WOMEN IN PORTUGAL

Abstract

It is impossible to understand the situation of women in Portugal without a knowledge of women's role in Portuguese society in the past, particularly during the last 50 years of Salazar's regime. During this period the problem of the role of women as such was never officially recognized. In the same way as Mussolini, Salazar only considered women in terms of their role as mothers and never as women, citizens or workers. The few women's organizations which did exist were either forbidden or abolished. To 'substitute' for them, associations were created and controlled as part of the Catholic Church, for example the Obra das Maes (Mothers' Circles), the function of which was to teach young women cooking, childcare and home economics. During the last decade of the regime women began to contribute significantly to the forces of production. Simultaneously, more women began attending institutions of higher education. This development was due on the one hand, to the absence of a large part of the male population away fighting in colonial wars, and on the other to the progressive industrialization of the country and in particular the emergence of multinationals in search of cheap labour power. These were, in general terms, the social conditions under which the Revolution of 25 April 1974 took place. Since all information was censored, we had had no contact whatsoever with any of the international women's movements. The only information published in the press with respect to the struggle of women in other countries referred to events such as 'bra burning', which became the subject of continuous ridicule. This situation was moreover reinforced by a series of laws which guaranteed the discrimination of women. Sex discrimination was a constitutional principle. For example, according to the Penal Code, a husband who killed his wife for being unfaithful to him was merely sentenced to spending three months outside his province (a prison sentence did not apply). According to the Family Code, the husband was sole head of the household, holding all authority over wife and children. The wife in turn was not allowed to work or to leave the country with her children without the husband's permission; domestic work, moreover, was compulsory after marriage, and divorce for Catholics was illegal. The level of women's educational attainment was and still is one of the lowest. Illiteracy is still widespread in Portugal today and almost 80 per cent of all illiterates are women.