Women in the Estado Novo – the “fairy of the family home”

The Estado Novo expected women to be essentially “fairies of the home” and “pillars of the family”, in other words, dedicated wives, extreme mothers and exemplary housewives.

These were the roles that appeared in the narratives disseminated by the National Propaganda Secretariat (SPN) and in the speeches of the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar. In fact, this ideology, inspired by conservative Catholic morals, confined women to the domestic sphere and forbade them from playing any role in the public sphere. However, the reality experienced in the country was very different and diverged significantly from this idealistic portrayal of the situation of women in society.

The Constitution of the Estado Novo, which lasted from 1933 until the April 1974 Revolution, established the subordinate role of women in society, in line with the Civil Code in force, dating from 1867. In Article 5, which set out the principle of equality between citizens under the law, an exception was made: women were denied the right to hold public office due to their biological differences and their fundamental role in the well-being of the family. In other words, from 1933 onwards, women’s ability to work outside the home was severely restricted (also by the National Labour Statute of the same year).

This exception had far-reaching social implications, perpetuating a notion of women’s inferiority and relegating them to a secondary role in society and the family structure, in a legacy that continues to outline our understanding of gender roles in the 21st century.

The everyday reality: working women

Whether in the countryside or in the cities, Portuguese women have always worked in addition to their domestic activities, contradicting the image promoted by the Estado Novo.

From the early 1960s onwards, the increase in male emigration and the colonial war amplified the obligation for women to work to support the family. The women who didn’t have the necessity to work – inside or outside the home – belonged to the families of the regime’s economic and social elite.

In their interviews, the three invited guests mention the diversity of women’s professions in the various regions of Portugal during the Estado Novo period.

In coastal areas, the most common professions were associated with maritime and fishing activities; inland, agriculture and farming dominated, complemented by handicrafts; in cities, women worked in factories, hospitals, services and commerce; in border areas, they also collaborated with their partners in activities related to smuggling.

In the coastal areas, women were a fundamental part of fishing activities. Although they weren’t usually part of the crews that set out to sea, they helped transport the boats to shore and repair the nets, and they were the ones who sold the fish, dried it and worked in the canning industry.

In some localities, women were also involved in handicrafts, such as the hats and baskets made by the women of Aveiro and the bobbin lace made by the women of Vila do Conde and Peniche.

In the fields of the Alentejo, women worked harvesting cereals and picking olives. In the Ribatejo, it was the rice cycle that occupied them. In the Douro and Minho, vineyard work predominated, and in Trás-os-Montes and the Beiras, agricultural labour was joined by pastoral work. In the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores, the cultivation of tea and tobacco was not done without female labour. In other words, in all regions of the country, women worked hard and shared the hardship of agricultural labour and difficult living conditions with the rest of the family.

Since the end of the 19th century, Lisbon and Porto have been the two Portuguese cities with the largest number of manufacturing units. In the case of Lisbon, the factories were distributed throughout the city, with a greater concentration in the Alcântara area and in the eastern part. In the coastal regions of the country, north of the Mondego River and in the Algarve, there were several canning factories, and in the Beira interior area there were important manufacturing centers linked to textile production.

The professions considered appropriate by the Estado Novo for the supposedly fragile and maternal nature of women were, as you can imagine, those that could be related to these characteristics: governesses, servants, nurses and teachers.

Throughout the ages, and in different societies and cultures, the “home” has been an invisible workspace for women and, paradoxically, a space of some freedom and power.

As the popular saying goes, “She’s in charge at home, but I’m in charge of her”. As well as managing household and family affairs, the home was also the place where they could carry out other activities, such as sewing, which allowed them to contribute to the family economy. Social acceptance of women’s ‘natural’ aptitude for domestic tasks was built on religious views, political convictions and reinforced by the exclusion that women suffered for many centuries in terms of access to education. Unfortunately, in some parts of the world, this is still the situation experienced by many girls and women.

The working woman in today’s Portugal

What is the impact of the feminine ideal promoted by the Estado Novo over 48 years on Portuguese society in the new millennium? In what way are the differences in salary that continue to exist between men and women, as well as the lack of recognition of domestic tasks, still impregnated and perpetuating this conservative ideology? In addition to these questions, there are others related to sexual harassment and the difficulty women have in reaching management positions in the country’s economic and political spheres. What are the “labours” of Portuguese women today?