Women's Studies – Gender, Citizenship and Development was launched at the Universidade Aberta in 1995 and Joaquim pressed for it to be expanded to include a PhD platform in 2002.
She has participated in numerous policy development projects evaluating inclusion and equal opportunity for women for the government of Portugal, as well as the European Union.
She completed her PhD in anthropology at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE, Higher Institute of Labor and Business Sciences) at the University of Lisbon in 1995.
[15] She returned to female culture in Mulheres de uma aldeia, interviewing women in rural villages about sexually segregated work.
[16] Based on the testimony collected from village women, marriage was seen as necessary for providing security for the family and children (or the lack of them) was seen as a reward or punishment for living a good or evil life, thus the use of contraception was considered as unnatural.
The work was prepared for the Commission for Equality and Rights of Women to analyze gender stereotypes encountered in primary and secondary education textbooks.
[22] Joaquim has been involved conducting research for several of the volumes in the series,[1][23] which are designed as four levels for pre-school through secondary education of both theoretical and practical guidelines.