La figura del Ombudsman español y la garantía institucional de la igualdad efectiva de mujeres y hombres

Abstract

The background of the concept of gender comes some centuries ago, when François Poullain de la Barre warned, in 1673, that “the subordination of women did not originate in nature, but in society and that the difference did not it is the foundation of inequality ”(Poullain de la Barre, 1673). And, Mary Wollstonecraft when she declared, in 1792, that "the subjection of women was not the result of a less than masculine nature, but of harms and traditions that went back to the night of the times" (Wollstonecraft, 1977).
Despite the time that has elapsed, these statements have a lively relevance, because even in the configuration of contemporary democratic states, the inequality of men and women is latent. Today, discrimination continues to have its excuse -which does not cause- in sex, but the reason for its existence lies in gender or in the social difference between the female gender and the male gender. The inclusion of both genders is necessary in the fight for equality since gender equality is not a concept associated with women, but an issue that should affect and benefit men and women for the elimination of discrimination and the will of a new covenant.
In the eradication of this discrimination it has been essential to understand the meaning of gender as a category of legal analysis. Its observance by the public authorities in all its actions, normative and political provisions, will make possible the effectiveness of equality. In this way, the institutions that guarantee the rights, such as the Ombudsmen, must supervise the public action in order to ensure the effectiveness of the rights it guarantees. That is why, in the current configuration of the States, it is necessary to give priority to the transversal application of the feminist principle or of effective equality of women and men to elaborate a renewed social project, coexistence and effective construction of freedom in equality that reverts to the quality of democracies and social states of law, such as Spanish.