Indicadores de género presupuestariosel estado de gastos del presupuesto de la UMU

Abstract

Our study consists of a research project whose intention is to provide the methodology needed to implement the mainstreaming budget or gender budgeting as a tool to be used in the Public Administrations concerning gender equality policies, and more precisely in the University of Murcia, UMU. This tool fuses together two different elements, the gender equality policies and the budgetary techniques, in a common, professional action. In our study, since it is not possible to comprise such a wide field of action, we will discuss specifically the situation of the budgetary spendings, only analyzing the spendings of the Teaching and Researching Staff, (PDI in Spanish), and the former members of the government of the University of Murcia. The ultimate goal of this project consists of implanting a budget with a gender approach at the UMU. This objective involves: 1) Designing certain gender indicators that will allow us to analyze both the hypothetical existence of some degree of discrimination at the UMU, and the evaluation of the mentioned indicators; 2) Analyzing the current situation of the UMU's budgetary spendings related to the PDI and its own government from a gender-based standpoint. The proposed hypothesis would intend to demonstrate that neither the previously-applied gender policies, nor the budgetary activity, have solved the gender disparities that take place at the University. Once proved this hypothesis true, our study will also propose the pass and introduction of new budgets with a gender perspective which will be able to fix these inequalities through the use of the gender budgetary mainstreaming (MPG in Spanish). This situation makes us able to use a methodology which includes a mainly-quantitative component of study in compliance with the data provided by the UMU's Unit for Equality, which makes one able to establish effective indicators in order to detect the gender inequalities present in determined areas, such as: wage gap, lesser representation amongst public service jobs, Government positions, research production, etc. Because of the fact that not always will be possible to quantitatively measure discrimination, some indicators will therefore be qualitative in order to assay: non-sexist language, laboral harassment, spatial design, and some others; hence our use, in some cases, of a mixed methodology. Finally, as the main contribution to our project, a total of 80 gender indicators and 90 corrective actions together with a series of budgetary measures have been methodologically established in order to introduce the MPG in the UMU. The indicators, as well as the corrective actions and the budgetary measures, have been classified into areas of action, in which the first 8 have merely quantitative characteristics, and in the field 9 some qualitative indicators have been considered so we could analyze these possible aspects. When presenting these indicators in their respective area of action, other factors such as the objectives aspired to fulfill, the sources of information, the type of indicator (either qualitative or quantitative), and the parameters of balance; have been included as well. This way, the gender indicators must serve to detect the needs regarding equality when determining the budget, either to establish the ultimate objectives of the different budgetary programs, develop other kind of corrective actions, or any other measure that intends to install gender transversality in the budget as a whole. It can be affirmed with this study that, at the UMU, both vertical and horizontal segregation are present, in concordance with the initial hypothesis. This segregation exists in a systematic way in certain academic fields that coincide with the extrapolation of society's androcentricity, given by woman's smaller presence in positions of power, lower numbers of female civil servants, as well as the inferior acknowledgement of their professional career, amongst others. After analyzing the state of the UMU's budgetary expenditures, it can be concluded: a.- That the unit of spendings of the Directory is excessively centralized when it comes to the process of making decisions over the budget in general. b.- The budgetary program "University Education 422D" is the one that has the most relevant repercussion over the budget, since it mainly supports the spendings of the staff mentioned in Chapter 01. This implies that, when it comes time to select an outstanding program to introduce gender policies at the UMU, this would be the most interesting one to take into consideration, since it encompasses 65.50% of the total budget. c.- It is crucial to decentralize the UMU's current budget into Study Centers and Departments, in order to open the participation on the decision making process concerning the budget, which nowadays is almost exclusively controlled by the University Directory. d.- We have not been able to collect statistical data that would allow us to directly correlate gender inequality in every area and field, principally because of the following reasons: 1) There is no statistic data base that discusses every single one of the levels needed to study gender in a structured way inside the UMU; 2) Of the requested data, only part of them were received. e.- It is not possible to carry out any more real analysis regarding vertical and horizontal segregation found in PDI's wages in relation to the budget, since there is no effective, institutionalized system through which collect the data, contrary to what is established by the LOIEHM. f.- Although it is possible to incorporate the gender-focused perspective to the budgets by programs, it would be more feasible to instal the technique known as Zero-Based Budget, (PBO in Spanish) at the UMU, in a way that each separate unit would be responsible to guarantee that the final spending will be gender-neutral. g.- The UMU does not follow the command that appears on the article nº20 of the Law of Equality, LOIEMH, which states that the institution must create a data base and a system in charge of collecting those data, in order to make possible the systematic study of gender.