On the 40th anniversary of the 1976’s Portuguese Constitution, which granted universal voting rights for the first time, the Institute of Contemporary History will be hosting an international conference to analyse the role of women in the election processes. The conference will be held on 21 and 22 November 2016 at the Assembly of the Republic and it is open to all scientific areas.

Women's suffrage was debated for the first time with the development of liberal states in the late eighteenth century. Then, the adoption of universal suffrage and a new concept of citizenship started being debated. However this issue only gained real public expression from the nineteenth century, especially in the United States
nd in England, with the emergence of the suffrage movement.

The suffrage movement emerged both defending universal voting rights and questioning the role of women in society and in families, aiming for equal rights for men and women in their multiple dimensions. Two hundred years later, there are still countries where women have no right to vote.

This meeting will seek to examine the different modalities and practices on the
defence for women's suffrage in the long term. The conference promotes the study of
these aspects in an interdisciplinary, transnational and comparative perspective and
in different types of regimes.

The IHC invites everybody to submit proposals for talks on the following themes
(non-exclusive):
-Methodologies and theories;
-National, transnational and international suffragettes movements;
-Stakeholders;
-Women and political communication;
-Women participation at national, regional and local level;
-Electoral participation and social movements;
-Sources for the analysis of women's participation in electoral cycles.

Paper proposals should be submitted until 15 September 2016 and should include the title, abstract (maximum 300 words) and a brief biographical note (200 words maximum). The results will be communicated by September 30, 2016.

Communications may be held in Portuguese and English and should not last for more than 15 minutes. There will be no simultaneous translation and communications will not be accepted via Skype.

The organization will edit after approval of the Scientific Committee, a collection of
selected texts.