Women National Report Portugal

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majority of applicants to the higher education system and the majority of universitygraduates.

As a result of the historical changes in the Portuguese society we might say that thedevelopment of the Portuguese scientific community in the last 20 years has been partly

achieved through women's contribution (Amâncio and Ávila, 1995). They have made agreat effort to advance in the academic career, as shown by the number of women whohave obtained their PhDs and qualifications since the 80s.

Probably the first extensive study that tried to characterise this situation is from. Thechapter 8 of this publication is a study by Amâncio and Ávila called “Gender in Science”.According to this study, “both sexes contributed to the development of Science inPortugal in the last 20 years. On the part of women this contribution was a result of arecovering effort, clearly noticeable throughout the eighties, to eliminate disparity in thelevel of qualifications. However this effort and evolution were not sufficient to avoidtheir positioning in the outer circles of the scientific community”.

Neither social class nor the individual achievements fully explain the situation of womenin science, according to these authors. This survey showed the existence of “invisible”barriers to women's access to science and technology fields, to the top of the professionalcareer and to positions, which are related with power and scientific influence. Althoughthe barriers to women's advancement in the career appear overall in the scientificcommunity, they are particularly accentuated in the exact and natural sciences. Thelongest history of these scientific fields in Portugal and the greater competition mayexplain the gender differences. However the most recent data shows a significantprogress in the situation mentioned before. The total percentage of women in the top of the professional career is now 17%, whilst in 1995 it was only 6%. Therefore, it can besaid that in less than one decade this number has been nearly multiplied by three.

In the area of “women and science” Portugal is at the moment sharing in the commoneffort to European policy concerning the increasing participation of women in science.Nevertheless the Portuguese situation has some specific characteristics as mentionedabove. Portugal has a strong presence of women in the scientific community. This,however, should not prevent analysis obstacles to scientific and academic progression intheir professional career, or on the participation and involvement in research teams, aswell as on research and management of projects. More precise and specific studies oninstitutional cultures would help understand the participation of women in science.

2. The policy framework for women and science

The creation of the Ministry of Science and Technology (1995) offered the possibility of updating the institutional framework of the Portuguese scientific and technologicalpolicy, taking into account the expansion and diversification of the national potential onscience and technology in the last decades. To provide a dynamic and stable referencesystem for future development it created a new structure. The co-ordination functions, atthe level of programmes and institutions, were not only reinforced and clarified but theywere also separated from the activities of consulting the scientific and technological



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community, whose independent participation in the establishment of scientific andtechnological policies is recognised and guaranteed by law. Accordingly, theresponsibilities of funding and assessment of international scientific and technologicalco-operation, information collection, processment and diffusion have all been clearlyidentified and committed to three new institutions: The Fundação para a Ciência e a

Tecnologia (FCT), Instituto de Cooperação Científica e Tecnológica Internacional (ICCTI) and Observatório das Ciências e das Tecnologias (OCT).

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) is a public institute withresponsibilities for promoting, financing, following-up and evaluation of institutions,programmes and projects in the area of science and technology as well as the educationand qualification of human resources.

The Institute for International Scientific and Technological Co-operation (ICCTI) is thedepartment responsible for directing, guiding and co-ordinating all international co-operation in the fields of science and technology.

The Observatory for Sciences and Technologies (OCT) is a public organism which has asits mission the collection, processing and production of information on the nationalscientific and technological system and has received delegation from the NationalStatistics Institute for all that concerns the area of science and technology.

Beyond this specific policy framework which is centred in the Ministry for Science andTechnology structure, and viewing the issue of gender in a general perspective, thePortuguese Constitution welcomed already the references made in the Amsterdam Treatyregarding equality issues. Beyond the reference to equal opportunities, equality appearsas a responsibility of the State, in all its policies (mainstreaming approach). The GlobalEquality Plan (Council of Ministers Resolution of March 1997) was then an importantstep in order to deal with the still unfavourable situation of women in science.

Since September 2000 there has been a governmental reform and nowadays equalityissues in general belong to the Presidency Ministry. Under the auspices of the PresidencyMinistry, there are a Commission for the Equality of Women’s Rights (CIDM) and aCommission for Equality in Work and Employment (which has a more specific role but isnevertheless important on this area).

