While the participation of female PhD holders in Portugal is situated above the EU‑27 average in all fields of knowledge considered, in Spain the participation of female PhD holders is situated below the European average in the fields of art, humanities and social sciences.

This indicator offers a view of the distribution of university research work between men and women. Women represent just 21% of chair professors.

Today, thanks to policies aimed at reconciling working life and family life, increasing numbers of men are taking parental leave to be able to raise their newborn children. These new policies represent progress towards gender equality, but in Spain a significant difference still exists between men and women in the usage they make of parental leave entitlements.

Increasingly, certain areas of research – such as biomedicine – incorporate the sex and gender dimension into their projects. However, despite its relevance, this question continues to be a pending assignment in the majority of cases.