Political culture and gender inequality in Parliament and Governments. Portugal from a comparative perspective

There are several political and professional challenges in democratic political culture which, despite evidence of their existence, remain at a secondary level. This is the case with gender distribution across the main top careers in general, and in particular, those within the political sphere. Despite the important steps already taken, particularly from a neoliberal perspective and discussion, the number of women who reach prominent positions in political careers is still disproportionally small. However, can we say that we are in a reversing cycle process, in structural terms, with regard to the dominance of men in leadership and top positions, in political (and several other) institutions, such as Parliaments and Governments? In this contribution we selected the role of political culture and political socialization as the root and enhancer of gender differences in the attribution of top political positions, considering the case of Portugal in a European comparative perspective.Following Dalton and Welzel (2014), we defend that we are experiencing a deeply rooted change in political and civic culture. In this regard, the structural transformation, from an allegiant to a critical and assertive attitude and behaviour tends to be an important step towards a more balanced gender assimilation. In other words, assertiveness is one of the attitudes and concepts that may reinforce social and political integration and participation into the democratic system. This study follows a cross-cultural perspective, concerning the leading political careers’ in terms of gender distribution, in the EU concerning the leading political careers in terms of gender distribution in the countries of the EU. Following this perspective, we defend the relevance of cultural and socio-economic structures, as mediated and reinforced by mass communication processes on a global scale. Regarding the context of analysis, we aim to respond to the following question: are we experiencing a reversing cycle in structural terms, with regard to the dominance of men in leadership and top positions in institutions? With these issues and question in mind, we aim to discuss the role and influence of political culture and political socialization on the access to a political career, using the Portuguese case in a comparative perspective.