Portrait of Dean Blasco 

Gender roles

Gender and space

Gender and education

The portrait of Vicente Blasco García (1735-1813), work of the painter Mariano Salvador Maella (1739-1819), immortalizes the former dean of the Universitat de València (1784-1813). Blasco García was the author of the 1787 Study Plan for the modernization of university studies, the consummation of the scientific renovation initiated by the novatores, Spanish intellectuals of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Notwithstanding the modern spirit of Dean Blasco, when we observe his portrait today, hung in the boardroom of the La Nau Cultural Center along with numerous other portraits of former deans, we are struck by the absence of women among the illustrious ancestors of the institution. Women are not represented because academic positions, like university studies, were for centuries reserved exclusively for men. Women began to enter the world of higher education at the end of the 19th century, and the 20th century saw their entrance into the sphere of teaching. It was not until well into the 20th century, however, that women began to occupy academic positions. In 2018 the first woman dean was elected, after more than five centuries of history.