Abstract:

Demands for equality in all spheres of social and personal life have made possible changes that are sufficiently profound to make it increasingly unlikely in our culture that people will agree with stereotypes unfavourable to women, which unfortunately does not mean that discriminatory attitudes have ceased. The gender perspective refers to the methodology that allows for the identification of this discrimination and inequality and the creation of new conditions that allow for progress in the construction of gender equality. In university teaching, the need to face the still pending challenge of effectively incorporating the gender perspective has been established, despite the existence of a regulatory framework in force at the European and national levels. In a previous study, we analysed the degree of inclusion of the gender perspective in the teaching guides of the subjects of Anatomy and Physiology that we teach in degrees of the branch of knowledge of Health Sciences of the University of Alicante (Degree in Nursing, Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics, and Degree in Optics and Optometry). In this way, we were able to identify certain biases and stereotypes transmitting inequality that we involuntarily introduced in our teaching practices. This led us to modify the teaching guides and to redesign the contents of the subjects. Once these modifications were made, our objective was to evaluate, by means of an anonymous questionnaire, the students' perception regarding the implementation of the gender perspective in our subjects, taking into account aspects such as the use of inclusive language in the writing of the teaching guide or the written materials provided by the teachers, the use of a non-discriminatory evaluation methodology, the elimination of stereotypes, the inclusion in the contents of sufficient information about how anatomical and physiological differences between the female sex and the male sex can condition people's health (symptomatology, diagnosis, treatment) in different ways, etc. Likewise, we carried out a collaboration with an institute in the province of Alicante with the aim of evaluating whether the choice of itinerary/studies/profession in the pre-university stage showed gender bias.

The results obtained indicated that the students did not perceive any type of gender inequality in the subject of Anatomy and that they consider that it is important to include the gender perspective in this and other subjects of their career. However, the choice of the educational future by pre-university students showed a significant gender bias, underlining the importance of promoting an inclusive education from a gender perspective in school and pre-university stages.

Keywords:

Anatomy, physiology, health sciences, gender perspective.