The goal of the new strategy is to consolidate municipal policies to combat inequality and discrimination towards women in all spheres. The Gender Justice Plan 2021-2025 has been conceived as a cross-cutting roadmap which builds the gender perspective into municipal practices and is intended to drive change for all stakeholders in society.

The roadmap includes an assessment of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on inequality between men and women, which has still not been quantified and which is basic for tackling the post-pandemic situation.

Territorialisation and a cross-cutting approach

The municipal strategy on gender justice is based around two challenges:

• Territorialisation: policies to combat inequality and discrimination must reach all neighbourhoods and require the implementation of local solutions which adapt to the characteristics of each area.
• Cross-cutting approach: it is important to understand and take into account discrimination and forms of gender inequality in all areas of people’s lives. Consequently, we need to comprehend, address and combat inequalities generated among certain groups and individuals, taking into account the combinations of various factors such as age, origin, social class and functional diversity.

Four areas for combatting inequality

To set out the action to be carried out in the next five years, the plan is based around four main areas:

1. Institutional change: this centres on the internal functioning of the City Council, to drive good governance in terms of gender equity and consolidate organisational change to ensure the inclusion of the gender perspective in day-to-day processes, practices, tools for public management and institutional culture. This point includes thirteen spheres of action, such as overcoming the knowledge gender divide in the collection and treatment of internal and external data, gender parity in decision-making, the assessment of the gender impact on the municipal budget and progress in the application of gender clauses in municipal contracts.
2. Economy for life and organisation of time: to achieve a fairer and more sustainable economy which guarantees equality in life conditions between men and women, we must recognise the fundamental role of all work necessary for subsistence, reproduction and people’s well-being, as well as joint responsibility in assuming care work. This point includes five other areas and the promotion of healthier, more equal and more efficient use of time, tackling the feminisation of poverty and precariousness, which may take new forms as a result of the pandemic, the fight against the digital gender divide, women’s access to ICT industries, the promotion of women’s enterprise and the social and solidarity economy.
3. City of rights: the city is a place for defending and guaranteeing human rights and women’s rights. This area is structured into thirteen others, with notable points being the municipal move to work on masculinities beyond types of violence, getting men involved in work on gender equality, the promotion of public policies to give visibility to sexual and gender diversity, with measures to prevent LGBTI-phobia, and the promotion of healthcare with no gender bias. This area also includes the introduction of the sexual and gender diversity perspective in different educational spaces in the city, in particular towards the transformation of models of masculinity, and the recovery of women’s historical memory.
4. Close and sustainable neighbourhoods: the last area in the plan focuses on taking a cross-cutting feminist perspective to foster neighbourhoods which put daily life at the centre, making them more comfortable and offering places which are fairer, safer, more participatory and more sustainable. This point is divided into five areas which include aspects such as the impact of the climate crisis on women, urban planning with the gender perspective and mobility which is sustainable, safe and equitable, where people can get around autonomously.