We manage to keep going and we manage to move forward.
Meio século depois da sua fundação, a UMAR celebra o seu aniversário não com triunfo despreocupado, mas com uma advertência serena: os direitos conquistados pelas mulheres portuguesas são frágeis, e forças contemporâneas — desigualdade salarial, barreiras no acesso à saúde reprodutiva, ideologias regressivas — ameaçam desfazer décadas de progresso. A organização convoca a solidariedade coletiva como única resposta à erosão silenciosa das liberdades democráticas, lembrando que a resiliência tem sido, ao longo da história, a sua arma mais duradoura.
- Cinquenta anos após a sua fundação, a UMAR alerta que os direitos das mulheres enfrentam pressões simultâneas e crescentes, desde a precariedade habitacional até às restrições no acesso ao aborto legal.
- 544 médicos e 299 enfermeiros invocaram objeção de consciência, tornando o direito legal à interrupção voluntária da gravidez cada vez mais difícil de exercer na prática.
- Três cancros — mama, uterino e endometrial — representam cerca de um quarto da mortalidade e morbilidade feminina no país, expondo falhas persistentes nos sistemas de rastreio e apoio.
- Um pacote laboral em discussão no Parlamento poderá agravar o fosso salarial entre homens e mulheres, num momento em que o financiamento do próprio Centro de Cultura e Intervenção Feminista permanece incerto.
- A UMAR responde convocando uma rede unificada de organizações femininas em todo o país, apostando na visibilidade coletiva — incluindo a manifestação do Dia Internacional da Mulher em Lisboa — como forma de resistência.
A 12 de setembro de 1976, nascia em Portugal a UMAR. Cinquenta anos depois, a organização assinala a data não com celebração simples, mas com um aviso: os direitos que as mulheres conquistaram estão sob pressão, e o terreno parece menos sólido do que há poucos anos.
Ao longo deste ano de aniversário, a UMAR tem percorrido o país e reunido assinaturas de apoio. Cem mulheres — professoras, políticas, escritoras, músicas, arquitetas, historiadoras — emprestaram os seus nomes a uma declaração que classifica a organização como "uma voz essencial" na luta pela igualdade. Entre elas, Anália Torres, Catarina Martins, Capicua, Helena Roseta e Lídia Jorge.
Maria Idalina Rodrigues, vice-presidente da UMAR, enumerou as preocupações centrais: o fosso salarial persiste, um novo pacote laboral pode agravá-lo, e a habitação pesa desproporcionalmente sobre as mulheres. Na saúde, as lacunas são mensuráveis — apoio insuficiente à gravidez, falhas no planeamento familiar e nos programas de rastreio oncológico. Três cancros respondem por cerca de um quarto da mortalidade e morbilidade feminina no país.
O acesso ao aborto legal é outra fratura visível. Com 544 médicos e 299 enfermeiros a invocar objeção de consciência, o direito consagrado na lei torna-se, na prática, cada vez mais difícil de exercer — uma realidade documentada pela Amnistia Internacional e que a UMAR considera inadmissível.
Rodrigues vê ideologias a tentar "fazer recuar estas conquistas" e defende que a única resposta eficaz é uma rede unificada de organizações femininas em Portugal. Quanto ao governo, a relação é descrita como cordial, mas o financiamento do Centro de Cultura e Intervenção Feminista permanece em suspenso. Ainda assim, Rodrigues recusa o desânimo: a UMAR já atravessou períodos mais difíceis. "Há sempre da nossa parte uma grande resiliência", disse. "Conseguimos continuar e conseguimos avançar." Com o Dia Internacional da Mulher a aproximar-se, esperava ver Lisboa cheia de pessoas dispostas a lembrar que este trabalho ainda não terminou.
On September 12th, 1976, a women's organization called UMAR was founded in Portugal. Fifty years later, it is marking that milestone not with uncomplicated celebration but with a warning: the rights women fought to secure are now under pressure from multiple directions, and the ground beneath them feels less stable than it did even a few years ago.
