Freedom or Constraint: Gendered Experiences and Practices of Portuguese Communication Industries Freelancers Maria João Cunha, Carla Cruz, Célia Belim Gender and Freelancing in the Communication Industries Experiences Practices Discourses, 2025 This chapter aims to explore the gendered experiences and practices of Portuguese freelancers in communication industries. It derives from the project Well-being in comms industries from EUPRERA Project network Women in Public Relations (PR). We refer to Acker's work on gendered organisations to comprehend how the components of the gender substructure perpetuating inequalities manifest in communication industries for freelancers. The analysis focuses on three main dimensions: job interactions and networking practices; work–life balance; and job well-being and gender subtext. Portugal, as a small EU country with low salaries, provides a social and political context to be studied in this feminised industry, with deep work–life gender inequalities together with a fear of precarity. The study used a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews applied to two groups of participants selected by snowball sampling. The first group had active freelancers and the second contracted workers, some former freelancers from comms industries, to contrast their perceptions and experiences on freelancing work in their field. Results show that perceptions of freelancing in Portugal mirror a duality between opportunities and challenges, and are gendered and generationally built. While job interactions and networking practices are more valued by younger professionals, work–life balance seems to benefit from perceived time flexibility. Job well-being is overall deemed positive, however, affected by the lack of stability, poor labour protection, unclear regulation and lack of state incentives, threats mostly felt by younger, and female freelancers. A gender subtext was perceived related to a glass wall that may affect women professional careers when engaging in lateral job expansion.
Subjective well-being perceptions of Portuguese Public Relations practitioners: a gender and stages of life analysis Maria João Cunha, Carla Cruz, Célia Belim Journal of Communication Management, 2025 PurposeThis research aims to explore perceptions of subjective well-being (SWB) in public relations (PR) practitioners, focusing on dimensions of job satisfaction, networking, relationships and work–life balance, while addressing the under-researched area of gender and age – related to stages of life – disparities in SWB within the PR industry.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, this study utilised a survey, followed by semi-structured interviews to investigate SWB among PR professionals in Portugal, considering gender and stages of life differences.FindingsUsing a gendered and stages of life lens, this study found nuanced perceptions of SWB among Portuguese PR professionals. Older women showed higher emotional well-being but lower work evaluations than men, while young professionals exhibited less gender disparities in SWB. Men reported greater job satisfaction, emphasising passion, while women faced challenges like work overload and valued recognition. Gender differences were seen in networking, with men favouring teamwork and women valuing friendships for career advancement. Work–life balance issues, especially among older women, related to mental health.Originality/valueThis study contributes to filling the research gap regarding SWB in the PR industry, particularly in Portugal, offering insights into gender and stages of life dynamics that influence SWB perceptions, thereby informing strategies for enhancing well-being and productivity in PR workplaces.
Silenced Voices in Portuguese Public TV News: An Intersectional Analysis of the Representation of Women with Disabilities in RTP’s Telejornal Carla Cruz, Maria João Cunha, Célia Belim Societies, 2024 (1) Background: Studies on women with disabilities (WwD) are rare and tend to reveal certain representation patterns. This study aims to understand how and to what extent WwD and chronic diseases are deemed newsworthy in the Portuguese public news TV station RTP1 primetime news program. Feminist disability, standpoint, agenda-setting, and framing theories are used alongside the concept of intersectionality. (2) Methods: A mixed-method approach is adopted, combining quantitative content analysis of all broadcasted news in January 2020 (n = 704), and qualitative discourse analysis of news items on PwD (n = 5). (3) Results: The results reveal that disability is a reduced issue in Telejornal’s agenda. PwD, in general, are often portrayed in secondary roles and without a voice. The protagonists of news stories about disability or persons with disabilities are predominantly women without disabilities, occupying traditional roles as caregivers (mothers, nurses), while men are more often portrayed as public agents. Discourse analysis deepens understanding by uncovering the prevalence of negative news values and a problem-centred framing, often associated with negativity, rather than presenting solutions. (4) Conclusions: Consequently, WwD were found to be deprived of news representation with a more positive or ‘normal’ focus and an intersectional approach reveals a lack of inclusion, with the few existing news tending to focus on exclusion issues, portraying only white Portuguese women. This study underscores the urgent need for a more equitable approach in media representation, recognising the diversity and positive contributions of WwD to promote an inclusive narrative.
The Educational Potential of Cyberfeminisms: An Intersectional Analysis of @coletivoandorinha, @feministasemmovimento and @feministas.pt profiles Clarissa Godoy, Maria João Cunha Proceedings of the International Conference on Gender Research, 2024 Focusing on the dialogue between cyberfeminisms and education, through an intersectional perspective, this study combines the work of feminist authors such as Haraway (1991), DeLaurentis (2004), hooks (2013), Crenshaw (1991), and Butler (2011) with others recent works to address the following question: How do cyberfeminist Instagram profiles contribute to intersectional education for gender equality? To answer that, we analysed the profiles @coletivoandorinha, @feministasemmovimento and @feministas.pt between 2021 and 2023, using a qualitative method (Minayo, 2015), with semi-structured interviews to: 1. understand the strategies of the cyberfeminist profiles; 2. identify gender and race differences in the construction of cyberfeminist discourses; 3. identify the main challenges in translating cyberfeminist content into school vocabulary. Results show may enable understanding of how intersectionality is verifiable in cyberfeminist discourses, and how contents may prove adequate for educational purposes.