3. Policies mobilised for improving the situation of women in science andmeasures adopted to promote the role of women in this area

We can say that there has been a positive evolution in the way of dealing with the genderissue in Portugal. The statistic indicators show the attention paid to it. At present, beyondseveral studies, The Ministry for Science and Technology has implemented a policy thatreflects clearly in the richness of the indicators, regular updating, publications, etc. (e.g.the publication “Doctor Degrees in Portugal 1970>1997” from OCT).1

1 The OCT web page has many statistics on line and in English: www.oct.mct.pt



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The OCT keeps an updated database of R&D Institutions for the following sectors:Government, Higher Education, Private non-profit Institutions and Business Institutions.The purpose is to create conditions that will permit knowledge on the articulation andintegration of institutions in the Science and Technology System. The database alsoprovides the National Scientific and Technological Survey (IPCTN) and data on gender.

Following the recommendations of the Helsinki Group, ICCTI and OCT haveparticipated actively in that forum. Furthermore ICCTI promoted the constitution of aNational Group on W&S.

Portugal also participated actively in the April Conference “Women and Science: makingchange happen” (3-4 April 2000). Furthermore, in all relevant dissemination of information on the 5th Framework Programme the ICCTI, when appropriate, includes astatement concerning the encouragement to the participation of women. The ICCTI webpage has also a specific section devoted to W&S where it exposes and promotes subjectsand events which are related to the involvement of women in various sectors of science

and research.Following the Global Equality Plan (Council of Ministers Resolution of March 1997),mentioned in the previous point, a protocol between the Foundation for Science andTechnology and the Commission for the Equality of Women’s Rights (CIDM) wasestablished. This led to a call for proposals in May 1999. It was a call for scientificresearch projects in the issue of gender social relations and policies to the equalitybetween men and women in Portugal. The objectives were to support, in analysissubstantiated by scientific research, efficient policies on equality of opportunitiesbetween men and women in education and training, in the access to employment andprogression in the professional careers, as well as in their rights to political participation.

The response to this call was quite significant. 28 proposals were received and 13 wereapproved. The financed projects have a maximum duration of two years and cover arange of areas, from Communication Sciences, Economics, Management, History andArchaeology to Psychology and Sociology. The areas of Psychology and Sociology arepredominant, in the case of all projects presented as well as in the case of the onesfinanced. The research teams of the 13 projects, consisted of 13 PhDs and a total of 76elements.

Finally, mention should be made of the International Conference “Third SMETechnology Days” which took place in 29 and 30 June, during the PortuguesePresidency, jointly organised by the Portuguese Innovation Agency, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the European Commission. Specifically there was a panelsession called “Female Entrepreneurs and the Framework Programme”, opened by thePresident of the Commission for the Equality of Women’s Rights, Dr. Ana Maria Bragada Cruz. It had the participation of Nicole Dewandre who presented the evolution of theissue Women and Science; the President of the Association of Portuguese WomenEntrepreneurs, Mrs. Ana Maria Ribeiro, and a case study of a woman’s leadership in an



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SME. In the afternoon there was an open session on participation of womenentrepreneurs in research.

4. The statistics presenting the situation in the country Data provided by the OCT and collected in the biannual National Scientific and

Technological Survey is the main source of information. The Survey on 2001 is beinglaunched at the moment. Data is also provided by the FCT and the Ministry of Education.

5. The active networks on women and science as well as the role they play in theprocessIn this section we will be looking for networks that contribute to promote greater women’sparticipation in science, which is understood as including “all scientific disciplines whichgenerate knowledge” (text adopted, European Parliament, PE 284.656, #3).

We will be referring mainly the women’s studies associations but also other networks such asscientific journals which contribute to promote women in science, university departments and

also the role played by a state organisation such as the CIDM.

A long path has been made, from the first studies, related to the subject of women and science,published by the Comissão da Condição Feminina (nowadays CIDM), after its appearance inthe late 1970s. Seminars and Conferences have been organised around the area in the mostrecent years by different organisations and institutions2. The first masters degree on Women’sStudies is now in its 5th edition. Last year two women’s studies journals have appeared.

