GENRED: International Feminist Cooperation. Feminism at the University for the Transformation

International cooperation with a gender perspective needs to assume the keys to feminist action in universities, which will strengthen their connection with social movements (Abbondanzieri, 2022).

This text summarizes the importance of international collaboration with a gender perspective, focusing on its evolution, the adoption of the gender and development approach (GAD), and the dedication to mainstreaming the gender perspective embraced by global organizations. Secondly, two international collaboration initiatives are presented, involving the University of Cadiz in Spain, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and other higher education institutions, with the aim to combat the ongoing structural oppression and violence girls and women face, even in the current era.

The GAD approach was born in the 1980s after the Women in Development (WID) strategy. It was encouraged to talk about gender equity as a human right. Villavicencio (2019, p. 294) points out that “to achieve sustainable human development, it is necessary to achieve gender equality and justice in access to and control of resources and power.” Concerning the above, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, the need to incorporate a gender perspective was highlighted as a fundamental and strategic approach to achieving commitments to equality. This tool aims to achieve substantive equality, ensuring women have equal access to opportunities and treatment to recognize, enjoy, and exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has advocated for this cause.

This is the approach taken by the various plans of governmental development cooperation agencies. For example, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) has been committed for years to gender approach mainstreaming. Meanwhile, the current 3^rd Andalusian Development Cooperation Plan 2020-2023 includes the GAD as a backbone of projects.

It should be noted that, nowadays, we are well aware that it is not the same to propose a project regarding gender equality as it is to submit a project regarding gender perspective. The first option involves focusing on these structural inequalities between women and men and articulating ways to reduce or eliminate them: the project’s focus is gender equality. The second focuses on how to do it, using an intersectional analytical approach. AECID (2015) reminds us that how-to-do-it involves showing that gender has to do with how men and women relate to each other regarding sex, in the roles, stereotypes, and opportunities they have because they are men or women. These gender roles, stereotypes, and opportunities are socially and culturally constructed and can be changed through political action over time. Likewise, at the basis of this gender perspective is the fact that it implies the participation and incorporation of men in this action, as well as the need to focus on analyzing the relations between women and men and questioning the power relations that oppress women.

As indicated in the first lines of this text, the University of Cadiz and UNAM have a joint trajectory of international feminist cooperation that assumes work in gender equality, with a gender perspective and oriented from a feminist ethic (García García and Calvo García, 2022). They do so through their participation in common networks, whose history dates back to 2015 with the creation of the Latin American Network for Research and Transfer of Gender Studies and Social Practices (GENRED, see: https://genred.uca.es/), funded by the Andalusian Cooperation Agency for International Development. Over the past three years, the Consolidation of the Latin American Network for Research and Transfer of Gender Studies and Social Practices project, led by the University of Cadiz and the Specialized University of the Americas in Panama, has focused on addressing sexual and sexist harassment in universities. This project is necessary because such male violence is prevalent in these environments. To this end, specific actions were designed in three differentiated and interconnected areas:

1. Diagnosis of the situation in the different universities that make up GENRED through studying their institutional policies, action protocols, and contextualized studies.
2. Training the university community to prevent and address sexual and sexist harassment in higher education through online and face-toface courses.
3. Exchange with civil society and other universities, articulating two international congresses, videos, podcasts, scientific publications, and an evaluative workshop (available on the website mentioned above).

This project was led at UNAM by Professor Olivia Tena, an internationally renowned specialist in gender studies, who made significant contributions, especially in addressing the issues of hegemonic masculinities and micro-sexism. GENRED has obtained excellent evaluation results. It has given a high score, measured internally and externally, through performance and gender indicators. But beyond these good numerical ratings, it is worth noting that the various actions have significantly impacted member universities, generating genuine change processes in addressing sexual and sexist harassment.

Since 2021, the University of Cadiz and UNAM share another new action in the field of international feminist cooperation through their participation in the CIEDH, the Ibero-American Network of Universities Committed to Human Rights Education and Inclusive Citizenship (https://www.ciedh.org), a project coordinated by the Pablo de Olavide University (Spain) and funded by the promoting university, the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the Ibero-American Postgraduate University Association (AUIP) and Acciona. This network brings together 27 universities from Spain, South America, and Central America. It is focused on promoting sustainable universities and international South-South cooperation as part of the 2030 Agenda. The aim is to promote critical and inclusive education to help exercise fourth-generation human rights effectively [see box]. Within the Ibero-American Higher Education Area, a network of networks is established to facilitate joint and themed research projects, international postgraduate studies, and transfer processes. This is achieved through meetings, conferences, and congresses, all closely connected to the territories where participating universities are located.


The network operates through specialized commissions, including one on equality and gender. The first approaches within this network focused on the exchange of meanings and the identification of priorities and interests among the participating universities in the field of equality and gender, which led us to define ourselves, share a common language, and unravel the implications of a human rights education with a gender perspective. In a second phase, currently underway, the commission, at the research level, is conducting scientific research on equality policies in universities and has designed a project for training and action in human rights education with a gender perspective. Concerning training, the network has contributed to the creation of an international doctorate program, and a proposal has been made to hold a series of panels. Concerning management, the network has contributed to developing female leadership, a decalogue of research with gender perspective, and making female referents visible. Finally, it is designing a micro-credits project to support women’s entrepreneurship within its territorial actions.

---