About

Maria Helena Santos is currently an integrated researcher at Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS-Iscte), Lisbon, Portugal. She concluded her PhD in Social and Organisational Psychology at Iscte in 2011, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). During her postdoctoral project, conducted between 2012 and 2018, she worked at the Centre en Études Genre LIEGE, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and at CIS-Iscte, funded by the same institution. In recent years she has had a contract, under the transitory norm, also funded by the FCT. Her main research interests focus on gender studies and affirmative action in professional contexts that are markedly masculine (e.g., politics) and feminine (e.g., nursing) to understand how gender influences the dynamics of sex groups, i.e., the experiences and reactions of women in “man’s worlds” and those of men in “woman’s worlds”. Recently, she has extended her interest to studies from an intersectional perspective. She was coordinator of the Thematic Line “Gender, Sexualities and Intersectionality” between 2017 and 2019 and co-coordinator of the “PsyChange” research group between 2018 and 2021. On the political context, she has several publications, including an article published in Representation journal, entitled “The share of women in decision-making positions across different levels of government”, another article published in ex aequo journal “The Parity Law in practice: Implementation and direct outcomes” and a chapter “Implementing gender quotas in Portugal: A success story?” published in a book edited by Sabine Lang, Petra Meier, Birgit Sauer “Politics and the Implementation of Gender Quotas. Resisting Institutions”, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2023.

Publications

Espírito-Santo, A., Teixeira, A. L., Santos, M. H. (First Online: 01 december 2022, 2023). Implementing gender quotas in Portugal: A success story?. In: Lang, S., Meier, P., Sauer, B. (eds), Party Politics and the Implementation of Gender Quotas. Resisting Institutions (pp. 285-302). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08931-2 

Espírito-Santo, A., & Santos, M. H. (First Published online: december 12, 2020; 2021). The share of women in decision-making positions across different levels of government. Representation, 57, 4, 419-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2020.1847180 

Teixeira, A. L., Espírito-Santo, A., & Santos, M. H. (2021). The Parity Law in practice: Implementation and direct outcomes. Ex aequo. 44, 111-127. https://10.22355/exaequo.2021.44.08 

Email: helena.santos@iscte-iul.pt