Featured Application: A complete review of information and communication technology (ICT) strategies to manage intimate partner violence (IPV) and protect IPV survivors is provided. A holistic ICT solution which would overcome the limitations of previous works is presented, promoting symmetry in society.Abstract: Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a scourge that compromises the rights of many women around the world, shaping an asymmetry in civil rights. Fighting gender-based violence, especially when it is committed by an intimate partner, is an important responsibility that needs to be addressed from all angles. It is also remarkable that our society is clearly conditioned by information and communication technology (ICT), which involves many aspects of our daily life. Unfortunately, violence that is performed in the real world is also replicated in this 'virtual' existence, by offenders in ICT contexts. On the other hand, the same technologies also provide a plethora of opportunities to fight IPV, which are enhanced by the innovative paradigm of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). In this work, we first present a thorough compilation of ICT proposals already published-based on either hardware or software-aimed at protecting IPV survivors, and which can be applied in real life situations but also within social networks. The challenges that still lie ahead are highlighted and, a complete ICT-based platform for IPV management, within an IoT framework, that overcomes the limitations of previous works is proposed, and then promoting a symmetry between individuals in society.Symmetry 2020, 12, 37 2 of 17 in any form or means. According to UN (United Nations) statistics, almost 35% women around the world have experienced some kind of physical or sexual violence [1]. The same statistics show that some 75% of women face physical and sexual aggression. This is a call for attention to be paid to this scourge. It is incredible that in 2017, some 87,000 women were killed across the world, of whom 58% (50,000) were killed by their husband or other relatives (https://www.unodc.org/).In recent years much research has focused on IPV and its connection to many related issues, that is, social awareness [2]. This wide scope includes resources used by the victims (from now on, more appropriately called 'survivors') [3], barriers, and formal assistance in facing different expressions of violence [4]. Nonetheless, some authors like Bruckman have noted that the way violence is developed and its impact on women in an environment characterized by the use of information and communication technology (ICT), such as mobile phones, social media, or generally using internet, has not been properly studied or documented [5], although in recent years it has become an issue of study [6].In 2019, ICT and especially the internet, have clearly advanced in every aspect of society, and have had an effect in every part of the world. In the early 1990s, Haraway [7] anticipated the social changes and the effect, especially in gender issues, that...

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) dramatically compromises the free and complete development of many women around the world, therefore leading to social asymmetry regarding the right to personal safety. In many cases, a woman who has reported her partner to police for gender-based violence needs to ensure her protection (either before the trial of the aggressor or after their freedom). Thus, it would be ideal if autonomous alarm systems could be developed in order to call the police if necessary. Up to now, many proposals have been presented in this regard, including solutions based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) but, unfortunately, these approaches usually rely on the active participation of the victims (survivors), who have to turn the system on by themselves if needed. Therefore, in order to overcome such limitations, in this work, a passive continuous monitoring system is proposed which uses biosensors attached to the survivor as well as machine learning techniques to infer if an abnormal situation related to gender-based violence is taking place, activating in this case an alarm. The monitoring structure of the system supervises a great deal of bio-signals according to the current status of technology of wearables and biomedical devices. The presented biosensors-based surveillance solution can also be manually disconnected for 30/60/90 min (on demand) in order to avoid false positives when a woman is, for example, practicing sports or carrying out other inoffensive activities that could incorrectly activate the alarm.

<p><strong>Resumen</strong></p><p>En el presente trabajo, se pretende analizar la percepción del profesorado respecto a la introducción de la perspectiva de género en el ámbito educativo. Para ello, se presentan los resultados de un sondeo de opinión que se llevó a cabo entre más de doscientos docentes que acudieron a una jornada de formación, en el que se plantearon diferentes cuestiones relativas a la igualdad de género en el campo de la educación. El análisis de estos resultados muestra que, aunque se atisban mejoras −a tenor de la percepción del profesorado− con respecto a ciertas cuestiones concretas, aún queda un largo camino por recorrer para lograr la igualdad real entre mujeres y hombres en el sector docente.</p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>In the present work, an analysis of the perception of professors regarding the introduction of the gender perspective in the educational field is carried out. For this purpose, the results of an opinion questionnaire that was carried out among more than two hundred teachers who attended a training session are presented, in which different questions related to gender equality in the field of education were raised. The analysis of these results shows that, although some improvements can be noticed –according to the perception of the professors– with regard to certain specific issues, there is still a long way to go to achieve real equality between women and men within the educational field.</p>

This work compares the academic performance and retention rates of women and men in electrical engineering studies. The analysis is carried out in two bachelor engineering degree programs offered in the School of Telecommunication Engineering, at the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Spain: Telecommunication Systems Engineering and Telematics Engineering. Data from seven consecutive academic years have been used to compute three indicators regarding the same cohort of students: exam attendance rate, success rate, and performance rate. The results show that, in general, women obtain better academic performance rates than men in the first two academic courses while, from the third course on, there seems to be a trend toward uniformity in the academic results between female and male students. Furthermore, women generally present lower attrition rates than men, especially in the first year, and better graduation rates. Such facts could be explained by the higher motivation of female students when enrolling engineering programs—due to the adverse stereotyped context that they have to overcome—which lead to higher retention rates throughout the academic years as compared to their male counterparts.