Luísa Saavedra

Acesso e sucesso no Ensino Superior em Portugal: questões de género, origem sócio-cultural e percurso académico dos alunos

We analyse the impact of gender and sociocultural origin of freshmen from their college entrance exam scores and chosen undergraduate courses, as well the anticipation of difficulties in academic adaptation, and in academic success, at the end of their first year in college. The studys sample consists of 1407 freshman students from the Universidade do Minho. Results show that gender and sociocultural family background influence the courses that are chosen (most female students and students from less advantaged social class origins attended Social Science courses, whereas most male students and students from more advantaged social class origins attended Engineering courses). Higher sociocultural status and female students presented higher entrance exam scores and averaged better academic achievement at the end of their first year in college. Concerning anticipated difficulties, female students and students from Social and Economic Science courses anticipated more inter-personal difficulties, while male students and students from Engineering and Economic Science courses anticipated more difficulties in relation to learning and organizing daily activities. The anticipation of learning difficulties was associated in a negative and statistical way with entrance exam scores and academic achievement.

(In)Visibilidade do género na sexualidade juvenil: propostas para uma nova concepção sobre a educação sexual e a prevenção de comportamentos sexuais de risco

In this article we intend to show how gender is a determining and indispensable concept when juvenile sexual issues are discussed; particularly when we approach the adolescent female sexuality. The feminist literature has been alerting us for the discourse on victimization, fear and morality which, in many cases and in many countries, still justifies contents of sexual education programs in schools and campaigns for prevention against sexually transmissible diseases, especially HIV. However, after analyzing those speeches, it is very clear that they lack an emancipatory discourse about adolescent feminine sexuality. In spite of the HIV epidemic and the growing number of heterosexual women (of all age groups, from the youngest to the oldest) being infected, which calls for much greater attention on the matter, that problem must not justify regulatory and traditional discourses on feminine sexuality. There is a need for new emancipatory and empowering female adolescent discourses, as well as young mens commitment regarding reproduction issues and involvement in the construction of an equalitarian project. and also, programs and campaigns informed by the existing knowledge related to gender issues and the asymmetry between the sexes in experiencing sexuality.

Discursos de jovens adolescentes portugueses sobre sexualidade e amor: implicações para a educação sexual

The efforts to lower adolescents sexual risk behaviors have led to results that did not come up to the expectations. Lack of knowledge on myths and beliefs on sexuality may be the main cause of this failure. Trying to overcome some of the limitations of previous studies, this work aimed to directly hear adolescents trying to understand, in a more spontaneous and deeply way, the perceptions and beliefs associated with love and sexual relations. To do so, the discourses of adolescents during a sexual education program were collected and analyzed through Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. Results point out the recognition of sexual double standard, although there seem to exist a tendency to consider a single sex standard and disregard the importance of prevention behaviors. We conclude with some clues about sexual education.

Dilemmas of girls and women in engineering: a study in Portugal

The reason that girls and women withdraw from science and technology education and careers has been a universal concern in the social sciences. This study investigated how gendered constructions of identity are translated into the barriers and fears that female students and professional women experience in decision-making about their careers. We conducted interviews with 63 girls and 39 women in academic and professional engineering careers, focusing on their interpersonal relationships with boys and men in their school and occupational engineering settings, respectively. Participant discourse highlighted the difficulties women face when managing the antagonistic discourses of femininity and masculinity in a social environment in which they are frequently forced to submit to hegemonic masculinity. The consequences of women’s differing discourses about the “masculine world” and the “feminine world” are discussed, and some strategies for creating more equalitarian relational environments in school and work settings are discussed.

