Retired in 2018, Lígia Amâncio has been full professor of social psychology and an emeritus professor at ISCTE-IUL since 2019.
Lígia studied Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Paris VIII and joined ISCTE in 1978-79, where she obtained her PhD in Sociology in 1989, took her aggregation exams in 1999, and became a full professor of social psychology in 2002.
She was also President of the Commission for Equality and Women’s Rights from 1996 to 1998, national delegate on the management committee of the European Commission’s social sciences support program from 1999 to 2004, member of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) (2001-2004), Vice-President of the Foundation for Science and Technology (2006-2012), member of the Ethics Council for Life Sciences (2009-2014) and member of the A3ES Board of Trustees (2016-2020).
Her research career marked the beginning of gender studies in Portugal, focusing on the study of the processes of the social construction of masculinity and femininity and their implications for gender-based discrimination, with particular emphasis on the integration of women into publicly visible and qualified professions, such as politics, science, and medicine.
Of the various projects funded in competitive tenders that she has coordinated, the European SAGE project (2016-2019) stands out, which gave rise to the book, published in 2020 by Taylor and Francis, The Gender-Sensitive University A Contradiction in Terms? (free access).
Before that, in 1988-1989, she was PI of the First National Survey on Sexual Harassment, in Portugal, funded by the Office for Equality at Work and Employment (CITE).
She was elected to the Board of the European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS) in July 2021, where she represents AMONET, the Portuguese Association of Women Scientists of which she was a co-founder in 2004.
Twenty years ago, in 2004, she was decorated with the Order of the Infante by the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic.
