Advisor to the Gender and ICT Program
Professor of Applied Economics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Faculty of Political Science and Sociology) and researcher in social science. In 2006 she created the Gender and ICT Research Programme at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and held the position of Director until 2011.
Also in 2006, together with Juan Martin Fernández, María Ángeles Sallé (Fundacion Directa), Susana Vázquez y José Luis Martínez Cantos, she launched the e-Equality Observatory of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), which for five years produced annual reports on the digital gender gap, the participation of women in the information society (La segunda brecha digital, 2008; La brecha digital de género. Amantes y distantes, 2009) and different annual reports of the e-Equality Observatory that addressed a specific topic each year.
In addition, throughout her career she has led the creation of various training programs with a gender perspective at the university level:
- Co-director of the Master’s Degree in Gender Equality: Agents and Policies at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), with three editions, 2004-2005 to 2006-2007, until it became an official master’s degree.
- Co-director of the Master’s Degree on Gender Equality from the Social Sciences Perspective, at the UCM (Faculty of Politics and Sociology, 2007-2008 to the present).
- Co-founder of the Gender Violence Diploma (Faculty of Politics and Sociology at UCM, 2004 to the present).
- Co-founder, together with professors Inés Alberdi and Fátima Arranz, and professor of the Doctorate in Gender Equality in Social Sciences at the UCM Faculty of Politics and Sociology from 1996 to 2010.
Cecilia Castaño’s research work has had an impact in the promotion of political initiatives and actions for gender equality both in the digital field of information and communication technologies and in the broader field of science and technology (STEM: Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). She has participated in the drafting of research, innovation, and action plans such as:
- Plan Avanza, Calls 2006-2008 and 2007-2009 (Ministry of Industry) in which a specific section of projects for Gender Equality is included, endowed with 3 million euros each year.
- Strategic Plan for Equality 2008-2011, in which Innovation is one of the 4 inspiring principles and, likewise, of the 7 lines of action, one is dedicated to Science and the other to Innovation and the Information Society.
- Action Plan for Gender Equality in the Information Society 2009-2011, which develops the Strategic Plan for Equality and concentrates a large part of its actions in the fields of education and research.
Selected publications
Mujeres y digitalización. De las brechas a los algoritmos (2020). Instituto de la Mujer & Red.es. Ministerio de Igualdad. DOI: 10.30923/MujDigBreAlg-2020 (with Milagros Sáinz and Lídia Arroyo).
Género, ciencia y tecnologías de la información (2014). Barcelona: Aresta (dir. with Juliet Webster)
Meta-analysis of gender and science research: synthesis report (2012). European Commission, DG. Reseach (with María Caprile, Elisabetta Addi, Londa Schiebinger, Jörg Müller, et al.). https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/3516275d-c56d-4097-abc3-602863bcefc8
“Understanding women’s presence in ICT. The life course approach” (2011). International Journal of Gender Science and Technology, 3(2), Special Issue ‘Women in ICT: international research from a life course perspective (with Juliet Webster). http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/168/333
Quiero ser informátic@ (2011) Barcelona: UOC Ediciones. Colección Sociedad Red (with Ana González, Mila Sáinz, Nuria Vergés, and Jörg Müller).
Género y TIC. Presencia, posición y políticas (2010). Barcelona: UOC Ediciones. Colección Sociedad Red (with María Caprile, Milagros Sáinz, Ana González, Jörg Müller, and Rachel Palmén)
La segunda brecha digital (2008). Madrid: Editorial Cátedra, Colección Feminismos.
Las mujeres y las tecnologías de la información. Internet y la trama de nuestra vida (2005). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.