Parity did not reach the Bureau of Congress until 2000 and the Senate continues reaching milestones

The Bureau of the Congress is composed of, in addition to the Presidency, four vice-presidencies and four secretariats. In the Senate, the number is reduced to seven members, having only two vice-presidencies.

On the occasion of 8M, Demócrata analyzes the historical composition of this body to obtain a snapshot of how parity has evolved in the leadership of the Cortes. During the eighties and nineties, the deputies and senators who were voted by their colleagues to be part of the governing bodies of the Cortes, were generally relegated to secretarial positions. In the last twenty years, there have been four presidents of the Congress and two of the Senate.

Effect 2000, Presidency and female majority

In her first words as President of Congress Luisa Fernanda Rudi highlighted the significance of "the presence of a woman at the head of this Chamber, along with significant female participation among the rest of the members of the Bureau".

Rudi's statement and the mention of the composition of the Bureau are pertinent, as the VII Legislature (2000-2004) had the highest quota of women in the Bureau until then. It began with five and after a substitution in a vice-presidency ended with six. As of today, it remains the highest figure reached, only repeated in the failed XI Legislature (2016-2016), under the brief presidency of Patxi López, and in the XII (2016-2019), already with Pastor.

Currently, another woman and for the second time a socialist, Francina Armengol, presides over Congress. She is accompanied by four women and four men: two female vice-presidents, two male vice-presidents, two female secretaries and two male secretaries. The Bureau of Congress reflects the parity that we can find at this moment in the Executive or in the very composition of the legislative Chambers. But it has not always been this way.

Parity governments, but not at the Table

During the first two decades of democracy, the maximum number of women who were part of the Congress Bureau at the same time was three. It did not happen in the Governments of Felipe González (1982-1996), nor in the first of José María Aznar (2000-1996), in which they gradually introduced female ministers into their cabinets and thus increased female presence in positions of responsibility, but in the I Legislature, from 1979 to 1981. In subsequent legislatures, there was a step backward with a very unequal composition systematically.

• Constituent Legislature (1977-1979): 1 woman - 8 men
• I Legislature (1979-1982): 3 women - 6 men
• II Legislature (1982-1986): 1 woman – 8 men
• III Legislature (1986-1989): 1 woman – 8 men
• IV Legislature (1989-1993): 1 woman – 8 men
• V Legislature (1993-1996): 2 women – 7 men
• VI Legislature (1996-1999): 2 women – 7 men

If we jump to the Senate, in 2004, at the same time that José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero announced the first gender-balanced government in history, with eight female ministers and eight male ministers, a High Chamber Bureau composed entirely of men had been voted in. During the VIII Legislature (2004-2008) none of the seven positions of the Senate's «government» was occupied by a woman. A situation that has never occurred in the Congress, but which in the territorial Chamber had already occurred on two occasions:between 1977 and 1979 and between 1993 and 1996.

A 28% of women

At the beginning of each legislature, nine deputies are elected in the Congress and seven senators in the Senate, to whom "the internal government and the organization of parliamentary work" corresponds.

In the Senate the average of positions occupied on the Board by women is 20%. They had never been a majority to date. The death of Guillermo Fernández-Vara, second vice-president, and his replacement by Concha Andreu has led to there being more women than men on the board for the first time.

A little more favorable are the figures in the Congress, where the average is 35%. Furthermore, since 2016, there have been more female deputies than male deputies performing these functions, according to data resulting from counting the number of women who were part of the Bureau of the Congress and the Senate at the beginning of each legislature, from the Constituent to the current one. In total, throughout the entire democratic period, only 28% of the positions in the «governments» of the Chambers have been occupied by women.

• Of the 135 members that the Congress Bureau initially had, only 47 have been women.
• Of the 105 members that the Senate Bureau initially had, only 21 have been women.

At the Table, but in the background

It is not only relevant to know the percentage, but also the responsibilities they have held. During the eighties and nineties, the female deputies and senators who were voted by their colleagues to be part of the governing bodies of the Cortes, generally held one of the four secretariats, the only exception being María Victoria Fernández-España, of Alianza Popular (AP), who reached the 3rd vice-presidency, between 1977 and 1982.

• In Congress: 1979-1982, one woman (3rd Vice-President); 1982-1986, one woman (2nd Secretary); 1986-1989, one woman (3rd Secretary); 1989-1993, one woman (3rd Secretary); 1993-1996, two women (1st and 3rd Secretary); 1996-1999, two women (1st and 3rd Secretary).
• In the Senate: 1979-1982, one woman (3rd Secretary); 1982-1986, one woman (2nd Secretary); 1986-1989, one woman (1st Secretary); 1989-1993, one woman (2nd Secretary); 1993-1996, no women; 1996-1999, two women (1st and 4th Secretary).

In Congress, when they have not held the Presidency, the legislature in which women holding positions on the Board accumulated the most responsibility was that of the first government of Mariano Rajoy. To Jesús Posada, between December 2011 and early 2016, he was accompanied by four vice-presidents and two secretaries.

The most veteran

Getting to know the true functioning of our institutions requires years of experience and training. Especially if one takes into account the complexity of the processes and forms of Congress and the Senate. However, there are those who, after years of first-hand dedication, are in a position to understand them.

The already mentioned Fernández-España (AP) was a member of the Congress Bureau for nine years, from the Constituent Legislature until the III. A decade, in two different phases, Pastor (PP) has been. Eight years are what Celia Villalobos (PP) or María Jesús Sainz (PP) spent. In the last legislatures, characterized by the volatility of their protagonists, stand out the six years of Gloria Elizo (Unidas Podemos) holding the position of vice-president.

As far as the Senate is concerned, the women who were part of the Senate Bureau for the most years were the socialists Lucía Urcelay and the already deceased Carmen Alborch, both in two legislatures and always in secretariats: the former, between 1982 and 1989, and in 2008-2015 in Alborch's case.