Portugal

Portugal, roughly the size of Indiana, borders the North Atlantic Ocean in southwestern Europe, west of Spain. At 1.49 children per mother, Portugal has one of the world's lowest fertility rates. As women have increased educational attainment, many have chosen to postpone motherhood and have fewer children to balance family and work life. Mothers have 120 days of paid maternity leave and 30 days of family sick leave; paternity leave is 20 days. Grandparents often care for grandchildren. Teen pregnancy rates are above the average for the European Union. Of the 20 percent of marriages that end in divorce, Portuguese divorce law allows joint custody. A single parent heads 11.5 percent of families.

Many Portuguese believe that women fulfill themselves as mothers. Women are traditionally responsible for the house and children, but gender roles are shifting due to industrialization and the 1974 political revolution, which ended 50 years of fascist rule during which women were primarily confined to their role as housewives, and the husband could decide and direct all family matters. The fascist state banned the educational rights of women, divorce, and contraception; however, after the revolution, the 1976 Socialist Constitution legalized divorce and contraception. Constitutional amendments in 1997 recognized women's right to reconcile professional and family life. As of 2001, couples who have lived together for more than two years are legally recognized regardless of sexual orientation, and lesbian couples gained the right to adopt and use artificial insemination. Among younger Portuguese, stereotypical family gender roles are less distinct. Nine years of education is compulsory; girls' secondary enrollment is 86 percent.

Portugal is predominantly Roman Catholic, and religious themes infuse childcare, birth, fertility, and contraception. The Catholic Church strongly opposed abortion, which was approved in 2007. Two-thirds of women in union use birth control, with the pill the preferred method. The creation of a National Health Service in the 1970s made free health care accessible to pregnant women. Most births take place in the hospital.

Mothers Maria Isabel Barreno de Faria Martins, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho da Costa were arrested and charged with “outrage to public decency” after the release of their book, The Three Marias: New Portuguese Letters in 1972, a story of women seeking freedom for themselves and their country. The fascist government was overthrown before the verdict, and the authors were acquitted.