University Departments

It may be said that Women's Studies have started outside the Universities, but have been able to

get some involvement of the Universities however still marginal. The Open University(Universidade Aberta) has launched in 1995 the first Masters degree in Women Studies and isnow preparing its 5th edition. There are at present 50 applicants and is currently still the onlydiploma in the area.

Other university or higher education institutions have introduced women's studies as a subjectmatter in first degrees (4/5 years long), or at the level of Masters courses.

In some universities, the emergence of Centres of research on the area can be signalled: atCoimbra, in the Arts Faculty, the GREF (Group of Feminist Studies); in PortucalenseUniversity, the "Centro de Estudos Femininos" (Feminine Studies Centre); the area of

Women's Studies (1993) in Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Educativas (CIIE, Centre forEducational Research and Intervention), in Faculty of Education, of Porto University. Amongthe Polytechnics, the Escola Superior de Educação, at Setubal, has played an important role,mainly with the activities of the CIOE, the Centre for Equality of Opportunities in Education.

2 Some authors have produced an overview of the work produced on this subject such as: Ramalho 1995,Silva, L. (1993), Silva, M.R. 1999, Vaquinhas 1993, Araújo 1993.



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Several higher education institutions either universities (Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon and Évora) orPolytechnic Institutes (Setúbal, Santarém, Beja) have been organised in an active networkthrough a common research project launched by the CIDM called “Co-education, from thebeginning to the development of a practice”, for the period 1998-2000. As far as “Women andScience” is regarded, this project has contributed to focus research produced on equality of

opportunities, gender and school education as well as producing pedagogical materials topromote a more expanded examination of educational practices and institutional policies at thislight. Some of the International and national conferences on these subjects have also occurredin higher education institutions in recent years.

Several masters and doctoral dissertations have been pursued within Women’s Studies andsome of them have already been published (e.g. the historical and anthropological constructionof femininity; women and the law; occupations/professions perceived as women’s work ;women and education; women’s movements; girls and youth culture; women’s lives and theexperience of maternity; domestic violence; women’s history within the period of theauthoritarian state, etc.).

Literary Studies are also producing several insights, which should be stressed. Moreover, inseveral universities, there are other research projects, which have been financed by nationaland international organisations on such areas.

Women's Studies Associations

APEM - Associação Portuguesa de Estudos sobre as Mulheres (PortugueseAssociation of Women's Studies)APEM is a non-profit association, which was created in 1991 with the aim of supporting,promoting and stimulating women's studies in all areas of knowledge. It seeks tofacilitate contact between researchers and access to databases and

documentation centres

through the establishment of co-operation protocols with other institutions. Theassociation also seeks to disseminate the results of research studies by promotingpublications and organising conferences and debates, thus intervening publicly on issuesrelated to women's studies.

APEM has been publishing a newsletter about twice a year since its beginning, and thefirst issue of its annual journal ex æquo comes out in 1999. It has organised severalmeetings and debates (for example, "Studies on Equality and Difference", in 1992;"Women: Topic and Author of Research", in 1993; "Women's History", in 1995;"Revising the Electoral Law - New Opportunities for Women?" in 1998) and threeconferences with the participation of national and foreign experts ("Feminism and Sexismin Portugal", in 1995; "Women and the State", in 1997; and "Equality Policies -Perspectives and Paradoxes", in 1999). It has also supported and promoted severalprojects, such as Patterns of Fertility in Portugal, Women in Business, Coeducation:From the Beginning to the Development of a Practice (1998-99), Women's Studies inPortugal (1993), The Third European Feminist Research Conference (1997), and OtherDirections for a New Citizenship (1997).



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We could highlight the organisation of a discussion group on women's studies issuesthrough internet in the APEM internet address: http://www.apem.web.pt

The administrative structure of APEM includes a Board of Directors with sevenmembers, a Board of Assembly with three members, and a Fiscal Committee with three

members. APHIM – Associação Portuguesa de Investigação Histórica sobre as Mulheres(Portuguese Association of Women’s History) APHIM is a non-profit association which has seen its statutes published in 1997. It aims“to promote, support and value women’s history research in Portugal” (#4, quoted inAlvim 2000:144), hence to facilitate contacts among researchers and access to data basein this area as well as to disseminate the outcomes of research pursued.

