opportunities, the eradication of violence, and the gender pay gap. “There’s a paradox: feminism often gets bad press and is associated with conflict. There’s a misconception that it’s against men, when in reality it’s a philosophy of defending equality that has had the support of many men throughout history. Sometimes it’s difficult to call yourself a feminist, it’s amazing, but it’s true.” CONSTANZA TOBIO “Feminism is perseverance” Constanza Tobío, winner of the 2021 National Prize for Sociology and Political Science, began her presentation with a thank you to the CIS: “Feminism is perseverance and it is very gratifying to see that these five award winners already represent a social change.” “I discovered sociology early, at 16, when a copy of the FOESSA survey fell into my hands. I had never seen a book like it. I was amazed by the charts, the tables, the amount of information, and the internal logical structure. When I learned what a survey was, my amazement only grew, so I decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life.” After graduating, she became interested in inequalities and the integration of women into the labor market. “Research is very similar to a detective novel: there’s a mystery, there are clues and evidence that must be carefully analyzed. The mystery I encountered was how, in just two decades, the traditional family model of gender roles was transformed into a model of dual employment.” It was a profound social change, silently spearheaded by women.   So she decided to focus on a specific question: how do full-time working mothers manage? She was initially interested in their narratives: what were their reasons for choosing to work? Half cited family financial necessity, while the other half mentioned a desire for economic independence, personal fulfillment, putting their studies into practice, or escaping the confines of the home. There was a strong focus on employment that went beyond its purely instrumental nature. Work opened the door to a new identity. She then analyzed how caregiving was organized: a process of substitution by other women who care for their children, either as paid caregivers or grandmothers. “The world of care is a universe, a crucial part of social reality that we are still mapping. It is a system involving the state, the family, the market, and the third sector.”

The vision of the five sociologists awarded the National Prize for Sociology and Political Science is the common thread that inspires this year's V Conference on Sociology of Gender organized by the Center for Sociological Research on the occasion of Women's Day. The Director General of Coordination and Research at the CIS, Silvia García Ramos, defined the event as an already consolidated institutional space for debate and knowledge production around the Sociology of Gender, which is made available to all sociologists and researchers: "another example of the CIS's commitment to giving academics and social thinkers the space they deserve, to highlighting their intellectual leadership and to guaranteeing balanced representation in the public debate." García Ramos clarified that gender equality “is not a sectoral issue nor a secondary matter. It is a structural dimension that permeates all areas of social life: employment, care work, education, political participation, science, and culture. Analyzing gender inequality involves investigating how power, resources, time, and opportunities are distributed in our society.” “Equality is a way to enrich life,” declared José Félix Tezanos, who also wanted to convey his personal impressions after arriving at the institution and discovering that there were no female sociologists awarded the National Prize for Sociology and Political Science. “I experienced it as a social pathology. I believe that the historical discrimination and subjugation of women, from the later stages of the Neolithic period onward, must be understood as a serious social pathology, a flaw in the formation of society. A pathology that distorts our civilization, our way of understanding coexistence, and that also distorts political behavior.” He recalled his experience as a child “born in the year of famine, in 1946” and the episodes of contempt for women he witnessed from the innocence of childhood, before going on to observe the virtual absence of female professors in the faculties of Law, Sociology, and Political Science where he studied. “We must flee from social pathologies,” Tezanos continued. “And in contrast to them, we must strive for social normality, balance, and that is reflected in equality. Right now, we have a treasure at the CIS, which are the five award winners, and their contribution is unique and an example for society.”   The Government Delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé García, focused her speech on the significant progress made in gender equality over the last decade. She addressed the five award winners, assuring them that “laws serve to solidify everything you research in society.” “Throughout the 20th century, feminism has had three fundamental pillars: activism, academia/research, and legislation. Legislating, implementing public policies, and reclaiming the occupation of public space.” She pointed out that the most progress has been made in the workplace, with the lowest wage gap in the historical series (15%), and reviewed the legislative initiatives that have advanced women in work and caregiving. The Dependency Law and the Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence, “bringing into the public sphere what was in the private sphere, where the world was silent, and today each of us becomes a 'purple point' to be able to report abuse, and even so, we still haven't managed to flatten that terrible curve.” But also the Labor Reform, the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage or the increase in pensions; the Parity Law, the future Time Use Law, the equalization of maternity and paternity leave, and the Equal Pay Law. “Responsible and feminist governments know that equality is also at stake at the end of the month.” Despite these advances, Bernabé pointed out that there are still many areas where much work remains to be done. And he posed a question: “Are women in this country prepared to face any kind of crisis on equal terms with men? I'm telling you, in my community, the DANA storm affected women much more than men. Who do you think kept their car? Who took advantage of the furlough scheme? Who stayed home with the children until they could go back to school? When things go wrong, women once again face greater difficulties.” And she concluded with what she considers “the challenge of all challenges.” Pointing to her mobile phone, she asserted that social media is the new arena where women are completely unequal. She added that there has even been a campaign against the word “feminism.” “The algorithms of the digital wild west and their owners do have an ideology. And it’s not new; it’s the oldest in the world, the one that wants to take us back to the private sphere, to invisibility, to silence.” María Ángeles Durán, winner of the 2018 National Sociology Prize, delivered a masterclass in humanity, passion, clarity, and common sense. Her story is that of a “complete sociologist.” The professor recounted her career path, from the early family and personal decisions about what she should or shouldn't study, to the sacrifices and life's twists and turns that shaped her destiny. “I developed a sense of class consciousness right away, because I lost it when my father died. And that made me a sociologist because I was observing Spanish society simultaneously from many different perspectives.” “I have a degree thanks to two women: one who took on debts, and another who sacrificed her social standing so that I could study without the burden of family responsibilities.” And she wove together anecdotes about professors and mentors, her first jobs, the richness of nuance in her early work as a surveyor and coder. She learned to work with hostile respondents, to be aware of her own image, to doubt her own data, to interpret nonverbal language, the unspoken codes where gesture and tone were paramount; she learned to manage the frustration of having to reduce answers to a yes or no, to be aware that, sometimes, it is impossible to transcribe a message. The diverse fields in which María Ángeles has worked give her a multifaceted view of Spanish society: “The economy is a fiction. It’s just the tip of the iceberg: we confuse employment with work. Every hour of paid work is supported by two hours of unpaid work. And the vast majority of unpaid work hours in the world are done by women.” And she’s not optimistic. “Caregiving is incredibly expensive. We’re being overwhelmed with burdens. Why aren’t we having children? And now, on top of everything else, we have the weight of caring for the elderly…” “We are in a very deep contradiction. And as long as we have this internal confusion of values, feminism is at risk of regressing. I keep saying: let's go for it! But feminism is divided and we have the wind against us.”