As a result of her article, she was invited by Adelaide Cabete to join the Conselho Nacional das Mulheres Portuguesas (CNMP - National Council of Portuguese Women).
In 1945 she joined the Movement of Democratic Unity (Portuguese: Movimento de Unidade Democrática or MUD), a quasi-legal platform of organizations that opposed the Estado Novo.
In 1946 she was elected vice-president of the general assembly of the CNMP, when Maria Lamas was president, occupying the position in 1947, the year in which the authorities of the Estado Novo regime ordered its closure.
Denouncing the sexual inequalities in the country at the time, she noted later that, "Personally, I found it humiliating that long years of study were necessary for women to have the rights of men who could only read and write".
[2] A fund created in her name, administered by the General Council of the Portuguese Bar Association, has since 2016 awarded the Elina Guimarães prize annually to the person or organization that has made the greatest contribution to women's rights and the defence of gender equality.
[4] The list of newspaper and journal articles and other publications by Elina Guimarães, available on the web site of the library of the Portuguese Bar Association, amounts to around 400 items.