The experiences of lesbian women in medical encounters prove particularly relevant for understanding their difficulties in their relationship with professionals and health services. We carried out semistructured interviews with 30 women aged 21 to 63 years, who define themselves as lesbian. The analysis highlights the difficulties experienced in disclosure of sexuality in medical encounters, the tendency for doctors to come across as heteronormative, and also medical practices experienced as appropriate by interviewees. Analysis of participant experiences demonstrates the need for reflection and decision making to promote the recognition of the sexual citizenship of lesbian women and their empowerment.

Durante décadas, no pensamento e nas práticas das ciências da saúde e da psicologia a sexualidade lésbica foi associada à patologia. Ao longo do século XX, este posicionamento modificou-se. Este trabalho analisa essas mudanças numa reflexão teórica focada no domínio da saúde das lésbicas, no qual predominam as concepções e práticas heteronormativas e heterossexistas, tanto na investigação como na prestação de cuidados. Através de uma contextualização crítica da literatura, identificamos as necessidades específicas das lésbicas, questionamos as intervenções dos profissionais e serviços de saúde e propomos medidas de ação concretas de promoção da saúde e de erradicação da desigualdade e discriminação.

Workers’ perception that their job experience enriches their family life has been considered a mechanism that explains their positive attitudes toward the organization where they work. However, because women and men live their work and family differently, gender may condition this relationship between the work-family enrichment and workers’ attitudes. With a sample of 1885 workers from one Portuguese bank, with 802 women, the current study investigated the relationship between work-family enrichment and organizational affective commitment as well as the role of sex as a moderator of this relationship. The hypotheses were tested by using regression analysis. The results indicated that the perception held by workers that their work enriches their family is positively correlated with their affective commitment toward the organization. Furthermore, the data revealed that this relationship is stronger for women than for men. Study results have implications for management, particularly for human resource management, enhancing their knowledge about the relationship of work-family enrichment and workers’ affective commitment toward organization.

This study sets out to analyze the negative effects of tokenism among a group of Portuguese female firefighters alongside the strategies they adopt to integrate into a male majority professional context and inherently associated with masculinity. Individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with nine men and nine women before their content was subject to thematic analysis. The results confirm how, in the context of the work performed by firefighters, there is a clear differentiation between the genders, with women both being more visible and leading to conformity to depicting stereotypical femininity. In order to fit in, female firefighters attempt to replicate the attitudes of their male colleagues, demonstrate high standards of performance, and tone down any expression of perceivably feminine characteristics.

This study analysed the gender dynamics prevailing in the context of early childhood education in Portugal. We sought to observe whether early childhood educators experience the negative consequences associated with tokens and the possible emergence of phenomena related to the social construction of masculinity. The thematic analysis of the contents of 14 semi-structured individual interviews with early childhood educators originated six themes and highlighted the specificity of the professional insertion of men. The experiences and strategies described by the male interviewees and perceived by the female interviewees highlight the effects of the social construction of masculinity and confirm part of the effects of their status as tokens, although differently to the ways revealed by studies focused on women in this situation.

Resumo Este estudo analisou as dinâmicas de gênero no contexto da educação de infância, em Portugal. Procurámos observar se os homens educadores de infância vivenciam as consequências negativas associadas aos tokens e a possível emergência de fenômenos relacionados com a construção social da masculinidade. A análise temática dos conteúdos de 14 entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas com educadores/as de infância originou seis temas e evidenciou a especificidade da inserção profissional dos homens. As vivências e as estratégias descritas pelos entrevistados e percecionadas pelas entrevistadas evidenciam os efeitos da construção social da masculinidade e confirmam parte dos efeitos do seu estatuto de tokens, ainda que de modo distinto ao revelado pelos estudos centrados nas mulheres nessa situação.