Background
We start from the premise that the profession of archaeology has maintained a pyramidal structure since its inception, with males being the principal representatives of this discipline. Women could not practice as archaeologists in Spain until the early 20th century when they began to gain access to museums. Fortunately, this global trend has changed and continues to transform through the insertion and inclusion of women in scientific, academic, and professional fields. "In Europe, particularly at universities in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, the number of female students varies between 54% and 59% of the total student population from the early 21st century to 2010" (Santana, 2019).
In Spain at the beginning of the 20th century, in an environment still restrictive for women's personal and professional development, some managed to overcome these barriers and contribute significantly to the progress of Spanish archaeology and the protection of this heritage. Women like Débora Zurro, a staff member at CSIC, participate as knowledge agents in historical and archaeological research (Zurro, 2011, p. 65).
The situation of women working in archaeology worsened due to the economic crisis of 2008. However, today there are many female students in this discipline and the presence of women in the profession is more normalized. Archaeologists now constitute almost 50% of active workers in this field in Spain.
It is true that equality is still a long way off, as most top positions are still occupied by men (site excavation direction, museums, research team leadership, full professors, etc.). However, it is also true that the number of women with dual qualifications in conservation-restoration who have completed an archaeology degree or master's program is very high. "The first step for this change to be possible was the mass attendance of women at faculties related to Archaeology, Philosophy and Letters, Geography and History, or recently Humanities" (Díaz-Andreu, 2002, p.65).
Current Situation: Women Start Moving
In this context, it is necessary to mention the collective Pastwomen which emerged in 2007. It consists of more than 30 archaeologists and historians from Spanish universities, with a focus on research and visibility of women from the past through feminist archaeology. The possibility of working in networks and mutual support in an environment with an increasing number of female archaeologists is allowing, despite barriers, to propose projects, initiatives, and actions cross-cutting that unite the diversity of current professional profiles.
In 2020, a new research project was launched to rewrite the history of archaeology, giving it greater gender diversity. This is the ArqueólogAs Recuperando la memoria: recorridos femeninos en la historia de la arqueología española (siglos XIX y XX). The project is directed by Margarita Díaz-Andreu, a research professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) in Barcelona.
The project aims to recover the memory of those women without whose work it would be difficult to understand the history of Spanish archaeology. Through archival, newspaper archive, and museum documentation searches, bibliographic research, and oral history interviews, seventeen specialists from different areas of research are now trying to rescue these voices.
The Cases of Harassment
However, the violence suffered by many women archaeologists has perhaps been one of the greatest silenced facts in the history of archaeology. In this regard, the results of a survey created and disseminated in the summer of 2018 on sexual harassment in Spanish archaeology have become public. This survey reveals personal experiences that shed light on the discrimination and abuse suffered by women in this field of research, as shown in the following image (Coto Sarmiento et al., 2020).
Conclusions
Therefore, archaeology is not an exception to what continues to happen in other professional fields where women have to tackle the double burden of proving their professional worth as scientists, something that is assumed for men, and their value as human beings. Women in the world of archaeology also have to break through those well-known "glass ceilings," with those limits that put a cap on their careers, preventing them from advancing and climbing within organizations, whether academic or otherwise.
Bibliography
Díaz-Andreu, M. (2002). Spanish women in a transforming world: antiquities and gender strategies. In M. Díaz-Andreu (ed). The History of Archaeology (pp. 51-69). Ediciones Clásicas.
Santana Quispe, L. (2019). Between glass ceilings and academic niches: the current state of women in Peruvian archaeology. Desde el Sur, 11(2). 261-281.
Zurro, D. (2011). The glass floor: the need for visibility for a feminist archaeology. Revista Atlántica-Mediterránea de Prehistoria y Arqueología Social, 13, 65-80.
Coto-Sarmiento, M., Delgado Anés, L., López Martínez, L., Martín Alonso, J., Pastor Pérez, A., Ruíz, A. and Yubero, M. (2018). Report on Sexual Harassment in Archaeology (Spain). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339181406_Informe_Acoso_sexual_en_Arqueologia_Espana
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