The Portuguese economic elite is poorly rich and is lacking in women, reveals a study published in the British Journal of Sociology, which analyzed 16 countries and had the participation of ISCTE.
The “Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results from from World Elite Database”, recently published in the scientific journal British Journal of Sociology, analyzes 16 countries that represent more than half of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a third of the world population.
The analysis concludes that the Portuguese economic elite It is small and has few women.
“There is 12 men for each woman In the universe constituted by the leadership of large private and public companies in Portugal, national fortunes and the positions of economic and political regulation in the country, ”says the study consulted by Lusa.
This elite is “very professionalwith a small proportion of the world scale, configuring a more economic power structure dependent on the national institutional context than global capital dynamics. ”
Women owners of companies “are heirs”
In Portugal, 44% of the economic elite Born in Lisbon and only 9% abroad.
More than half is formed in Management And, taking right, No one studied humanities.
“As women holding companies are heirsthat is, the property results from social and economic reproduction mechanisms ”, says researcher Maria do Carmo Botelho of the University Institute of Lisbon – ISCTE and one of the study authors, cited in a press release.
According to the investigation, “Portuguese elite is not particularly richComparing with other international economic elites, and has little presence in major world stages such as Davos, the Bilderberg group or the world economic forum, ”says Nuno Nunes, another ISCTE researcher who is among the study authors.
Portuguese elite is “the third youngest”
“In a world dominated worldwide by Advanced Menthe Portuguese elite is the third youngestthe few Portuguese women are considerably younger than men, ”adds Nuno Nunes.
Portugal presents itself as the country of the 16 studied in which fewer individuals from economic elites were born in rural (15%).
Almost half (44%) was born in Lisbon, 70% was born in the largest urban centers of the country and only 4% in secondary urban media.
It is also from countries with fewer members of the economic elites born abroad, only 9%.
In the United Kingdom, for example, 45% of the economic elite is foreign.
The representative group of the Portuguese economic elite was collected in 2020, and consists of 74 individuals.
In the chapter of fortunes and business leadership, the three women who compose it – Fernanda Amorim, and – represent 5.5% of this group.
With regulatory power, the four women present – Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, Helena Alves Borges, Margarida Matos Rosa and Margarida Corrêa de Aguiar – Weigh 27%.
In political positions, in four economic ministries – finance, economy, infrastructure and housing and work, solidarity and social security – at the time (as in the present), Only one woman had the position of Minister: Ana Mendes Godinho (replaced by Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho).
“More educated and more international
With a great weight of executive training and international programs in the studies of its economic elite, Portugal is in the middle of the table of the countries analyzed with regard to doctoralcom 9%.
In Germany, the percentage is 36%, in China and in Poland of 27%, and in the US is 21%.
“The Financial Times stressed that the results of this study challenge some preconceived ideas: although they remain mostly male and advanced age, Economic elites are today more educatedmore internationalized and tend to reproduce socially, ”says Maria do Carmo Botelho.
For ISCTE researcher, “academic background remains an essential access criterion for elites, but its nature and prestige vary between countries.”
