If navigating the legislature is expected to be difficult for the “hard core” of the Government, the challenge faced by the new Minister of Equality, the socialist Ana Redondo, is not far behind. After a mandate that caused a deep division in feminism around the management of Irene Montero, and that placed this portfolio at the axis of the erosion of the PSOE- Podemos coalition, Redondo faces the already complex challenges of this ministry, in a climate of division that will not be easy to mend.
Her legal profile - she is a professor of Constitutional Law - and without a close militancy in the feminist movement indicate that Pedro Sánchez has wanted to fly over the division between classic feminism - with strength in the PSOE - and the intersectional feminism championed by Podemos and also by Sumar , -confronted with Montero for other reasons-. A struggle made explicit above all in the stormy debate on the trans law.
The new minister's speech at her inauguration on Tuesday already outlined some lines: gratitude to Irene Montero, defense of the rights of trans people and the LGTBI collective, State Pact in defense of LGTBI rights. parity law, extension of maternity leave...and, obviously, the fight against sexist violence. She also cited José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Carmen Calvo – who Podemos faced. An intervention, therefore, in search of balance. The division in feminism will continue because it starts from different conceptions - for example, in the definition of woman - the question is where to put the objective.
From these first brushstrokes it is clear that there will be no amendment to the trans law – as requested in classical feminism regarding free gender self-determination. The minister marks a line of defense of the rights of LGBT groups – along, obviously, with the rights of women – in a strategy that also seeks confrontation with the right. President Isabel Díaz Ayuso is cutting LGTBI laws in Madrid.
This 2023, 52 women have been murdered due to gender violence, and there are already more than in all of 2022. There are no fissures here, this is the minister's main portfolio, detailed in the investiture pact between the PSOE and Sumar. Fight against violence and sexist violence to also address those that are still poorly regulated: trafficking for sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, workplace harassment based on sex, vicarious violence. Violence against women does not stop, in a political context where denialism increases.
In addition to the already intrinsic difficulty of this fight, the Ministry now faces a stage in which Vox – a group that denies its existence and champions anti-feminism – tries to unravel the consensus in the communities in which it can pressure the PP. The popular ones are in the State Pact against Gender Violence, and we will have to see that this armored space does not become a zone of confrontation. The denunciation of the PP-Vox pacts and the threat of cuts in women's rights were a fundamental asset for Sánchez in the 23-J elections. Feminism, the fight for equality, will continue to be at the center of the political agenda, in a debate that the Government wants to confront with the right, and not in the axis of the left. But in the Podemos coalition they will want to set their agenda.
“Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue,” said Redondo on Tuesday at the inauguration. Classical feminism – which understands gender as a system of oppression of men over women – was not received by Montero last term, nor were his demands heard. For this reason, they have asked Redondo for a fluid dialogue. In this framework in which the minister will operate, it should be noted that President Pedro Sánchez also had no contact with the feminists of his party who are opposed to the trans law. In fact, until the legislative error occurred with the yes is yes law, the president formally remained with Irene Montero.
The Equality portfolio has returned to the PSOE, as this party demanded, but this does not mean that socialist feminism is going to close its demands. The feminist agenda, they point out, and the congressional mandate of this formation, calls for the abolition of prostitution and surrogacy. Issues that are not in the investiture agreement between the PSOE and Sumar.
Yesterday, feminism marched again divided in the demonstrations on 25-N - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women - and the minister did so together with her socialist colleagues. A message in this journey that begins with many internal and external challenges.
