Cascais, Portugal, May 15, 2025 (Lusa) - Portuguese journalist Antónia de Sousa, co-author of the post-revolutionary television series ‘Nome Mulher’ (Name Woman) and a pioneer of the profession, has died at the age of 84, her son told Lusa on Thursday.
Born on 22 July 1940 in Santa Marinha, Vila Nova de Gaia, de Sousa was the author, with Maria Antónia Palla, of the programmes ‘Nome Mulher’ about women and the status of women, and ‘Direito de Família’ (Family Law), screened by public broadcaster RTP in the wake of the military coup of 25 April 1974 that ended decades of dictatorship and ushered in democracy.
‘Nome Mulher’ - which was broadcast between 1974 and 1976 (and which is currently available online on RTP's online platforms) - portrayed the status of women in Portugal, with episodes ranging from the situation in the interior of the country to the figure of Maria Lamas. It generated controversy with a piece entitled “O Aborto Não é um Crime” (Abortion Is Not a Crime), which culminated in a lawsuit against Palla (who is the mother of António Costa, later prime minister of Portugal).
Together with fellow journalists Maria Antónia Fiadeiro and Maria Antónia Palla, the three were nicknamed the ‘three Antónias’ by Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, Portugal's first and so far only woman prime minister, as Palla recalled in her autobiographical book ‘O Relógio de Cuco’ (The Cuckoo Clock).
In the book, Palla recalls that in 1977 journalist Cáceres Monteiro invited them to join the list of candidates for the executive Journalists' Union: "It was the first time that three women were running for the leadership of the Union. We accepted the invitation on one condition: each of us would occupy a top post. Condition accepted."
In 1971, de Sousa published the book ‘O Mercado do Trabalho e a Mulher’ (The Labour Market and the Woman), published by Editorial Arcádia.
Her career as a journalist was spent mainly in the written press, at the daily newspaper Diário de Notícias and at the evening newspapers Diário de Lisboa and Diário Popular. In the second half of the 1960s, de Sousa joined the then all-male editorial staff of Diário de Lisboa, which she considered a school and a family, as she recalled in an interview with Antena 1 in 2000.
In the interview she gave to public radio station Antena 1 in 2000, she said of one of the journalistic genres she practised most, the interview: "I think the interview is an act of seduction. Seduction without a net, because if you want the other person to give themselves, they have to give themselves too.
"I think that in a world where there are so many ugly things, showing the marvellous things that the other person is, what the other person has done, their potential, is a gift," she went on. "For us, for others and for the person being interviewed.
"I've never been one for feminism, as an association or anything," she told her interviewer, Esmeralda Serrano. "I had a stance that many people considered feminist, but it wasn't in that sense. It was mainly because I considered that a woman is a person and it is as a person that she has to be treated and it is as a person that she has to act in the world, with her abilities, exercising them."
At Diário de Notícias, she was a journalist of great reportage, standing out for her articles on historical cultural heritage and interviews, namely with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is now president of Portugal, the philosopher Edgar Morin and the writer António Quadros, among others.
The journalist was the author of the book ‘Diálogos com Agostinho da Silva. O Império Acabou. E Agora?’ (Dialogues with Agostinho da Silva. The Empire is Over. And Now?) - the result of a series of conversations she recorded with the Brazil-based Portuguese thinker in 1986 and 1987, published by Editorial Notícias.
De Sousa also wrote ‘As Mulheres na Vida de Honoré de Balzac’ (The Women of the Life of Honoré de Balzac), published by Portugália.
Her wake is to take place on Friday from 4.30 p.m. at the Basilica de Estrela in Lisbon, where a religious service will be held on Saturday at 10.30 a.m., followed by the funeral at the Olivais Cemetery, where the cremation ceremony will take place at 11 a.m., according to her son's express wishes.
NL/MAG/TDI/ARO // ARO.
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