Seven women at the top of politics in 50 years of democracy

Fifty years after April 25, democracy has brought two women to the highest positions in the state, as prime minister and president of parliament, and five women to the leadership of political parties, two of them currently in power.

Assunção Estevez, elected President of the Assembly of the Republic in 2011, and Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, appointed Prime Minister of the V Constitutional Government in 1979, reached the highest hierarchy in the state.

The fingers of one hand count those who have reached the leadership of parties with parliamentary representation: Manuela Ferreira Leite was the first, presiding over the PSD in 2008, Catarina Martins began by coordinating the BU on a parity model with João Semedo, and later acted alone, and the list is completed by Assunção Cristas, who headed the CDS-PP, Ines de Souza Real, who heads the PAN, and Mariana Mortagua, the current coordinator of the Bloc.

When Mariana Mortagua succeeded Catarina Martins in 2023, BE became the only Portuguese party to have one woman succeed another as leader.

“In Portuguese society there is a cross-sectional conservatism on the left and right, this conservatism has very different ideological and propositional expressions on the right and left, but it still exists on the left and right. There is a problem with the representation of women on both spectrums, and both the left and the right have abandoned quotas,” Mariana Mortagua told Lusa about the parity law approved in 2006, which was opposed by the PCP.

The BE coordinator says it will take time for this to have a greater impact, but he stresses that “women are more represented because of quotas” and there is public opinion that raises concerns about women’s representation in government, an area not covered by legislation.

“In large parties, the leaders of the lists are men, which means that, as a rule, more men are elected, and quotas do not oblige women to occupy prominent and powerful positions,” he noted.

According to PAN representative Ines de Souza Real, some of these problems can be solved through changes to the law that the party will propose “to ensure parity in the highest positions”, emphasizing that “more than 70% of the PAN electorate are women”, and that the party put forward women-led lists in Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal.

Ines de Souza Real also admits that the adoption of the law takes more time: “A rough example is what happened during the pandemic. It was the women who had to take care of the children.”

The PAN leader also points out other biases associated with gender roles, which she believes increase the likelihood that a woman will be insulted, judged by her appearance or even receive death threats on social media, as she recently experienced, an incident which we will begin the trial.

Mariana Mortagua believes that there is a “tendency towards politicians being judged more on the basis of their personal qualities, which affects both men and women, bringing into politics a type of assessment that was unique to women,” but they are receiving “a different focus.” , about “clothing and appearance, and above all about the attitude in which aggression towards women is still not tolerated.”

The only woman to head the government of Portugal, Maria de Lourdes Pintacilgo, did so by appointment of the President of the Republic, Ramalho Eanes, whose constitutional option no longer exists.

Within five months he headed 18 ministers, all men.

In 2011, after Fernando Nobre failed in the elections, the PSD put forward the name of Assunção Estevez, who became the first woman to head the Assembly of the Republic, and so far the only one.

On that June day, Assunsan Estevez dedicated her election to “all women, political women who bring to the public space the value of devotion and love, but above all to anonymous and oppressed women,” and promised to do “every day to strive for the historical redemption of the circumstances of these women .