Emisiones a la atmósfera

The pioneer research also highlighted the hierarchical structures that are prevailing in Spanish higher education and that make progress in terms of overcoming gender violence in its institutions very difficult. In that line, Duque and her colleagues (2013) emphasize that both, faculty and the institution itself, refuse to acknowledge the problem and therewith set impediments to creating safer universities. At the same time, any kind of situations that might occur to shed light on this issue is silenced. Valls and her colleagues (Valls et al., in press) extensively explain the code of silence in Spanish universities. In hand with this code of silence on gender violence goes the impunity that aggressors enjoy and the tolerance that the university community has regarding gender violence, normalizing many violent situations. If some cases finally do see the light then , similar as in international research (Gross et al., 2006), victims usually have to assume responsibility for what occurred, as the university community oftentimes blames the victim for having contributed to provoking the situation.

These persisting feudal structures are further enhanced by the Organic Law 10/1995 of 23rd of November, Criminal offenses against honor (1995). According to this law, the offenses against the honor of other people in the sense of accusing someone of perpetrating gender violence can imply the criminalization of victims reporting their experiences as this can be considered as a will for defamation. Valls and her colleagues (Valls et al., in press) highlight that this law prevents many victims from reporting because of the uncertainty of receiving legal protection or being condemned for bringing forward their cases. Consequently, victims are afraid to make formal reports, as they fear retaliations for speaking up. Also, there is a perception that reporting does not change anything, neither the situation suffered nor has it any positive outcomes for the future rather than being publicly blamed and marked.

Similar to the experiences internationally, when breaking the silence in Spanish universities, attacks against those who dare to speak up against the feudal and dominant structures are made. These attacks are directed not only towards victims of

gender violence who dare to report their cases, but also to all those people who take a stand in favor of the victim or who attempt to change the university context. Dziech and Weiner (1990) refer to people as second order victims, when they are not directly suffering gender violence but are being attacked for their positioning against the feudal order. In Spanish universities this hostile environment towards victims is a very poignant reality that prevents victims from reporting the violence they suffer and it further fosters a lacking solidarity with victims (Valls et al., 2009).

However, resistance goes even further to the extent that every effort is made to avoid the implementation of policies and prevention measures. In that sense, the pioneer research (Valls, 2005-2008) shows that there either are no measures to take in case of a potential report or the existing measures are unknown to the university community. The research (Valls, 2005-2008) highlights that participants in the study claimed that a homepage exists on the issue of gender violence, but there is no real structure behind the web that would make it possible to implement potential measures. Other participants emphasize that the people who attend victims of gender violence are very distant and do not inspire much confidence to report or feel comfortable reporting their cases. Thus, if there are measures or instruments to address gender violence at Spanish universities, it is questionable to what extent they actually respond to the needs of the victims, as they are either not publicized so that students or victims would know who to turn to or they are designed or implemented in a way that does not contribute to bringing this issue forward and promote the struggle against gender violence in higher education (Cantalupo, 2012).

In this regard, another research conducted by the CREA SAPPHO women’s group highlights this phenomenon. The research project Impact of the Comprehensive Law

against Gender-based Violence in Initial Teacher Training (Puigvert, 2008-2010) sheds

light on the reality of universities that fail to comply with the Organic Law 1/2004, of December 28, on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender-Based Violence. According to this law, universities have the obligation to provide training in gender violence prevention and early detection of family violence in all those degrees of future professionals in education. The findings evidence that universities fail to comply with this law and do not provide this initial teacher training on gender violence prevention. A similar research was conducted concerning the Catalan region. The project Training in

Gender-based Violence Prevention in the Initial Training for Educators (Puigvert,

2008-2009) refers to the Law 5/2008, of April 24, on the right of women to eradicate violence against women that mandates specific training in prevention of gender violence and early detection of violence in the family context for those who are to become professionals in education. Both projects evidence, that higher education institutions do not provide the mandatory initial teacher training on gender violence prevention as the law rules, but simply ignore the legislation.