Maria Helena Santos

• Assistant Researcher at CIS-IUL
• ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa at Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon

This study sets out to analyze the negative effects of tokenism among a group of Portuguese female firefighters alongside the strategies they adopt to integrate into a male majority professional context and inherently associated with masculinity. Individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with nine men and nine women before their conten...

The main objective of this exploratory study is to analyze the negative effects associated with the phenomenon of tokenism for Portuguese women in non-playing football roles, as well as their strategies for integration into a context where they are a minority and the social functions are dominated by men. To this end, we carried out semi-structured...

The second edition of the Special Issue “New Directions in Gender Research” includes 13 articles from diverse disciplinary fields, applying multiple methodologies [...]

There have been many transformations in intellectual scope, in theories and methods, which have also marked research in the field of gender studies [...]

Resumo Este estudo analisou os possíveis efeitos negativos associados aos homens docentes do ensino secundário português, bem como as suas estratégias para se integrarem em uma profissão em que as mulheres são maioritárias. Foram realizadas 16 entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas com 8 professores e 8 professoras, e os seus conteúdos foram subm...

The main objective of this study was to analyse the eventual negative effects associated with male teachers in Portuguese secondary education as well as their strategies for integrating into a profession where women are in the majority. We carried out sixteen individual semi-structured interviews with eight male and eight female teachers and with t...

This study investigates the division of household chores and caregiving tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the influence of participants’ sex, work arrangement, and parental status. Additionally, it aims to understand the relationship of these variables with job satisfaction. Specifically, this study analyses the role of participants’...

This article aimed to explore the perspectives and experiences of women and men at the stage in their lives following professional retirement, enriching the present and future of a continuously ageing Portuguese society. In order to better capture the diversity and complexity of each individual's experiences, a qualitative methodology was used. Sem...

This paper presents a descriptive and comparative analysis of the statutes of Brazilian and Portuguese political parties regarding women’s political participation. The main objective was to evaluate if and in what way women are included in the statutory guidelines. By means of the document analysis technique, we analyzed the statutes of political p...

This study focuses on cleaning services in Lisbon, Portugal, to understand the dynamics of operating in this feminine context, mostly employing women of African origin. From a qualitative and intersectional perspective, the study encompasses 17 semi-structured individual interviews with women working in these services, nine of African origin (Black...

Este estudo pretendeu conhecer os processos psicossociológicos que as mulheres brasileiras empreendedoras em Portugal vivenciam no exercício de sua profissão. Treze mulheres brasileiras empreendedoras foram entrevistadas. Uma análise temática permitiu identificar cinco temas, percebendo-se, nomeadamente, que as adversidades encontradas foram sobret...

This study analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the division of domestic work as regards women in opposite-gender relationships, telecommuting and living as a couple, during the first lockdown in Portugal. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected (N = 171) to understand women’s perceptions of time spent on unpaid work, satisfactio...

The so-called Portuguese Parity Law adopted in 2006 determined that candidate lists presented for national, European and local elections must include one third minimum representation of each sex. Following its revision in 2019, the minimum percentage required for each sex increased to 40%. The implementation of the Portuguese Parity Law has succeed...

This study analysed the gender dynamics prevailing in the context of early childhood education in Portugal. We sought to observe whether early childhood educators experience the negative consequences associated with tokens and the possible emergence of phenomena related to the social construction of masculinity. The thematic analysis of the content...

This article analyzes the experiences and strategies of white and black women in positions of some power, in which they are able to strive to reduce inequalities and promote social change. From a qualitative perspective, this seeks to open the discussions around the possible applications of intersectionality between gender and “race”/ethnicity for...

Resumo Este estudo analisou as dinâmicas de gênero no contexto da educação de infância, em Portugal. Procurámos observar se os homens educadores de infância vivenciam as consequências negativas associadas aos tokens e a possível emergência de fenômenos relacionados com a construção social da masculinidade. A análise temática dos conteúdos de 14 ent...

This article aims to understand the experiences of women working in the Portuguese Air Force, a traditionally male professional environment, and the perspectives of their male counterparts on the subject, considering women’s minority status and symbolic gender asymmetries in the military. This study draws on 16 semi-structured interviews with Air F...

Portugal adopted legislative quotas in 2006, passing the so-called Parity Law which specifies that candidate lists must include a minimum representation for each sex, and neither sex can occupy more than two consecutive positions in the candidate lists. This paper follows the Gender Equality Policy in Practice (GEPP) approach and aims to deepen our...

