María Jesús Izquierdo and Marc Barbeta present a book on current views of feminism

The book proposes a critical reflection on the displacement that part of the feminist discourse has suffered. In Barbeta's words, “it is a critique from within, in harmony and with sympathy, not a destructive critique from the outside”. According to her, “part of the feminist discourse, at the time of making analyses or policy proposals, has shifted from the idea of redistribution and policies of equality between men and women to discourses based more on the ideas of recognition, identity and difference, strongly influenced by French post-structuralism, visions that leave aside the importance of material living conditions”.

Izquierdo spoke to the audience about various issues addressed in the book, such as the differentiation between discrimination and inequality. According to the sociologist, there is currently more talk about discrimination, “a concept that implies that there is a subject that discriminates against another who being discriminated because of some characteristic,” while the idea of inequality points to the structures of society that put some people “in a worse situation than others". And she exemplified this by talking about the healthcare system, where there can be a large salary gap because positions such as those of “male surgeons and female nurses” - as she pointed out, purposefully using specific genders in each case - are occupied mostly by men and women, respectively. She also pointed out that there is a “chain linking discrimination to inequality” that makes the situation more serious, noting that “what is dominant is inequality”.

The originality of the work consists in the fact that, as Barbeta explained, “it is a conversational book, not an essay, nor is it theoretical or about an empirical research”. The content is based on three long interviews held in 2022. "I didn't think,” Barbeta said, ”any publisher would be interested, but I was wrong. The first one we consulted, Edicions UAB, said they liked the proposal”. The event also included a presentation by Margarita León, professor of political science and head of the faculty's Equality Policies, who praised the contribution of Professor Izquierdo - who stated that her “mentors” were “Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud” - as a pioneer in her field who has left a lasting impression on all faculty members.