Each year the Association organises a national meeting: “Women, History and Society –research perspectives in the end of the twentieth century” (1998); “Towards Women’s

History – its contribution to the construction of Portugal”(1999); “To make the History of Women – from home to school; from school to university”(2000).

Two other women’s associations are also making a contribution to the area of Womenand Science, which are the Women in the Law Profession (Women’s Jurists)Association and Women and Sport Association. Both have in their Boards womenacademics from different Portuguese universities and give support to the pursuing of research in this area. Both are promoting national conferences on their respective areasand are publishing the proceedings of these Conferences.

Women's Studies Journals

The women’s studies journals have a very important role in the diffusion of ideas. Wecan mention two: exaequo and Faces de Eva (Faces of Eve).

exaequo

The first issue of this women’s studies journal, from Portuguese Association of women’sStudies - APEM (mentioned previously), has appeared in 1999, on Women’sRepresentations, whose papers were selected from the 1998 Conference Women and

Philosophy. The number 2/3 published in 2000 has been devoted to the papers presentedin the APEM International Conference on Politics of Equality. Still in 2000, there will bea number dedicated to Women and Sport . In 2001, there will a special number, when the

APEM is celebrating its 10

th

year anniversary as an association, dedicated to anevaluation of the production in different scientific subjects on gender issues, reviewingalso what has been pursued in Portugal.

Faces de Eva

This women’s studies journal is published by the Instituto Pluridisciplinar de História dasIdeias, in the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, in Lisbon, as stated above. It is a bi–annual publication started in 1999. The issue number three has appeared in 2000. The



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journal is related to a more enlarged project with the same title, which comprises theorganisation of several conferences. It is also connected with the production of researchand the Dicionário no Feminino, séculos XIX-XX (19 & 20th centuries Women’sDictionnary), financed by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) aims to be acontribution to overcome the lack of methodological instruments in Women’s Studies in

Portugal, and will focus on women’s journals, institutions, as well as feminists lives andcontributions in the first decades of the 20 th century, among other issues. The journal hasthe following address in Internet: http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/facesdeeva.

Finally it is worth to mention that some of the activities undertaken by these networks aresupported by the Commission for the Equality of Women’s Rights (CIDM) as far as theyare members of its Consultative Board.

6. The involvement of the private sector in promoting women in scienceThe information available regarding this sector is still very scarce. Yet, the dataconcerning the private sector are the following: companies according to researchers in

number, companies by gender according to age, to their academic degree, scientific areaand scientific area of activity. In any case, these tables may be considered as a reasonablestarting point. This issue of the Private Sector will from now onwards be followedclosely. For the statistics please see annex 2 of the referred data.

7. The tools established to assess the impact of those measures The subject of indicators for equality is an activity that is still in an embrionary stage.Yet, there exists already a starting point where more in depth studies can derive from.This is the case of a proposal advanced by the Commission for the Equality of Women'sRights (CIDM) -“Indicators for Equality- an unpostponable proposal”- which presentsindicators for equality in general, but where some important indicators for “women and

science” can also be found, for they are directly or indirectly linked to the specificquestion of constructing indicators solely in this area.

We would like to mention some of these indicators as the examples clearly show thediversity and magnitude of this particular issue which needs detailed examination in orderto provide an accurate picture of the Portuguese reality as far as indicators are concerned.They are as follows: Demographic indicators, structural indicators of indirect nature,extensive data on social practices, extensive data on social representations and values,monographic studies, A second group of examples may be: external production, internalproduction, power of decision, children's socialisation process, networks and familysupport, representations on family and marriage, social parameters framework, indicators

of time usage. A third and last type can be of indicators such as indicators of individualcharacterisation, indicators of the characterisation of the students' family and indicatorson the education trajectory.

The National Working Group on Women and Science commits itself to look at thisproposal more closely in the near future for it finds its contents significant for morestudies and results.



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8. The most significant case studiesWe can mention as a success case the significant qualitative rise of the presence of women in the academic career in Portugal. In 1995 the Open University (UniversidadeAberta) launched the first Masters degree in Women Studies and is now preparing its 5thedition, with a number of 50 applicants. It is currently the only degree programme offered

in this field.9. The future perspectives at national and EU levelAt national level, we intend to continue the work within the recently formed nationalgroup on W&S. One of the upcoming issues will be following up the works of theprojects financed by the FCT and start evaluating their results.

