Gender, vulnerabilities and resilience: a critical approach to the Spanish case

Abstract

Vulnerability and resilience are two concepts currently present in most social policies, which have been positioned in the main discourses regarding the reduction of gender inequality. Current actions to mitigate vulnerability are focused on the search for resilience and the public policies are guided under this paradigm. Through a literature review methodology, this article performs a critical analysis of the dimensions of vulnerability and resilience, currently present in social and development policies in Spain that engage gender inequality and permeate to the social welfare system. The evolution of the treatment towards women in Spanish policies shows a change in the treatment of women, from being seen as a single subject (vulnerable group) to being seen as women with agency in situations of vulnerability. But this fact causes only few changes in the structures that generate inequality and situations of vulnerability and coexisted with the transfer of responsibility present in resilience approaches.