Tourism is crucial for the Portuguese economy. But what are the numbers behind tourism employment in Portugal? This article analyzes employment in two tourism characteristic activities, namely accommodation services and travel agencies and tour operators. A matched employer-employee data set is used. Despite having higher levels of education, women are more prevalent in low qualified jobs, while men are more likely to hold executive and management positions. Moreover, women's pay is consistently lower. It is also concluded that the accommodation sector and the travel sector have very distinct characteristics. It is suggested that future studies analyze the sectors in a disaggregated way.

Tourism is a predominantly a female economic activity. However, it is still men who prevail at the top. Studies on women as managers usually focus on the “glass ceiling,” i.e., the invisible barriers that hamper qualified women from reaching high-level positions. Hence, by leaving women who are “above the glass ceiling” unanalyzed, it is implicitly assumed by researchers that these women are in a position where gender is no longer an issue. To counteract this tendency, this exploratory study focuses on women top-level managers in tourism organizations. It aims to analyze how these women perceive the influence of gendering processes and gender power relations on their own careers and on women's careers in general in the field. It uses a feminist and qualitative methodological approach. The interviewees acknowledge how gender power relations and persisting gendering processes still affect them, even if they have reached a top position. It is concluded that there are lingering gender issues “above the glass ceiling,” and not only on the way to the top. Reaching a top-level management position does not remove the issue of gender from women's professional lives.

In this article we discuss changes in the relationships among gender, paid work, and unpaid work in Portugal in the context of the European Union. Based on a research program developed since 1997 on the relationship between family and work, and exploring data from several national and international surveys, such as the European Social Survey, the analyses focus on several topics: changes in demographic indicators; the substantial growth of women's participation, especially mothers, in the labor market; paid work, unpaid work, the welfare state, and existing policies; care solutions and arrangements and social networks; the relationship between women's activity rates and fertility rates, women's attachment to work, and finally, values and attitudes about work and family life. The main goal was to understand and explain specific features of the Portuguese case in a European comparative perspective.

Social capital captures the value of relationships. Although research has examined social capital among adults, comparatively little attention has been paid to social capital among young adults—particularly from a longitudinal and mixed-methods perspective. As social capital predicts educational achievement, employment, and psychosocial well-being, it is an important construct to study alongside youth transition(s). Following a Bourdieusian approach, we define social capital as the resources potentially available in our ties that can be mobilized when necessary. To examine social capital in transition to adulthood, we draw on survey (n = 1,650, at ages 17 and 21) and interview (n = 70, at age 24) data from a cohort of Portuguese youth. We study the two main dimensions of social capital: bonding and bridging. Survey data were analyzed with latent class modeling, logistic regressions, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and interviews with thematic analysis. Findings show that respondents reported receiving more emotional support than financial support from their networks, but that both types of support increased over time. Perceived bonding and bridging also changed positively in transition to adulthood. In addition, gender and parental education predicted bonding and bridging. We contextualize these results with qualitative meanings and experiences of social capital.

How can we explain that same-sex marriages have been approved in countries like Portugal (2010) and Spain (2005), where the majority of the population identifies with the catholic religion, when they are not recognised in countries with more liberal traditions? Assessing social, economic and legal changes this paper aims to explain the transformations on family, gender and public policies in Portugal in the context of the welfarestate. Two main lines of analysis are pursued. First, changes in practices, attitudes and laws, such as the approval of gay marriage in Portugal (2010), are discussed and related to social, economic and institutional processes. The remarkable fall of catholic marriage in Portugal and the huge growth of children born out of the wedlock, just in one decade (2000–2010), are only some of the examples of these transformations. Secondly, the development of social, family, care and gender equality policies are analysed in order to put the welfare pathway of change in perspective: from a late start in the 1970s and 1980s to the expanding coverage, highlighting welfare-state insufficiencies and limitations as well as, more recently, with ideological and financial pressures for retrenchment. Bridges and troubled relations between social practises, values and public policies are also debated. Our research results are based in data from several sources, namely, European Social Survey (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010), Eurostat and National Statistics.