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Volunteer Gender, Concepts of Equality, Legislation and Bodies
Being a volunteer is highly valued by citizens and the organizations that work with volunteers are highly valued as well. According to the diagnostic data from the Spanish Volunteers
-a study initiative by the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality, with the collaboration of the Volunteer Platform in Spain and experts in the nonprofit sector and volunteerism, it is estimated that the number of volunteers in social action in Spain amounts to 873,171 persons. That over 80% of the nonprofits in social action (Entidades No Lucrativas (ENL), use volunteers to carry-out their activities.
Of the total number of volunteers, 63.1% are women while 36.9% are men. In the last years the profile of the volunteers in Spain has broadened, although it maintains a largely female presence. Broken out by age, the group between 18 to35 makes up 42.6% of the all the volunteers. The 36-55 year olds make up 32.5% and those 56 years old make up 22.3%. The youngest (18-35) volunteer during their free time working in social action and the integration. Those older than 56 perform their volunteering in the area of … and social action.
Regarding the average time dedicated to volunteering activities, right now is at five hours weekly, although in the last few years certain activities have grown like pluri-voluntarism (volunteers who collaborate in various nonprofits, but dedicate little time to each) and convergent volunteering (persons who offer their services in times of emergency, to nonprofits with whom they already had a previous relationship.)
Equality Concepts
SOCIETY ALLOWS INEQUALITY
The concepts of citizenship began formulating with the Enlightenment and political ideas of equality and freedom that sustain the “Social Contract” as the only source of legitimate and democratic power. The Social Contract, as a covenant among equals, between men, included the sexual contract of women, being the man an individual, subject to rights and prohibiting women the independence and ownership of these rights.
Jean Jacques Rousseau contributed particularly in excluding women, relegating them to a domestic sphere and assigning them the functions of reproduction and maintenance of the family, without more valid reason than the alleged nature that would prevent them, according to him, from taking part in the civic community, politics, public sphere, and relegating them to subordination.
At around the time of the French Revolution there were a variety of women who spoke up against the blatant discrimination of women, such as Mary Wollstoncraft (“Vindication of the Rights of Women” in 1875) or Olympia de Gouges, who after her presentation of the “Declaration of the rights of women and the citizenship” was guillotined even when she was asking for nothing else than for liberty, equality, and fraternity…but also for women.
EQUALITY IN SPAIN
Women had a right to vote in Spain in 1931, with the Second Republic, but in 1939, with the Civil War and the subsequent dictatorship, there was an enormous regression in relationship to their acquired rights, such as divorce, abortion, etc…
In 1978 the Constitution included in Article 14 and Equality in Treatment, guaranteeing it in Article 9.3., yet despite the gains acquired during the 20th century, such as the right to vote, to buy and own property, right to choose, to a divorce and the ability to work and get an education, today women continue to be the object of all kinds of stereotypes and to be treated socially and in the media in a way that perpetuates sex roles from past centuries.
LEGISLATION
- Spanish Constitution (1978)
- Equality Plans (presently IV of 2003-2006)
- Plans of Action for Employment of the Spanish Royal Decree (1998-)
- Family Life and Work Conciliation Law (Law 39/1999)
- Large Family Protection Law (Law 40/2003)
- Law for the Integral Protection against Gender Violence (1/2004)
- Law for the Promotion and Care of Personal Autonomy for Persons in Situations of Dependency (39/2006)
- Law for Effective Equality Among Women and Men (B.O.E. N-71 de 23/03/2007)
- Strategic Plan for Equal Opportunities 2008-2011 http://www.migualdad.es/ss/Satellite?cid=1193047402663&pagename=MinisterioIgualdad%2FPage%2FMIGU_contenidoFinal
ORGANISMS
- Ministry of Equality after the 2008 Elections.
- Institute for Women (Law 16/1983 and May 1997)
- General Secretariat for Politics on Equality (Created in 2004)
- Special Government Delegation on the Violence Against Women (Created in 2005)
