Portugal ranks among the best countries in the world in terms of the working environment for women.
According to The Economist, Portugal scores well in terms of women's education and participation in the labor market, but falls short in terms of parental leave. In this index Portugal was in 12th place in 2016 and is now in 6th position, only behind Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and France.
Each year, to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, the Economists crunches the numbers on ten indicators—from labour-force participation and salaries to paid parental leave and political representation—for 29 members of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries.
Since they started in 2013 the pace of change has been glacial, but in most places things are at least moving in the right direction. This chart below shows where women’s professional opportunities are greatest relative to those of men.
Portugal has also come a long way and leads in a range of indicators in STEM areas, including the aggregate number of women in science – particularly for early career researchers. Women represent nearly 50% of active authors in Portugal, and the country shows the largest percentage increase across Europe in women’s representation: an impressive 10% over the last two decades.
Gender in the Portugal Research Arena: a Case Study in European Leadership offers a data-led look at the dynamics underlying Portugal’s leading edge. At the same time, it points to persisting gender gaps in research that require stronger transformative efforts, and it reveals how these gaps tend to mimic and perpetuate structural inequalities between women and men