Mari Jose Urruzola Zabalza (

Irun Irun ( es, Irún, eu, Irun) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as ...

, 23 May 1940 – Bilbao, 28 April 2006) was a Spanish educator, feminist, and writer associated with the

coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

and education for equality movements.

Early life and education

Urruzola lived her childhood and adolescence between Donostia and Madrid. She worked to be able to afford university studies in Madrid where she graduated in philosophy and later she was a professor of that subject during her professional career. She completed a postgraduate course in coeducation at the University of Barcelona.

Career

Urruzola was committed to coeducation and feminism in her life. Since the 1970s, through groups of women teachers and educators that emerged within the feminist movement, she began to study how to apply feminist theory to education, leading to coeducation. Starting in 1985, other social groups and institutions were incorporated into the coeducational task and non-sexist publications. Urruzola, within this evolution of the mixed school towards coeducation, conceived education as a means to improve people. In her experience as a teacher, Urruzola worked and disseminated her idea of educating in equality and without stereotypes, with coeducation as the fundamental basis. She wrote various books and educational guides for girls and adolescents on topics such as

Gender-related violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence includes any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification. Types of gender-related violence include: * Violence against women (sometimes referred to simply as ...

, interpersonal relationships, and sex education. For Urruzola, the fundamental steps to put coeducation into practice went through the evaluation of errors to correct them and create new steps that would lead from the mixed school of the moment towards coeducation. Because for her, the new educational model had to be achieved by "extracting the positive values of the feminine culture and those of the masculine" and also the elaboration of "a new concept of person" that would educate each girl and each boy in their individuality, starting from "difference", with all of this outside of the sexist stereotypes that limit human development. According to Urruzola:— Urruzola worked as a philosophy and ethics teacher in Bilbao institutes for more than 25 years. In the 1990s, she worked in the support services of the Department of Education of the Basque Government as a coeducation adviser until her retirement in 2001. She founded the "" (Lanbroa Feminist Collective), of which she was president, as well as the feminist associations " Emilia Pardo Bazán" and "Emaitza". She was a co-founder of the Confederation of Feminist Organizations. She also stood in the

1999 European Parliament election The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and ...

. In 2000, she was one of the founders of the Partido Feminista de Euskadi (Euskadi Feminist Party) that presented Zuriñe del Cerro as a candidate for

Mayor of Bilbao The Mayor of Bilbao ( eu, Bilboko alkatea, es, Alcalde de Bilbao) is the head of the municipal government of Bilbao, Spain. He presides over the Bilbao City Council. The current mayor of Bilbao is Juan Mari Aburto since 2015. Mayors of Bilbao ...

Awards and honours

* 2006, posthumously, the (Emakunde Award for Equality) * 2006, a tribute to the Coeducation Seminars * 2008, a tribute by the Bilbao City Council, the Lanbroa Feminist Collective and the

Feminist Party of Spain Feminist Party of Spain (in Spanish: ''Partido Feminista de España'', PFE) is a feminist political party which operates in Spain. It was founded in 1979 by the feminist, anti-fascist, and communist activist Lidia Falcón. History In 1983, the ...

Selected works

Books

* ''Sexualidad en la escuela'', 1985 * ''¿Es posible coeducar en la actual escuela mixta?: una programación curricular de aula sobre las relaciones afectivas y sexuales'' * ''Aprendiendo a amar desde el aula'', 1991 * ''Guía para chicas. Cómo andar por casa,'' 1992 * ''Guía para chicas. Cómo prevenir y defenderte de las agresiones'', 1992 * ''Introducción a la filosofía coeducadora'', 1995 * ''Educación de las relaciones afectivas y sexuales desde la filosofía coeducadora'', 1997 * ''Violencia de género: el maltrato escondido: guía para identificar y superar las causas de la violencia cotidiana, 2001'' * ''Igualdad y responsabilidad en la edad de la sabiduría: vivir y envejecer con protagonismo y autoridad personal'', 2003 * ''Vivir la separación como una oportunidad para aprender: guía para la corresponsabilidad en la reconstrucción emocional, 2003''

Collaborations in collective works

* ''Coeducar para el desarrollo físico'', 1993 * ''Ser chica en una escuela de chicos,'' 1993 * ''La coeducación una alternativa transversal a la escuela actual,'' 1995 * ''Educar en la igualdad, un camino hacia la prevención de la violencia,'' 2000 * ''Una programación curricular de aula sobre las relaciones afectivas y sexuales'', 2004 * ''Una programación curricular de aula sobre las relaciones afectivas y sexuales'', 2007 * ''La educación de las relaciones afectivas y sexuales,'' 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urruzola, Mari Jose 1940 births 2006 deaths 20th-century Spanish educators Spanish feminists 20th-century Spanish non-fiction writers 20th-century Spanish women writers People from Irun Basque women