5th International Symposium – AMONET

The Portuguese Association of Women Scientists held its fifth International Symposium, V ISA, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, on 14 and 15 December 2017, with about 150 participants, both national and foreign. The event focused in the discussion of Gender dimension in science and society.

For the symposium logo, AMONET has chosen the picture of Adelaide Cabete (1867-1935) as hommage to this pioneering Portuguese medical doctor born 150 years ago. She joined the Faculty of Medicine, where she would graduate in 1900 – surrounded by an overwhelming majority of male colleagues. In parallel with her primordial occupation, Cabete was also a teacher, having lectured Hygiene and Childcare at the Institute of Education and Work for Girls in Odivelas, where she would even be appointed physician, in 1915. Cabete also assumed herself as one of the most prominent Portuguese feminists of her time. On the 10th of June of 1995, she was posthumously awarded with the Medal and Collar of Great Officer of the Order of Freedom.

The symposium introduction ended by a video message by the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, who expressed the Commission’s great interest for the topic treated.

On the event first day several talks were devoted to Gender in Medicine, including one by Londa Schiebinger who gave a plenary lecture entitled “Gendered Innovation in Science, Health and Medicine” that was followed with great interest by all participants.

The second day dealt with the place of women scientists in various activities of the past and today, in Europe and Brazil, from testimonies to a sociologist and an historian points of view.

The proceedings of the symposium are being prepared for a forthcoming publication that will be made public and will be available on the AMONET website at www.amonet.pt.