The University of Navarra has presented two new collections of books that aim to recover female references and give visibility to their contributions to the contemporary world. The first degree scroll of 'Mujeres' (Women) focuses on the historical journey of women jurists in the U.S. and Spain. The volume that opens the series 'Ernestina de Champourcin' deals with the writer, translator and professor Dolores Franco de Marías (1912-1977), an outstanding humanist and decisive figure in the life of the philosopher Julián Marías.

The event was held as part of Women's Day, celebrated on March 8. The speakers were María Cruz Díaz de Terán, coordinator of the network WINN of Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), professor at School of Law and manager of the collections; and Nieves Gómez Álvarez, professor at School of Education of the International University of La Rioja and author of Dolores Franco de Marías. Una vida desde la razón vital femenina.

Professor Díaz de Terán assured that "the presence of women in the public sphere has increased enormously in recent decades. Today their role is claimed in STEM disciplines, but it isalso important to pay attention to their contributions in fields such as Humanities, social and legal sciences, art...". 

In her opinion,recovering female references in these fields "financial aid to better understand the road we have traveled and inspires us to face the main challenges we have: the promotion of women to positions of responsibility and their equal participation in decision making at the highest level of institutions".

Changes in the legal culture

In her book Women and Law. Pioneers in the U.S. and Spain, the coordinator of the network WINN of the ICS traces the history of the first women jurists in those countries and the evolution of their presence in universities and professional practice. "In 1924, they were only 1.9% of the students at degree program and between 1920 and 1931 there were only seven female lawyers. In 2020 they were 60% of the student body of legal sciences and, according to data of 2016, more than 44% of the collegiate", he said. 

He also referred to his influence on the change in the legal culture: "Now aspects such as discrimination, the defense of minorities, cases of sexual aggression and domestic violence are treated with more sensitivity...".

Pupil of Ortega y Gasset and Pedro Salinas

For her part, Nieves Gómez Álvarez spoke of the figure of Dolores Franco de Marías and the context of the intellectuals who, like her, were trained at the beginning of the 20th century at the School of Philosophy y Letras of the Central University of Madrid. "This center brought about a fabulous renewal of all humanistic disciplines, especially thanks to the efforts of José Ortega y Gasset to create a high Spanish culture". 

"Her vocation professor - she has stressed - was highly positive for the young women who studied at that School, who were attracted to the study of theoretical disciplines and the cultivation of rigorous thought." 

From agreement with Professor Gómez Álvarez, Dolores Franco "is an extraordinary exponent of those years, since being a student of Ortega y Gasset himself, Xavier Zubiri and Pedro Salinas, among others, she received a Education that would lead her to elaborate in the following years her excellent book España como preocupación, praised by personalities of the height of Azorín or Gregorio Marañón". 

Along with this, he recalled that the years of marriage with his partner in School Julián Marías "made it possible for him, inspired by his balanced personality, to write the first dual anthropology with Antropología metafísica or about the suggestive concepts of male and female vital reason or the friendship between men and women". 

In addition to Mª Cruz Díaz de Terán and Nieves Gómez Álvarez, Ignacio Sánchez Cámara, Full Professor at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and coordinator of Degree of Philosophy; and the hispanist, philosopher and writer Harold Raley, Full Professor retired from university and translator of the work of Julián Marías, participated remotely.