Women and educational heritage in Spanish university education museums: good practices and pending challenges for the incorporation of the gender perspective

There is a strong ethical component to historical memory which means that no group should be left out. Hence the need to recover the voice of half the population, women, so often rendered invisible by the narrative. In more traditional education history this silence is even more apparent. University education museums, supported by the pertinent legal regulations, are duty-bound to rescuing, interpreting and exhibiting a historical-educational heritage that takes them into account. To this end, it is essential to use a gender perspective in these institutions, aiming for more critical, inclusive and realistic memory policies. In this study, supported by a descriptive qualitative research methodology, we evaluate to what extent and how the eight Spanish university education museums are working actively for equality and non-discrimination. We do this by means of a semi-structured diagnostic questionnaire, supported by personal interviews with those who coordinate these museums and by the analysis of their regulations and websites. The results show that, for half of them, this task continues to be a pending challenge in many respects. However, the sensitivity on this issue of the other half is striking, as shown by the range of practices and decisive actions they have undertaken, and which, if shared, could help to improve everyone's situation.