President Marcelo marks day saying there is still a lot more to be achieved
International Women’s Day falls today; teachers are striking in its support and politicians are all paying respects to women who they say are still a long way from being treated ‘equally’.
In a message on his official website, President Marcelo declared: “much remains to be achieved in this area”.
Celebrating International Women’s Day in 2024 is about “celebrating the path towards equality that has been travelled in the five decades since April (Portugal’s 1974 Revolution, April 25), but the country is ‘not there yet’.
Marcelo “especially remembers all the women who, by their example, represent a beacon in the fight for gender equality in Portugal, both in the public and private spheres”, evoking the “women who defend causes such as access to all professions, equal pay, representation in leadership positions and in politics, the fight against gender violence and protection in situations of physical and/or psychological violence, access to education, the defence of the rights of minorities where women are also the least protected, and non-discrimination”.
Over social media, Portugal’s ‘outgoing’ minister for foreign affairs João Gomes Cravinho warns that “in the international context of great tensions, instability, wars, we should take even more care that questions of gender equality do not become invisible”.
Seeking to ensure this are 11 marches already planned for the day in Aveiro, Barcelos, Braga, Coimbra, Évora, Faro, Guimarães, Leiria, Lisboa, Porto and Viseu.
Meantime, media outlets have focused on the scourge of domestic violence in Portugal, and the rising numbers of victims requesting assistance from APAV (the Portuguese association for the Support of Victims).
According to APAV, it has helped more than 31,000 victims of domestic violence (invariably women) in the last three years, an increase in numbers of 22%.
Already this year – only in its 3rd month – six women have been murdered by their partners/ former partners.