Gender equality is a matter for debate worldwide. In 2018, Portugal enacted legislation (Decree Law no. 62/2017) to balance gender representation on the executive boards of listed and public sector organizations with measures similar to those causing controversies in other countries. Thus, in accordance with previous research, a study took place to...

In this review article, we argue that the transformations related to the modernisation of Portuguese society triggered by the implementation of democracy did not fully accommodate gender equality. In particular, when we consider the areas where the most progress has been made in keeping with a broadly shared urge for modernisation, education and sc...

This paper intends to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on shared unpaid work between men and women living as a couple during the confinement, to assess whether this situation influenced family dynamics, especially when professional status changed to teleworking. With this goal, weekly hours spent in housework and caregiving, percepti...

This paper investigates formal and informal patterns of the recruitment process and the features of types of elections to shed light on what affects the share of women across levels of government (European, national, and local). A single country and party – the Portuguese Socialist Party – was analysed to rule out intervening factors, and 19 in-dep...

Gender imbalances persist throughout the world, particularly at leadership level, and equally also visible in the case of trade unions. This article focuses on CGTP-IN, the largest Portuguese trade union confederation, and sets out analysis incorporating both figures from this organisation and accounts by female members of CGTP-IN unions. Results c...

This article presents a study that sought to identify the gender dynamics prevailing in a health-related context of tokenism ‐ nursing ‐ in which the members of a dominant group in society ‐ men ‐ are proportionally scarce. Specifically, this study aimed to consider how men experience their integration into a feminized profession. Furthermore, the...

This article presents a study that identifies the gender dynamics prevailing in a specific context of tokenism – elementary school teaching – in which the members of an otherwise socially dominant group are proportionally scarce – men. The results contradict Kanter’s (1977) theory by showing that male elementary school teachers do not experience th...

See: http://exaequo.apem-estudos.org/artigo/handbook-on-gender-and-organizational-change

The growing presence of girls in schools registered in recent years, coupled with their greater school performance compared to their male peers, has led to the resurgence of some social anxiety. The overrepresentation of women in the teaching staff has been pointed out as one reason driving the poorer performance of male students due to the lack of...

A decade after the adoption of the Parity Law in Portugal, it became imperative to explore the symbolic effects of the descriptive representation of female politicians (i.e. in numerical terms) on the political attitudes of Portuguese citizens. With this aim, we carried out a study that involved an online questionnaire addressed to the Portuguese p...

Resenha: Carla Martins. 2015. Lisboa: Alêtheia Editores, 366 pp.

In order to fight gender inequality in politics – a world that is traditionally masculine –positive action measures have been implemented in several countries. An example of such a measure is the Parity Law, which was adopted in Portugal in 2006 and implemented with relative success in 2009. As a result of this law, there was a clear change in the...

http://cid.cig.gov.pt/Nyron/Library/Catalog/winlibimg.aspx?skey=3FC32B0402BC4C6AA5D37B72E8DB6241&doc=96289&img=140168

The article presents a research on the gender dynamics operating in a tokenism context: politics. Twenty- Two Portuguese female politicians were interviewed. Their strategies to get a place in the masculine world of politics is mainly determined by the age: Whereas the older women fight against gender discriminations and favor women's skills, the y...

Research in social and political psychology contributes towards understanding the persistence of job market gender segregation prevailing in recent decades, the consequences for those involved and their reactions when having to cope with gender inequality. Within the framework of the literature on shared ideologies that justify and legitimize discr...

Despite a progressive increase in the number of women in medicine, gender inequalities remain. This article presents a study analyzing the gender dynamics of tokenism in the medical field in Portugal, through the experiences of male specialists in female areas and female specialists in male areas and through their strategies for copingwith such sit...

A História tem privado as mulheres de exercerem a cidadania plena a vários níveis. Nas últimas décadas, com a consciência desta discriminação, a igualdade de género tornou-se um objetivo a atingir a nível internacional, levando a alterações na legislação e à implementação de medidas de ação positiva em diversos países do mundo. Estas conduziram um...

Sobreminorias em profissões marcadas pelo género: consequências e reações. Partindo de uma revisão da literatura sobre a persistente desigualdade de género que existe no mundo do trabalho nas sociedades ocidentais, este artigo analisa diferentes contextos profissionais historicamente restritos a mulheres ou a homens, com o objetivo de apurar se as...

This theoretical paper examined the intergroup dynamics and the social change, particularly in the case of the categories of sex and gender relations, in order to understand the persistence of discrimination and highlight the conditions that contribute to this. The article articulated different levels of analysis, especially at intergroup and ideol...

