At the meeting, the "Situation of Gender Equality and Harassment Protocols in the Universities of the Council of Rectors" was announced.

The academic of the Department of Education and in charge of the Inclusion and Gender Table of the University of La Serena, Dr. Georgina García Escala, participated in the meeting of the Gender Network of the Group of Regional Universities of Chile - Council of University Rectors Chilenas (AUR - CRUCH), held on Friday, January 12 in Santiago.

At the meeting, the "Situation of Gender Equality and Harassment Protocols in the Universities of the Council of Rectors" was announced, a diagnosis carried out during 2017 based on the instruments "Towards the construction of a Pilot Project of Indicators Basics of Gender Equality in Higher Education Institutions Indicators for the short term” by Carcedo (2014), and “System of indicators for gender equality in higher education institutions” by Buquet, Cooper and Rodríguez (2010), prepared by Antonia Santos Pérez (UNAP) and Georgina García (ULS).

The results of the diagnosis show that there are large gaps and gender stereotypes in the 23 universities that responded to the survey. These gaps are observed not only in the authorities, which are mostly positions held by men, but also 70% of the institutions surveyed are unaware of the gender gaps in their institution, 1/3 declare that they are not a priority, and only 20% apply equality policies and have resources to promote the elimination of these gaps.

At the meeting, the proposal of the Gender Equality Unit, Undersecretariat of Education of the Ministry of Education, for higher education institutions was also announced: “Gender Equality Plans in Higher Education” to develop said Plan, that is to promote an “ethical-political reflection, installed in a normative and regulatory framework, that considers all administrative, academic and student management processes, and that operationalizes levels of equality between women and men.”

The fundamental purpose of the Gender Equality Plan is: “to build a process of reflection, awareness, planning, installation, execution and evaluation of a policy on gender and inclusion, which contributes to student, academic, research, management and development. institutional of the Universities”. And as strategic objectives: “create mechanisms that allow validating and institutionalizing the proposed Gender Equality Plan in the different departments of the institution, promoting and ensuring within the education departments the need to eliminate gaps, biases and gender stereotypes through a culture respectful of gender equality and equity, disseminate and promote the incorporation of recommendations and guidelines in the procedures and standards regarding Gender mainstreaming in the institution, and generate institutional mechanisms for the equal and participatory promotion of women and people LGTBI in all spaces of institutional life.”

CRUCH Gender Equality Network

Furthermore, at the AUR-CRUCH meeting, the Gender Equality Network of the Council of Rectors was formed and to coordinate administrative aspects, it was proposed to work by macro zones -north, center and south-. Thus, the Network was made up of: Antonia Santos, UNAP; Georgina García, ULS; Marisol Durán, UTEM; Patricia García, PUC; Javiera Arce, UV; Vania Figueroa, UOH; Andrea Hurtado and Amaya Pavez, USACH.
           
Finally, the Network agreed to prepare a video to commemorate International Women's Day on March 8 in each university and hold a meeting on Friday, March 16 in Santiago to plan the Network's activities and a seminar that will report on the actions that each university is carrying out regarding gender equality.