The organization is spending this anniversary year holding events across the country and gathering signatures on a letter of support. One hundred women signed it—professors, politicians, writers, singers, architects, historians. Anália Torres from the University of Lisbon. Catarina Martins, a member of the European Parliament. Elza Pais and Edite Estrela from the Socialist Party. Capicua the musician. Helena Roseta the architect. Lídia Jorge the novelist. They put their names to a statement defending UMAR's work and calling it "an essential voice" in the ongoing struggle for women's equality.
Maria Idalina Rodrigues, UMAR's vice president, spoke about what keeps her organization awake at night. The wage gap between men and women remains stubbornly wide. A labor package under discussion in Parliament could make things worse. Housing is unaffordable, and women feel this squeeze harder than men do. Healthcare systems still fail women in specific, measurable ways: pregnant women lack adequate support, family planning clinics have gaps, sexually transmitted disease prevention is inadequate, and cancer screening programs miss people who need them. Three cancers—breast, uterine, and endometrial—account for roughly a quarter of all female mortality and illness in the country.
Then there is the question of abortion access. Portugal permits voluntary termination of pregnancy, but 544 doctors and 299 nurses have filed objections of conscience, refusing to perform the procedure. According to Amnesty International's count, these numbers mean that women's legal right to choose is increasingly difficult to exercise in practice. For UMAR, this remains a central concern: the organization believes women should have the right to make this decision themselves, without state or medical obstruction.
Rodrigues described a moment when ideologies are "trying to roll back many of these gains." She sees only one adequate response: a unified network of women's organizations across Portugal, working together to defend rights that she considers fundamental to democracy. When asked whether the current government is an ally in this work, she said there are people within it who support UMAR's goals and that the relationship has been cordial. But funding remains uncertain. The Centre for Feminist Culture and Intervention, which runs a library and offers education and training, sits in a kind of limbo, waiting to know whether it will receive the support it needs.
Rodrigues acknowledged that UMAR faces some constraints now. But she placed them in context. The organization has weathered harder times—periods when funding was tighter and obstacles more severe. "There has always been a great deal of resilience on our part," she said. "We manage to keep going and we manage to move forward. Let's hope that continues to be our path." As International Women's Day approached in March, she expressed hope that the demonstration in Lisbon would draw a large crowd of people fighting for women's rights—a visible reminder that this work is not finished.
Notable Quotes
UMAR has been, and will continue to be, an essential voice in that collective struggle— Statement from 100 women signatories
There has always been a great deal of resilience on our part. We manage to keep going and we manage to move forward.— Maria Idalina Rodrigues, UMAR vice president
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does an organization founded fifty years ago feel the need to sound an alarm now, at a moment of celebration?
Because the rights they fought for aren't guaranteed. They can be rolled back. What feels secure one decade can be under attack the next. UMAR has seen this before, but the threats now are coming from multiple angles at once—wages, housing, healthcare, reproductive freedom.
The letter from a hundred women—is that a show of strength or a sign of worry?
Both. It's saying: we see what you've done, and we're telling you it matters because we're afraid of losing it. When you need to gather signatures defending something, it means you're in a defensive position.
The conscience objections—544 doctors, 299 nurses. That's a specific number. What does it mean in practice?
It means a woman's legal right to abortion becomes theoretical if the doctor who could perform it refuses. She has the right on paper but not in her town, not with her insurance, not without traveling hours. The law exists but the access doesn't.
What worries Rodrigues most?
The feeling that multiple systems are failing women at once. Wage inequality. Housing costs. Healthcare gaps. Abortion access. It's not one crisis—it's a pattern. And when patterns emerge, they suggest something ideological is shifting.
She mentions "emerging ideologies." What is she referring to?
She doesn't name them explicitly, but she's talking about political movements that want to reverse gender equality gains. They exist across Europe. They're gaining ground. UMAR sees them as a threat.
What does UMAR actually want from government?
Funding for their work. Support for reproductive rights. Action on wage gaps and housing. But more than that—they want women's organizations to be seen as essential infrastructure for democracy, not as special interests to be managed or defunded.