Mari Jose Urruzola

Mari Jose Urruzola Zabalza (Irun, 23 May 1940 – Bilbao, 28 April 2006) was a Spanish educator, feminist, and writer associated with the coeducation 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 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. 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.

Awards and honours 2006, posthumously, the (Emakunde Award for Equality) 2008, a tribute by the Bilbao City Council, the Lanbroa Feminist Collective and the Feminist Party of Spain

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