Gender in Higher Education: Portuguese Landscape

Abstract

This chapter presents the Portuguese gender landscape in HE. Since the turn of the century, the number of female students entering HE is higher than the male (55% in 2018), both in public and private institutions. Consequently, from 2008 onwards, there are more females with master and PhD degrees than males. In terms of the disciplinary areas, the situation is different. We witness, since 2008, to a male predominate in science, math and computational science as well as in the more traditional areas of engineering. Regarding employability, male graduates have more favourable conditions than females. Despite the higher number of females with PhDs, this is not yet reflected in the distribution of teachers, which is still outnumbered by males. Only four women (13%) lead higher education institutions (University of Évora, ISCTE-IUL, Catholic University and IPCA) and, less than 30% hold management positions. Regarding career progression, only one in four full contract professors is female and one in three is an associate professor. The results published by the European project SAGE - Systemic Action for Gender in May 2019 indicate that in Portugal, in the 15 universities that comprise the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP) and in the 15 institutions of the Coordinating Council of the Polytechnic Institutes (CCISP) are almost always the men who decide. Some projects, described in the chapter, are being carried out in Portuguese HE institutions in order to introduce practices expected to correct the still prevalent glass ceiling syndrome.