Women’s political under-representation is still a reality (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2010) and the literature has pointed out several factors to explain the origin of the gender inequality in this context. Affirmative action measures have been implemented in order to promote equality. However, these measures have generated great controversy, being...

Based on a literature review about the persistent gender inequality in the work environment in Western societies, this article analyzes different professional contexts historically restricted to women or men with the aim of determining whether women in professions dominated by men, and men in professions dominated by women, are subject to the same...

Drawing on the conceptualization of meritocracy as an illusion, we argue that perceptions of merit and fairness of sex quotas in politics are influenced by gender ideology, specifically gender symbolical asymmetry, which equates men with individuals and the universal reference of ‘person’, and women with a sexed category. A total of 311 Portuguese...

O reconhecimento da desigualdade de género na política tem conduzido à adoção de medidas de ação positiva a nível mundial, como é disso exemplo a Lei da Paridade aprovada em Portugal em 2006. Tal como noutros países, onde estas medidas foram adotadas, também em Portugal elas suscitaram controvérsia social, um terreno particularmente rico de análise...

Perante a desigualdade de género que existe na política em todo o mundo, nas últi-mas décadas têm sido implementadas medidas de ação positiva no sentido de promover a representação das mulheres, como foi o caso em Portugal, com a aprovação da Lei da Pari-dade, em 2006. Contudo, estas medidas têm gerado controvérsia, polarizando opiniões no debate p...

A política é um «mundo de homens». Perante esta realidade pouco democrática, têm sido adoptadas medidas de acção positiva para promover a representação das mulheres, como a Lei da Paridade, promulgada em 2006 em Portugal, mas não sem fortes controvérsias. Qual será a razão destas controvérsias? Por que se questiona o «mérito» das mulheres? Serão a...

Positive action measures have been created in order to promote equality in various decision-making contexts where some minority groups and women are typically under-represented worldwide. However, these measures have met great controversy between their opponents and proponents. Focusing on perceptions of justice, in this theoretical article we aim...

Positive action measures have been created in order to promote equality in various decision-making contexts where some minority groups and women are typically under-represented worldwide. However, these measures have met great controversy between their opponents and proponents. Focusing on perceptions of justice, in this theoretical article we aim...

A participação das mulheres nas esferas de decisão política é um tema de interesse crescente na investigação. Por um lado, devido à acentuada lentidão da evolução neste domínio na maior parte dos países da UE e nos EUA. Por outro, porque esta evolução não acompanha o progresso das mulheres ao nível da educação e da qualificação. Por essa razão, têm...

Resumo Nos debates suscitados pelas medidas específicas para combater a sub-representação das mulheres nas esferas de decisão política, tais como as quotas, verifica-se uma polarização das atitudes, contrapondo-se, em geral, o acesso por mérito individual ao acesso pela quota. A investigação apresentada neste artigo foi orientada pelos objectivos d...

Há uma desigualdade na política, em termos de representação de homens e mulheres, em praticamente todo o mundo (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2009). Para procurar combater a discriminação que existe face às mulheres têm sido criadas medidas de acção positiva. Contudo, estas têm gerado forte controvérsia, sobretudo devido ao princípio do mérito (Santos...

Em, aproximadamente, duas décadas, a epidemia da Síndrome de Imunodeficiência Adquirida (SIDA) terá feito mais de 11 milhões de mortos. Inicialmente, começou por se concentrar nos países ricos, sobretudo nos Estados Unidos da América, sendo esta nova "doença", considerada como uma doença dos ricos (Bastos, 2002; Costa, 1996; Costa & Lima, 1998; Lam...

A realização da entrevista ao Professor Jorge Correia Jesuino (JCJ) foi um processo colorido por várias nuances e por vários estados de espírito. Inicialmente, quando nos foi perguntado se estaríamos interessados em realizar esta entrevista, ficámos eufóricos. Afinal de contas, o professor é, para nós, jovens psicólogos sociais, uma referência, e e...

Apesar dos últimos anos terem sido muito importantes, em termos da generalização da cidadania política às mulheres, continua a haver um défice de género nesse contexto, a nível mundial (Inter-parliamentary Union, 2008; World Economic Forum, 2007). A literatura tem salientado vários factores que podem contribuir para esta realidade, desde factores s...

Esta investigación es un nuevo análisis de las relaciones entre la creencia en un mundo justo (BJW), la inocencia de la víctima y la persistencia del sufrimiento en la victimización secundaria. Estudios anteriores mostraron que la persistencia del sufrimiento de una víctima inocente incrementa la victimización secundaria de los sujetos con alta BJW...