In 2023, it will be 35 years since the inclusion of women in the Civil Guard, after the publication of Royal Decree-Law 1/1988, of February 22, which regulates their incorporation into the Armed Forces. Since then, many things have changed, but there are still many goals to achieve.
Sergeant Ana Katia Pérez Gil has been wearing the green uniform for 30 years and is also, to a large extent, responsible for the steps that have been taken regarding equality within the force.
A native of the municipality of La Guancha, since she was a teenager she was “very clear” that she wanted to be part of the Benemérita, despite the fact that no one in her family motivated her and she did not have close role models who did so. She only saw the agents at the soccer field in her municipality when she went to the games.
He had it so clear that he remembers that at 18 years old, “and with absolute self-confidence,” when presenting the documentation he told a man at the Icod de los Vinos stand: “I don’t know about the others, but I’m going to pass.” That year, 5,584 places were announced and she was the only woman from the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife who managed to enter. To this day she still does not know why she chose a profession that, three decades later, has exceeded her initial expectations, not only as an organization, but because of the people she has met and worked with.
In this time the changes “have been very brutal,” but they are a reflection of those that society in general has experienced.
“When I arrived the men didn’t know what to do with us,” she points out.
During the first five years it was not exempt from some unfortunate comments that are unthinkable today. “I heard that when I entered I was taking a man’s position,” says Ana Katia Pérez.
She ignored them and continued working to change things from within, because she realized as a woman that both she and her colleagues assumed and normalized them even though they shouldn’t have.
“When it happened to me directly, as it happens to all people, is when you start to realize that perhaps everything was not as good as you thought, although that is actually a reflection of society,” he maintains.
It refers to her first pregnancy. When she transferred it to his direct superior and reminded her that she could not do night services or conduct prisoners, his first reaction was to blurt out: “And how do I tell the rest of the sergeants that you don’t do nights? ”.
Since they already had staff assigned to the office, they placed her on the side of another guard’s table and gave her a “school” chair.
Annoyed by the situation, she asked the brigadier if that was going to be her place. The man got up, went to talk to the captain, and when he returned he said: “The captain told me that as long as we are all in the office, this will be your place, but if any of us is missing, you go that day…” .
Her partner was so ashamed that he gave the armchair in which he sat to her and he settled for the chair until she went on maternity leave.
Faced with this type of behavior, he did not hesitate to get to work to change it. In reality, it was her husband, also a civil guard, who convinced her that she was valid for this task and began a silent work that in 2014 led to the creation of the Committee for Effective Equality between men and women of the Civil Guard, of which currently is vocal, and which led to the First Equality Plan, a pioneer in the State security forces and bodies.
If the incorporation of women into the Benemérita has been one of the most important challenges that the institution has faced in its entire history, having this document is next on the list.
In 2017 he also had no problem writing a letter to the then Minister of the Interior, Juan Ignacio Zoido, to express his disagreement with his words of gratitude after the events that occurred in Catalonia on October 1, 2017. “In a letter he thanked the civil guards and to the police officers for the work done and to their wives, children and parents. At no time did he name the husbands and, therefore, did not take us into account. The Guanchera explained: “It saddens me greatly that you are not really aware that women in the national police and civil guard, and in general all women, need to be mentioned. The security forces in our country are nourished by men and women.” At the same time, she invited him to an inclusive language training that she did not attend.
“A minister has advisors who write letters to him, therefore, I do not understand that no one has told him anything. I don’t think he said it on purpose, he simply did not have adequate training, nor whoever was at his side, and that is what I claimed, because not only the civil guards, all women need to be mentioned,” she insists.
One of the things that in his opinion has to be changed is the proportion of men and women within the body, “which continues to be shameful.” Currently, there are 7,741 women, a figure that represents 9.7% of the total, the lowest percentage of all police forces in Spain.
He does not believe that this low incorporation is due to the National Police or local police being more flexible in terms of conciliation. “Of course it is a factor that can be considered, but it is not just that basically, because they do not know what is inside the Civil Guard and those police forces are not going to guarantee 100% conciliation either.”
According to their analysis, this is because “they have had and have more brutal marketing than us. What you don’t see doesn’t exist, and the Civil Guard has territorial deployment in towns and small cities, and, therefore, we are seen less.” Added to this is that “it has forgotten” – obviously unconsciously – to “sell” all the achievements it has achieved throughout its history, “which have been many.”
Thus, he gives as an example two of the most media cases, that of the young Diana Quer, who disappeared without a trace on August 22, 2016, while returning to her mother’s summer home, and which was resolved almost two years later. with the arrest of José Enrique Abuín Gey, guilty of his murder, thanks to the investigations of the Civil Guard.
The other success story he refers to is the release of prison officer José Ortega Lara, kidnapped by the terrorist group ETA for 532 days.
“In both cases we have been there in the photo, they have been extremely brilliant and well-known investigations and works, but there are many other anonymous ones in which they also help save lives, rescue, and support citizens,” he emphasizes.
Since 2020, she has been assigned as first sergeant of the Zamora Command, a job that is compatible with that of the committee, which is arduous but has its reward. An instruction has recently been approved to give double birth leave to single-parent families.
She has had to respond to the complaint of a colleague who was patrolling with another and to those who were not allowed to continue, “because years ago two women could not patrol together, something that fortunately has changed,” she proudly points out.
There are other issues that need to be urgently corrected, because they also have an impact on the income of the civil guards, such as the free appointment of positions, which depends on higher command, positions of responsibility, which do not reach 1%, or evaluations for a promotion.
“They are all related, since if women are less chosen for freely appointed positions, we have less merit and, therefore, when we are evaluated, men pass us over, and that has to change,” she maintains.
