The Spanish press are reporting that the Minister of Health, Carmen Montón, (PSOE) obtained her master’s degree in gender studies in 2011, without attending classes, at the Rey Juan Carlos University.

The Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies was awarded by the Institute of Public Law of the URJC, the same situation that forced the resignation of Cristina Cifuentes earlier in the year, the mayor of Madrid.

It is also said that Montón paid her tuition fees three months late and started the course four months late.

The minister has reacted on Twitter in announcing a press conference to “refute” the claim.

Carmen Montón Giménez (born 9 March 1976 in Burjassot, Spain) is a Spanish politician who belongs to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). Currently, she is the Spanish Minister of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare.

Married with one child, Montón studied medicine and became involved in the youth wing of the PSOE. She entered active politics in 1999 when she was elected a councillor for her home town of Burjassot to the immediate north-west of Valencia City. She resigned from the council in 2004 when she was elected to the Congress of Deputies as a deputy for Valencia, being re-elected in 2008.

Her activity in Congress in her first year was centred on legislative preparation for laws legalising marriage between two people of the same gender. She has also spoken in favour of efforts to reduce domestic violence, including the creation of a telephone line to help males of a violent disposition, and for new laws to allow pregnant deputies to cast votes from outside the Spanish Congress