Female journalists who have reached the top: perceptions on communication, leadership, and gender bias in the Portuguese press Maria Joao Cunha, Rita Lúcio Martins Corporate Communications, 2023 PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand challenges and constraints in reaching top leadership positions for women in the Portuguese press. Specifically, it aims at characterizing their communication and leadership styles, and at identifying main gender biases in newsrooms routines from their point of view.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative method was employed by conducting in-depth interviews with four women who have held higher management positions in Portuguese leading newspapers. Participants were asked to characterize their communication and leadership style, but also newsrooms environment, trying to understand how gender asymmetries persist and manifest. Results were analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsWhile considering that Portuguese newsrooms are no longer environments marked by a sexist/macho environment, through increasing female participation, women still represent a minority in leadership. Leadership traits linked to male styles, including assertiveness and courage, were revealed, though mixed with a more participative/relational leadership. Also, female leaders regret when emotional ties with teams are not developed and recognized some degree of privilege towards other women through family support or not having children.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a limited number of interviews, although they represent the few top women leaders in Portuguese journalism.Practical implicationsPolicymaking recommendations derived from conclusions include participative leadership, implementing quotas, and monitoring tools of gender biases and special training.Social implicationsMedia literacy policies and open debates on main media outlets concerning female leadership and communication styles may contributes toward the acknowledgement of lingering gender biases in the industry.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a fuller insight into the identification of leadership and personal traits among women who managed to disrupt stigmas and break barriers. Their voices are seldom heard in studies focusing leadership, so results enable ascertaining whether there is a female way of leading in journalism and comprehending the sense of privilege these women perceive.
Women in Portuguese print media Women and the Media in Capitalism and Socialism an Ecofeminist Inquiry, 2023
Editorial: Post-feminism in contemporary television Martina Topić, Maria Joao Cunha Northern Lights, 2022 The editorial summarizes current debates on post-feminism and also on women and girls in the media. After that, the editorial outlines articles in the issue and connects them to outlined debates on post-feminism and women and girls in the media.
Women in public relations (1982–2019) Martina Topić, Maria Joäo Cunha, Amelia Reigstad, Alenka Jelen-Sanchez, Ángeles Moreno Journal of Communication Management, 2020 PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the current literature on women in public relations to establish trends and areas of inquiry in the literature and identify research gaps for future research.Design/methodology/approachA total of 223 articles have been empirically analysed using thematic analysis to identify trends in the existing literature. The data has been coded and analysed per decade (1982–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2009, 2010–2019). The articles have been identified by searching major journals in the field of public relations and communications, as well as snowballing from identified articles.FindingsThe results show that the majority of academic articles have been produced by using lived experiences of women working in the public relations industry and thus reflect the professional situation of female public relations employees. The results show that the position of women has reached a full circle in four decades of research and returned to the discriminatory work environment. Finally, the results show that a liberal feminist perspective has an advantage in the literature since the majority of works have been produced in the United States; however, there is an increase in authors calling for the use of socialist and radical feminism.Originality/valueThe paper provides a comprehensive literature review of works published in the field. The paper takes an empirical approach to the analysis rather than the descriptive one, which helped in identifying major trends in the research and identified a research gap for future inquiries.
Screens' domestication in childhood: Uses and parental mediation in city and rural contexts Carla Cruz, Catarina Franco, Fábio Anunciação, Maria João Cunha Comunicacao E Sociedade, 2020 Este estudo procura caracterizar a utilização dos ecrãs no espaço doméstico em função
 dos contextos citadino e rural das crianças até aos cinco anos e conhecer como a família intervém
 na sua introdução e utilização. Para o efeito foram realizados quatro grupos de foco com
 crianças de quatro e cinco anos residentes na cidade de Lisboa e em Vila Pouca de Aguiar, no
 distrito de Vila Real e oito entrevistas semiestruturadas com pais e mães de ambos os contextos,
 chegando a várias conclusões: 1) as crianças do contexto rural são mais utilizadoras dos ecrãs
 em casa que as crianças da cidade; 2) os pais/mães de ambos os contextos são os responsáveis
 pelo acesso dos filhos aos ecrãs, sobretudo smartphones e tablets; 3) a principal explicação é
 a preocupação dos pais/mães com a exclusão social das crianças caso não os utilizem; 4) os progenitores/as do meio urbano denotam uma maior perceção dos riscos associados à exposição
 dos filhos aos dispositivos tecnológicos.
