Until 1991 there was no woman on the Board of Spokespersons and equality did not arrive until 2019

The Spokespersons' Board of the Congress is the body responsible for ordering the Plenary on Tuesday mid-mornings. It is composed of the presidency of the Lower House and the spokespersons of the different parliamentary groups.

In the current legislature, it is composed of ten members and eight are women, including the President of Congress, Francina Armengol. Although today there is an 80% female representation, which implies that parliamentary groups have opted for women as the face and voice of their policies, it was necessary to wait until 1991 for a female deputy to sit on the Board of Spokespersons.

By the Mixed Group

According to the historical archive of the Congress, Arantza Mendizábal is the first woman appointed spokesperson of a parliamentary group. Mendizábal was elected deputy in 1989 by Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE), a left-wing Basque party that would end up integrating into the Partido Socialista de Euskadi (PSE-PSOE), and she joining the ranks of the Socialist Group.

But in that IV Legislature (1989-1993), the Basque parliamentarian joined the Mixed Group. A group in which most of the deputies belong to parties that have only achieved a single representative or two. The spokespersonship in the mixed bench is rotational among the different parties that comprise it and it was common at that time to exercise it for one month. Mendízabal took on this role for the first time in October 1991 and would repeat it in August 1992. 

In the following legislature, the last of Felipe González in Moncloa, there was also a woman periodically in the Board of Spokespersons. It was Pilar Rahola, deputy for ERC. In subsequent years and until 2000, the presence of women in this body was always linked to the spokespersonship of the Mixed Group: Begoña Lasagabaster (Eusko Alkartasuna, split from the PNV), Olaia Fernández (BNG), Uxue Barcos (Geora Bai) or Rosa Díez (UPyD).

There was only one exception: Luisa Fernanda Rudi, who as president of Congress led the meetings for four years. However, the groups continued to overwhelmingly trust men to entrust them with the spokespersonship.

In 2008, Mariano Rajoy would designate Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría as spokesperson for the Popular Group. It was the first time that a major party placed a woman at the head of its parliamentary group. In the PSOE, this feat would arrive in 2012 with the election of Soraya Rodríguez.

Majority, but in second line

The XIII Legislature (2019-2019) was unsuccessful, but in the barely six months it was constituted, it left a historical milestone: in the Board of Spokespersons, they were the majority. Although the main parties had run with men as candidates for the presidency of the Government, their number twos in Congress were women, except in Vox: Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (PP); Adriana Lastra (PSOE); Irene Montero (Podemos); Inés Arrimadas (Ciudadanos); Laura Borràs (Junts). Additionally, after Rudi and Ana Pastor, Meritxell Batet was elected President of Congress.

The current situation has nothing to do with that which was registered in the first decades of democracy. However, and despite the advances, although the face and voice of the parliamentary arc is feminine, the direction and leadership continues to be in their hands.