Portugal

The democratic revolution of 1974 brought Portuguese women a different status and new spheres of social participation. However, the conservative residue in Portuguese society is still affecting women's lives in terms of health, employment, and access to full citizenship. Several aspects characterize the reproductive health situation of Portuguese women. Although women's average maternity age has been increasing, mainly as a result of their strong presence in the job market, Portugal is still one of the countries in the European Union with the highest rate of teenage pregnancy. This may be due to a dearth of information on reproductive issues as well as by the cultural importance of the Catholic Church in the country. Nevertheless, there has been a steady increase in the use of contraceptives by Portuguese women, 85 percent of whom used some contraceptive method in 2007.

Another aspect affecting women's health is availability of abortion. Until 2007, abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy was illegal except for certain specific circumstances. This made women revert to clandestine abortions, the main cause of maternal death until then. The liberalization of abortion laws had been greatly debated by political parties, nongovernmental [Page 1125]organizations and the general population over the previous 10 years and involved the active struggle of many women. The official antiabortion position of the Catholic Church and the media coverage of the trials of women involved in illegal abortions in 2001 and 2004 contributed substantially to both sides of the argument.

Portuguese law explicitly recognizes the right to equal opportunities at work and considers sexual discrimination a serious offence. Such a progressive law could explain why Portuguese women have a higher rate of employment within the European Union. However, their wide participation in the job market should be further justified by the rapid growth of the service sector, women's access to higher education, and the average standard of living of the Portuguese family, which is one of the lowest in the Union.

Despite the law, Portuguese women experience gender discrimination in the job market. Not only are women the majority of nonqualified workers, but women who are highly qualified are more likely to follow careers in intellectual fields. Thus they tend to be underrepresented in the higher ranks of the public sector or private companies. In addition, women suffer with unemployment more than men because they are often subject to precarious working contracts. Consequently, they are less protected by social welfare and more exposed to poverty. There also is pay discrimination: in 2004 women earned 80 percent of what men earned.

Although most Portuguese women share job responsibilities with their male partners, the same does not happen in the domestic sphere, where there is still a gender asymmetry. As a result, women often balance a paying job with domestic responsibilities and family care. This situation has restricted women's civic and political participation.

Despite these drawbacks, Portuguese society is gradually changing. Important steps have been taken toward women's emancipation and empowerment in several spheres of the public life (e.g., the 2006 parity law, concerning mixed gender representation in political party lists) and education, namely in terms of access to further education, where women are largely more represented than men.

...