At EU level, we very much welcome the essential starting point which was the ETANreport and its recommendation. It was an excellent report in terms of a global vision of the situation in general and launched the debate. We also welcome the reference towomen in science in the communication on the European Research Area and the work of

the Commission on this issue followed by the Helsinki Group. The preparation aroundthe 6th Framework Programme will be as well a privileged moment to bring this issue intolight.

At the present stage, we need in depth studies to understand the objective and subjectivebarriers that women face when accessing science and the progression in science (e.g.careers). This is the only way that we can implement effective measures to face theinequality sometimes hidden. We need also studies that have as a starting point thediversity of the situations in the several countries but that aim and succeed to attaininstruments and measures that can be applied to every country. The Commission is doingan effort in this sense and we expect that in the future 6 th Framework Programme theissue of gender and women in science will be even more visible in the one hand andstudied in the other.

Helsinki Group on women and scienceJanuary 2001

Portuguese national report by:

• Dr. Ana Luzia Reis, Commission for the Equality of Women's Rights

• Prof. Maria João Valente Rosa, Foundation for Science and Technology

• Prof. Lígia Amâncio, National Delegate to the Socio-economic key action of theProgramme Improving Human Potential and Socio-Economic Knowledge Base

of the 5

th

Framework Programme• Prof. Teresa Patrício, Dr. Carla Santos and Dr. Lígia Silva, Institute for

International Scientific and Technological Co-operation

• Dr. Maísa Ribeiro, Observatory for Sciences and Technologies

• Prof. Helena Costa Araújo Portuguese Association of Women's Studies



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References

This list of references includes works quoted in the report as well as others by Portugueseresearchers that are relevant in this domain.

AMÂNCIO, Lígia e Ávila, Patrícia (1995), "Gender in Science" in J. Correia Jesuíno (eorg.), Acomunidade Científica Portuguesa nos finais do século XX , Oeiras, CELTA, 135-162

ALVIM, Maria Helena Villas-Boas e (2000), “Ser Mulher Ontem e Hoje; e Amanhã?” in Faces

de Eva – Estudos sobre a Mulher , 3, 137-148

ARAÚJO, Helena Costa (1994) , "Sabemos hoy en Portugal más sobre las Mujeres que hace diezanos"? - Estudos sobre las Mujeres en Portugal y el Estado de la Cuéstion", Communicationpresented in the Summer Course "Género: Educacion Y Ciudadania", Universidade Complutensede Madrid, San Lorenzo del Escorial

CIDM - Comissão para a Igualdade e os Direitos das Mulheres, “Indicadores para a Igualdade,uma proposta inadiável”, Cadernos da Condição Femini9na nº 47, ed. Comissão para a Igualdadee os Direitos das Mulheres, Presidência do Conselho de Ministros, Lisboa, 1997

FERREIRA, Virginia (1998), “Engendering Portugal: social change, state politics and women’social mobilisation” in A.C. Pinto (ed.) Modern Portugal, Palo Alto, CA.: The Society for thePromotion of Science and Scholarship, 162-188

MARQUES, Leonilde (1999), “Doutoramentos e Mestrados nas Universidades Portuguesas de1975 a 1998”, Comissão para a Igualdade e os Direitos das Mulheres (CIDM)

RAMALHO, Maria Irene (1995), "Portugal Report", SIGMA Report, European UniversityNetworks

SILVA, Luisa Ferreira (1993) , "Os Estudos sobre a Mulher Portuguesa na perspectiva Psico-Social" in Estudos sobre as Mulheres em Portugal, Lisboa: Comissão para a Igualdade e osDireitos das Mulheres (CIDM)

SILVA, Maria Regina Tavares da (1999), “Estudos sobre as mulheres em Portugal: um olharsobre o passado”, exaequo (1), 17-28

VAQUINHAS, Irene (1993), "Estudos sobre as Mulheres na Area de História" in Estudos sobre

as Mulheres em Portugal, Lisboa: Comissão para a Igualdade e os Direitos das Mulheres (CIDM)

Women National Report Portugal

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