The Government removes the Department of Equality and Feminism from the media spotlight.

BarcelonaSince the last legislature, feminist demands have had their own department in the Government, and since its creation, the proposals of the department headed by Tània Verge have occupied headlines, appearances and even controversies - such as the use of totis–. Now, with the new department headed by Eva Menor, the media spotlight on the regional ministry has been reduced. Although the executive maintains many of the measures initiated by the previous team, communication – and also some new measures – tends to take a backseat. This is a change that has also occurred in the Spanish government: from the rise of Irene Montero of Podemos to Ana Redondo of the PSOE, who in just the last few weeks, almost two years after taking office, has been in the eye of the storm due to the anti-abuse bracelets.

In its government plan, Salvador Illa's administration includes feminism as one of its five major priorities. Pedro Aragonés also established it as one of the transformations his government wanted to implement. In the case of the Republicans, feminism was one of the four pillars that defined the government's action, and under that term were included other issues related to equality. Meanwhile, the Socialists, in their government plan, place feminism as a priority, but mixed in with terms such as social equity and well-being. In fact, the Department of Equality was maintained as a result of a compromise that ERC extracted from the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) during the negotiations for Isla's investiture.

"It's clear that the current department has less visibility than the previous one," explains Ana Sofía Cardenal, professor of law and political science at the UOC. The explanation, according to Pablo Simón, a professor of political science at Carlos III University, is that a few years ago, feminism was "a winning banner." Now, however, the "undercurrent," says Cardenal, is completely contrary to the ideas of this movement. Furthermore, Simón points to the increasingly evident rift within feminism as a factor that makes it more risky for political parties to fiercely defend certain positions on which there is no consensus, even within the movement itself. This disagreement causes the issue to become a "thorny" issue, which "far from uniting the base, can divide it," and something that could have worked to gain support "can turn into a boomerang," explains Simón.

Fear of the backlash?

The fact that the regional government has less media activity is "a way of concealing its positions defending feminism and minority rights, despite the fact that the governing party defends them," explains Cardenal, but also warns that the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) has a "more central" position than ERC in this area, and that the regional government's profile is "different." Simón points out that the same thing has happened at the national level: Irene Montero's successor at the head of the Ministry of Equality, Ana Redondo, has a less activist profile and has not been in the news until now.

Both Cardenal and Simón also link the government's low profile regarding feminism to a desire to avoid the backlash that promoting certain measures can produce. Sources from the previous department's team regret that this means making "a concession to the rise of a global counterreaction," while political scientist and expert on the far right, Anna López, warns that moderation in discourse and legislative action "does not stop the far right": "The media noise and mobilization remain the same, and even... However, from the current Department of Equality and Feminism, they assure that the rise of anti-feminist positions "has nothing to do" with how they approach their communicative action, and they consider that "it is not necessary to lower the tone." If there are differences between the two ministries, they point out, it is because they are different teams and people.

Changes in the department

Beyond communication, sources from the previous Ministry of Equality and Feminism point to a change in how the department addresses certain issues. On the one hand, the proportion of people from social movements within the department has decreased "notably"—unlike the previous term—with a focus on more organic positions within the PSC, sources say. In this regard, Simón recalls the "unequivocal signal" that the change in the department's name represented, which lost its plural form with the arrival of the Socialists: while under Virgen the name was the Department of Equality and Feminism, under Menor it is the Department of Equality and Feminism. Cardenal also points out that the PSC "represents classic feminism," while Virgen represented "more of a new and transgressive feminism." Precisely as a result of this ideological shift, sources from the previous team explain that at least three technical positions have left the department in the last year due to political disagreements.

On the other hand, the same sources also assert that although policies promoted by the previous team are being continued, some—such as the campaign to provide free menstrual products in pharmacies—are not being promoted as they should be, and other new ones involve "following the example." However, the department assures that they are working in many areas and with specific actions. Although they do not specify what these actions are, they refer to the regional ministry's action plan, in which the department sets out at the beginning of the mandate the measures it wants to promote throughout the entire legislature.