Doctoral dissertations on Women’s Studies in Spain (1976-2002): an important research indicator

Abstract

Doctoral dissertations on Women’s Studies (WS) written at Spanish universities over the last 25 years are examined in order to gain an understanding of the level of development of such studies and the conditioning factors affecting women’s standing at the university. The following topics are studied: growth rate, authorship, development over time, trends, presence of females and males in examining boards as well as university schools, disciplines and doctoral programmes theses belong to. The conclusion is that, although still in its infancy, in Spain Women’s Studies are both a well-established and a burgeoning field on the account of the total of thesis examined, 412, written mainly by female students but supervised by female teachers in only 45% of the cases, who, on the other hand, are highly represented in the examining boards judging them and constitute a multidisciplinary group. The existence of a specialised university body for the production of doctoral dissertations and the development of Women’s Studies is positive.