The statistics are clear: according to the Women’s Department of the Spanish Confederation of Worker Cooperatives, Coceta, 49% of the workers in Spanish cooperatives are women, which is 12% higher than any other types of enterprise.

The percentage of women in senior positions is 39%. In other types of enterprise, this figure is 6%. COCETA’s surveys show that about 80% of the women believe that their cooperative helps them to obtain executive positions. Generally speaking, Spanish women earn about 18% less than men for the same kind of job, but in worker cooperatives there is no wage gap.

Furthermore, 86.9% of worker cooperatives have specific programs for gender equality. However, there are still challenges: the statistics regarding cooperative should be the same for women and men, especially in terms of gaining access to senior positions. It is for this very reason that the Spanish cooperative movement continues to work hard on gender issues. This year, COCETA is planning to resume the publication of its Women Review Magazine, which had previously been cancelled due to the crisis.