Women were allowed to vote for the first time in Portugal in 1931 under Salazar's Estado Novo, but not on equal terms with men.

By the early part of the 1990s, many women of Portugal became professionals, including being medical doctors and lawyers, a leap from many being merely office employees and factory workers.

These matters took their place in the social discourse beginning only in the early 1700s, and there is little evidence that the "debate on women" (French: querelle des femmes, as it is called in Europe) occupied a significant role in the public consciousness prior to the 18th century.

[5] The women's movement is considered to have started with the establishment of the Conselho Nacional das Mulheres Portuguesas, which was founded in 1914 during the First Portuguese Republic.

The Afonso Costa’s Electoral Code of 1913 sealed off the loophole that had allowed Carolina Beatriz Ângelo, to vote in 1911.

Portuguese women would have to wait 1931 when under Salazar were given the right to vote in Portugal provided they had completed secondary education.

The women's right to vote had not been obtained during the First Republic, despite feminist claims – however secondary education was a requirement for their suffrage, while men needed only to be able to read and write.

[10] It was also under the Estado Novo that Maria Teresa Cárcomo Lobo politician and jurist, became the first woman to hold office in Portugal.

In the 21st century, family dynamics have become more liberal, with cohabitation growing in popularity, and the link between fertility and marriage decreasing.

[23] The article, which has been amended several times throughout the years, reads: "Whoever, whether in a repetitive manner or not, inflicts physical or mental maltreatment, including bodily punishments, deprivation of liberty and sexual abuses: a) On the spouse or ex-spouse; b) On a person of the same or another gender with whom the offender maintains or has maintained a union, even if without cohabitation; c) On a progenitor of a common descendant in first degree; or d) On a particularly helpless person by reason of age, disability, disease, pregnancy or economic dependency, who cohabitates with the offender; shall be punished (...)".

[26] The Portuguese Criminal Code of 1886 provided for a symbolic punishment of only 6 months exile from the district for killing of a spouse or daughter under 21 caught in the act of adultery/premarital sex, as stipulated by article 372.