I was doing some research of the portfolios of the Portuguese government and found out something they can really not be proud about. Yes, it’s gender balance. The current Socialist government is composed of 15 men and 2 women. And guess the portfolios the two female Ministers handle…Easy one: education and culture. Not that I question their knowledge on those two, but for sure Portugal has capable and – in this case – Socialist women that could run other areas as well…
See the glamurous composition here.
Marko Bucik 
Isn’t it the same number as the female ministers in the Slovenian government? (http://www.uvi.si/eng/government/ministers/ )
yes, there might be 2 issues here:
1) the Portuguese is a socialist government
2) there are more important and less important portfolios…
on the portfolio…well, for me education is the most important portfolio you can have, others might think the opposite but 5 seconds of reflection are enough to see its importance…call me naive…
And on the socialist aspect, in Spain the application of the parity of genders in the government has worked out very well, and after some initial criticism, now our female Vice-President has proved to be one of the best members of the government… but I think on this Portugal is unfortunately still lagging behind… let´s reflect for a second on the abortion referendum some weeks ago…socialist does not mean the same everywhere
BTW, can some Slovenian explain what does your Minister without portfolio do?
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The Law on Government of the Republic of Slovenia (ZVRS-UPB1) says that the minister without portfolio “helps the Prime Minister in coordinating the work of ministers or ministries, within the mandate given to him by the Prime Minister�.
So you see, a very vague formulation that basically allows various interpretations. But, from what I can remember, most ministers without portfolio so far were
a) men
b) supporting the ruling party
c) not doing much substantial work
And on the importance of education, I totally agree with you Saray.
The Portuguese case will soon show whether the two female ministers are doing a good job: with better educated people having more (political) culture the next mandate will perhaps be more gender-balanced. So let’s hope the two ladies perform well! 😉
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Thanks Klavdija, very concrete:)
Saray: very good comment indeed and I would wish this was the motivation behind Socrates when distributing portfolios, but somehow I doubt it…Anyway, let’s keep an eye on the next Prodi government and see how the distribution goes there:)
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