There will be 164 women in the lower chamber sitting alongside 186 men – 26 more women than there were in the last legislature. This means that 46.8 percent of elected members of parliament will be women, representing the first time that the share of women lawmakers has risen above 40 percent.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Madrid and Barcelona on Wednesday to demand the Spanish government fulfil its promise to finance an ambitious plan to fight domestic violence. "There is no lack of money, there is a lack of will," the protesters chanted in Madrid as they made their way from the equality ministry to parliament.

Spain’s most harrowing gender violence figures have been released less than a week after 5.3 million women workers in the country staged an unprecedented strike against gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace. At a time when women in Spain are gaining an international voice for their fight against inequality and discrimination at work, the country’s courts have released figures that suggest the problems Spanish women face at home are just if not more as alarming.

Spanish women are planning to down tools to mark International Women’s day on Thursday to prove that "if we stop, the world stops". The ‘feminist strike’ will not only be limited to women in the work place but will also stretch to the home, where women are being encouraged to abandon their usual duties including childcare, cooking and household chores.

Spanish women spend an average of 26.5 hours a week doing unpaid work such as raising children, cooking and cleaning, household chores and caring for relatives, while the men get away with just 14 hours. Surprisingly, the division of household labour does not much depend on who is the main breadwinner. While women who work only part time do an average of 29.6 hours of unpaid work (compared to 13.9 hours for men), those women in full time work scarcely do less in the home, 25.2 hours (compared to a steady 13.9 for men).

Stars of Spanish cinema have lashed out at the lack of women in the film industry at the country's equivalent of the Oscars. "We need directors, screenwriters, directors of photography, scripts, technicians, composers -- equal in number to men," said actress Nora Navas, a vice president of the Spanish Film Academy, during the Goyas in Madrid on Saturday.

Protesters held signs reading "how many more must die," shouting "they're not deaths, they're murders." "I want to show how much I reject the situation in this country," said Jorge Aranda, 40, who works in a health centre, pointing to the 45 deaths this year alone. "This is unacceptable."