Women under Salazar's Dictatorship

Abstract

This article addresses Salazarism's attitudes towards women and women's organizations, providing some elements that may be used in comparisons with the other dictatorships (e.g. Italian Fascism) that inspired, to some extent, some of the Portuguese New State's institutions.If the southern European dictatorships of the inter-war period have anything in common, it is their attitudes towards women (Bock and Cova 2003). Initiated during a period of democratization, of the emergence of feminist movements, and the significant increase of women in the labour market, all of these dictatorships paid homage to 'women at home', and glorified 'motherhood' and the family in its primordial function (Offen 2000;Bock 2001). These dictatorships were at the same time confronted with the 'problem' of the integration of women into politics. Some elevated this function to a nationalist goal and an important means of mobilizing their regimes.

Gender and Politics in Portugal

“…In fact, although many women participated in the struggle against the dictatorship, scholars agree that there was no important public mobilisation in defence of women's rights during the dictatorship (Cova and Costa Pinto, 2002). However, several women's groups (feminist or not) flourished in Portugal throughout and after the democratic transition (Tavares, 2000).…”

Tourism, gender and consumer culture in late- and post-authoritarian Portugal

“…Despite the absence of a feminist movement, women were also experiencing the winds of change. The growing number of women working outside the home challenged the views of propaganda organisations such as the Mothers’ Work for National Education (OMEN) and the Feminine Portuguese Youth, both established in the 1930s, which confined women to the household and the ‘natural’ roles of wife and mother (Cova and Pinto, 2002: 131–2; Pimentel, 2001). Likewise, the influence of the Catholic Church did not prevent young women from keeping up with international fashion trends, such as wearing trousers, miniskirts, short hair cuts and, increasingly, bikinis.…”

“…There was a double standard regarding what men and women could do, not least as far as premarital sex was concerned. Yet, Portugal had one of the highest illegitimate birth rates in Europe (Cova and Pinto, 2002: 130), and abortion, though a taboo and a crime, was a widespread practice. The introduction of the pill in 1962, albeit restricted to therapeutic, rather than contraceptive, uses (Tavares, 2008: 186), was a sign that it was becoming difficult to avoid (and censor) the debate over sex and the woman’s condition.…”

Mulheres cineastas portuguesas e o estado novo. Da invisibilidade à memória cultural

“…Este artigo tem como objetivo oferecer uma perspetiva geral sobre a presença (ou melhor, a ausência) de cineastas mulheres durante o período do Estado Novo. Se, por um lado, a situação das cineastas portuguesas deve ser enquadrada no contexto da ideologia do regime em relação às mulheres (Cova & Pinto 2002), por outro, não podemos ignorar o contexto mais amplo da presença/ ausência de mulheres cineastas no cinema durante o século XX. Assim, a questão será enquadrada em trabalhos anteriores dedicados à questão das mulheres e do cinema num contexto mais amplo (cf.…”

“…Translated by the author of the article.9 In relation to the ideology of domesticity of the regime, cf Pimentel (2001),Cova and Pinto (2002)…”