Women in Positions of Power in Portugal: Contradictory Positions and Discourses

This work discusses the discourses some women in positions of leadership in Portugal used to describe their modes of life and professional paths, and argues that women are in contradictory positions because they occupy positions which are still traditionally associated with men, either in practical terms or in terms of stereotyped expectations. Even though Portugal underwent a sudden process of democratization and defined an egalitarian legislation for both men and women approximately 30 years ago, there are still many inequalities associated with gender. First, this article presents the political and historical context of the country and succinctly explains the general contemporary status of women in Portugal. The second part provides a discourse analysis of the interviews carried out with women in managerial and leadership positions in Portugal, revealing two common discourses about women managers. One exalts personal female competencies and assumes non‐discrimination and the other takes discrimination as a given and presents the possibility that personal competencies are acquired through confrontations with discrimination. The article concludes with the theoretical and political consequences of using these two types of discourse: they affect not only the women who were interviewed, but also society in general and Portuguese feminist activism in particular.