Virgínia Ferreira

Women's movements and the State in Portugal: a State feminism approach

This paper aims to contribute towards a better understanding of the dynamics of womens movements and their relations with institutions, political parties and the official mechanisms used to promote gender equality. It is the outcome of the first study on State feminism in Portugal. Our research was carried out using a case study which focused on the main gender equality official mechanism and its networks, which required a qualitative approach. We concluded that currently, while the Portuguese State is confronted with its persistent inability to implement gender equality policies, the present situation of Portuguese womens movements is that of redefining and adjusting to the major challenge of reinvention and resignification within a very difficult external environment.

Women's employment in the European semiperipheral countries: Analysis of the Portuguese case

Abstract It is commonly accepted that inasmuch as wage labour intensifies, the sexual division of labour tends to become increasingly rigidified. This would explain why occupational segregation by gender increases as countries industrialize or why it remains at low levels in countries still in a process of industrial growth. What we observe, however, is that this has not happened in semiperipheral countries, namely in Portugal. The comparison of some labour and employment statistics demonstrates smaller disparities between the male and female employment in Portugal than those registered in more developed countries. In this article, I argue that in Portugal a strongly interventionist (though economically weak) state, incipient technological and economic development, a great flexibility evidenced by families in the allocation of the labour resources of their members, a rigid social structure, and weak familial geographical mobility conjoin in the employment system in such a way that the effects of gendered segregation originated by economic growth in “first comer” (early developing) countries will be softened.