Currently, women journalists in Portugal form 41 per cent of the total (2,094 out of 5,124) cohort or journalists with men forming the remaining 59 per cent (3,030 out of 5,124) (CCPJ, 2020). But the percentages change if we look at younger groups: 57 per cent of journalists between 20 and 40 years are women, with 43 per cent male journalists. Accordingly, there is a clear majority of male journalists if we look at older groups: 64 per cent of journalists between 40 and 70 years old are men, 36 per cent are women. The trend is clearly changing in favour of women, as can be seen in journalism schools, where female students are the overwhelming majority. In the news media in our sample, no one has specific rules or internal formal orientations in order to guarantee a balanced newsroom in terms of gender. However, all the editors we interviewed claim that is not an issue and there is no discrimination at all, be it in terms of professional careers or of pay. The fact is all these seven editors-in-chief are men, although there are women in their managing teams and many women in intermediate managing positions too. The increasingly important presence of women journalists in the Portuguese newsrooms is not reflected in leading positions.
Regarding gender issues in general, it’s important to refer to a law approved in 2018 (law nr. 60/2018), which defined a series of measures to promote equality of payment between men and women (“equal pay for equal work”), with an obligation for companies to make regular reports on similar opportunities for both sexes (Assembleia da República, 2018). These similar opportunities, together with non-discrimination of payment, are part of the Labour Code in use in the country and are mandatory for companies in general. At the same time, a Commission for Equality in Work and Employment was created with the mandate to observe these issues and to receive eventual complaints by workers being discriminated against.
The government also decided to publish an annual barometer of gender discrimination. The first one was published in June 2019, with data gathered through 2017, and showed that the “gender pay gap” was 14.8 per cent. This refers to the difference between the average pay for men and women, in general, national terms, regardless of sector, level of qualification, or seniority in the job. If these items are taken into account, there is still a gender pay gap of 11.2 per cent in favour of men. There was not much difference in the data gathered in 2018 for the same barometer, the gender gap reduced from 14.8 per cent to 14.4 per cent, always in favour of men. In terms of money, the difference results in average monthly pay of EUR 1,034.9 for men and EUR 886.0 for women – a difference of EUR 148.9 per month. The barometer shows a bigger gender gap in highly qualified jobs (20.9%) and in senior management positions (27.3%). The situation in Portugal is slightly better than the situation in the European Union countries, where the gender pay gap stood, on average, at 16 per cent in 2017 (EIGE, 2019). There are big differences in European countries, ranging from a minimum of 3.5 per cent in Romania to a maximum of 25.6 per cent in Estonia.
There is no specific data about gender gaps in media. But two studies show us the situation in public television (RTP) and the public news agency (Lusa). The report from RTP, called Report for gender equality, citizenship and non-discrimination (RTP, 2019), refers to 2019 and focuses on a total of 1,709 workers, of which 1,026 are men and 683 are women. The larger professional category of journalists (jornalista – redactor) has 371 people (201 women and 170 men). In terms of pay, there is a slight gap in favour of men: the average monthly pay in the whole company (including journalists and non-journalists) is EUR 2,547.32 for men and EUR 2,419.48 for women, which the board considers “not a significant discrepancy” The conclusions in the report from the national news agency Lusa are different (Casaca et al., 2019). In a total of 186 journalists (2018 data), 98 are women and 88 are men. 66.72 per cent of male journalists do not have any leading position (editor, deputy editor, coordinator, etc.), but this percentage goes up to 73.20 per cent when it comes to female journalists. The pay gap is also relatively higher as the average monthly pay is 18.06 per cent lower for female journalists than for male (EUR 2,170.69 vs. EUR 2,649.04). The report suggests that this gap happens because there are some discrepancies in terms of gender within the same professional categories and because women occupy positions less associated with higher pay. It seems that promotions in professional careers tend to be faster for men than for women. Only 5 per cent of women hold positions in the highest levels of their profession, compared to 22 per cent of men. And the same occurs with leading management positions: 26.35 per cent of women journalists occupy those positions, against 34.09 per cent of men. Because such positions usually involve some extra pay, the gender gap tends to be bigger.
In recent years, Portugal has taken some legal measures to guarantee more equality in terms of gender. In politics for example, since 2019, all lists of candidates in elections for the Parliament, for the European Parliament, or for municipal councils must have a minimum of 40 per cent of women and of men (the previous limits of the “parity gender law” were 33%). These same limits also apply, since 2019, to the appointment of senior management positions in the Civil Service. Now at least 40 per cent must be women compared to 32 per cent in 2015 and 37 per cent in 2018. In public companies managed by the state, boards must also include at least 33.3 per cent of women, according to a law approved in 2018 (Governo, 2019).
The positive evolution of Portugal in this issue can be confirmed in some international rankings, such as the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE, 2019) When compared with the EU countries, Portugal ranks 16th in the European Institute for Gender Equality list, with 59.9/100 (less 7.5 than EU average). It improved 5 points between 2015 and 2019. “Portugal is moving towards gender equality at a faster rate than the EU, narrowing the distance to the EU’s scores over time”.