Discursos de adolescentes sobre a vida profissional e familiar: entre o sonho e a realidade

Nowadays, one of the main challenges women must face when making or trying to make a professional choice for life is the conciliation between family life and professional life. In spite of the relevance of this topic in books about career management, scarcity of research about it during adolescence is still evident. This study aims at assessing the consciousness of this process in adolescent girls, as well as how they cope with that task, when they project themselves into the future. Data were collected from nineteen semi-structured interviews carried out with Portuguese girls attending an urban high school in the north of Portugal. The analysis and discussion of results have been conducted with the support of discourse analysis.

Gender Norms in Portuguese College Students’ Judgments in Familial Homicides Bad Men and Mad Women

The gender of the offender has been proved to be an important factor in judicial sentencing. In this study, we analyze the judgments of College students regarding perpetrators of familial homicides to evaluate the presence of these gender norms and biases in the larger society. The sample included 303 college students (54.8% female) enrolled in several social sciences and engineering courses. Participants were asked to read 12 vignettes based on real crimes taken from Portuguese newspapers. Half were related to infanticide, and half were related to intimate partner homicide. The sex of the offender was orthogonally manipulated to the type of crime. The results show that gender had an important impact on sentences, with males being more harshly penalized by reasons of perversity and women less penalized by reason of mental disorders. In addition, filicide was more heavily penalized than was intimate partner homicide. The results also revealed a tendency toward a retributive conception of punishment. We discuss how gender norms in justice seem to be embedded in society as well as the need for intervention against the punitive tendency of this population.

Motherhood in Prison Reconciling the Irreconcilable

Few studies have allowed imprisoned mothers to speak directly about motherhood. In this work, 20 convicted Portuguese mothers were interviewed about their experience of motherhood: Ten were raising their children in prison, and 10 were performing their roles as mothers from prison. The study aimed to understand the potential benefits and detriments of motherhood in both circumstances, and to identify what measures could improve the mothers’ conditions. Using thematic analysis, the findings indicate that women whose children live with them in prison experience some advantages, but motherhood also increases suffering due to restrictions on liberty.

Men and women’s prisons in the Portuguese press: the gender of punishment

Since prison life is out of common people’s sight, the media have a particularly important role in legitimating or, conversely, de-legitimating public discourses and policies about punishment, incarceration and rehabilitation. In the present study, our analysis was grounded in 83 news, 55 of these about men prisons, 24 about women prisons and 4 news about public policies in general, although having specificities about men’s and women’s prisons published in a Portuguese national newspaper between 2005 and 2014. The analysis suggests that, with very few exceptions, gender is an important issue in the media construction for mens and womens prisons and male and female inmates; gender norms of masculinity and femininity are essentialized, justifying different practices of control in prison policies. Dangerous, violent, resistant and manipulative male inmates call for prison policies based on risk control and managerialism, whereas docile and reliable female inmates call for policies grounded on rehabilitation but also security. Apart from this representation, our analysis also shows that the news, in general, tends to align with a reformist approach, failing to interrogate the wider role of imprisonment in social control or to discuss its alternatives.

Deconstructing idealized motherhood: the extreme case of neonaticidal women

In this article, we provide a feminist perspective on neonaticidal women while critically examining the mainstream literature. We analyze 26 cases reported between 2003 and 2013 in a Portuguese online newspaper. We conclude that neonaticide must be framed by two main lines of thought: Motherhood is a social construction that imposes difficult-to-achieve norms, and it is a complex experience, intercepted by age, social class, marital status, and having other children. This approach should encourage a shift from the present focus on palliative and punitive measures to a more preemptive one including new policies on sexual education and pregnancy termination.

Transgressing Motherhood: Media Reports on Infanticide

ABSTRACT This article seeks to understand the discourses on motherhood elicited by media in news articles dealing with infanticide. Applying thematic analysis, we studied news and online comments of a Portuguese newspaper. The analysis of infanticidal mothers reports two different images of these mothers both constructed and profiled by the media and the readers. Women are more penalized based on their perversity, living in better economic conditions, being employed and married, whether by the media or by the readers. They are absolved in accordance with their mental illnesses or poor social and economic backgrounds.