Gender Equality: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of Social Representations on Existing Practices and Dynamics in Four Municipalities of Baixo Alentejo, Portugal

Abstract

Portugal assumed gender equality as one of its strategic priorities in the process of implementing the 2030 Agenda – Sustainable Development Goals. Although strategies and actions have increased and diversified over the years, the latest official reports reveal that equality between men and women in several fields does not go beyond a formal status.

The qualitative study developed explores and characterizes the social representations of local key actors on the meaning, domains and practices and dynamics to promote gender equality in four municipalities of Baixo Alentejo, taking five local action framework documents and nine in-depth interviews as sources.

With the combined use of T-Lab and webQDA software tools (Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software), a thematic content analysis was carried out on the corpus formed by: 1) the textual sections related to gender equality contained in the documents and 2) the transcriptions of responses. The most repeated keywords were identified with T-Lab and a “word association” analysis was performed. With webQDA, the thematic content analysis was organized by categories and subcategories which allowed the structuring elements of the social representations on gender equality that emerged from the analysed corpus to be identified and interpreted.

The analysis reveals an incomplete approach to gender equality in terms of local practices and dynamics, as the intervention is mainly focused on domestic violence. Despite the normative framework and policy guidelines, most key actors lack knowledge regarding some gender equality problems and domains and fail to identify evidences of inequality, which negatively influences the implemented action plans.