Are Spanish women less meritorious? An empirical analysis of discrimination against women in the bestowing of civil orders in Spain

Resumen

The present paper represents an attempt to study gender discrimination from the perspective of public recognition of merit measured through the bestowing of civil orders—the single most important incentives awarded by states—both at the national and regional level in Spain. Our results confirm that there is a severe and non-converging structural bias against women in the bestowing of civil orders and medals, despite the fact that in many fields of awarding (such as the judicial system, the national health system, etc.) the percentage of women is nearly equal to that of men. We discuss the convenience of introducing a female quota in the number of proposals to awards as a measure to overcome the current gender bias.