THE GLASS CEILING FOR WOMEN RESEARCHERS IN HEALTH SCIENCES IN SPAIN

The glass ceiling effect explains the invisible barriers that affect the promotion of women, associated with gender inequalities. The aim of this qualitative study was to identify inequalities in the promotion of women in academic and research careers in the field of biomedicine in Spain. Twenty-two individual interviews were conducted with female biomedical researchers in leadership positions in 2018 in Madrid. The transcripts were imported into Open Code software and analysed according to the discourse analysis method. Three categories were identified: Reaffirmation of the existence of the glass ceiling, Barriers to women's promotion, and Needs to break the glass ceiling. The results indicated that women researchers felt that they continued to face additional difficulties to those of men in advancing in their careers. These include the lack of co-responsibility in households between men and women, due to the traditional women's role as caregivers, and the lack of support and effective institutional measures that favor work-life balance. Legislation requires the public sector to take proactive measures to this end. In order to break the glass ceiling in the careers of women researchers in biomedicine, it is necessary that women's and men's working and personal time is equally distributed, and that gender equality policies are effectively implemented, not just recommendations, but actions and sanctions for non-compliance.