Maria Carrilho. Innovator, pioneer and founder of military sociology in Portugal
“She had a rich life and knew how to tie it, which not everyone can do (…) She was one of the most sensitive and culturally artistic women I’ve met”. The words of António Costa, who records the “political exile in Italy, during the last phase of the dictatorship, who initially wrote about the liberation struggles” of the then Portuguese colonies, who “was close to the Italian Communist Party” and who, in Rome, where she “got a doctorate in sociology, was a journalist and model”, underline the “pioneering” side of Maria Carrilho with “her work the role of the military in change in Portugal”.
“Founder of military sociology in Portugal”, pointing out Marcelo de Sousa who highlighted the “highlighted academic course, combined with relevant political experience as a Member of the Republic and the European Parliament, [que] Thought of virtuous research and human rights among specialists in action, in particular defense, foreign affairs and human rights.
The President of the Republic emphasizes that “the result of this journey” left “an essential work on the study of civil and military relations in the Portuguese 20th century, on the role of Portugal in successive international contexts, on the role of women in the Armed Forces, and yet a unique contribution to a systematic assessment of public opinion on the major issues of security and defense in democratic Portugal”.
This sign of pioneering spirit is also highlighted by João Gomes Cravinho, Defense Minister, who praises “the first woman in Portugal dedicated herself to issues of Defense and the Armed Forces. Highly respected academically, she had the audacity to investigate topics that, at the time, , were considered reserved for men, greatly enriching this area of studies”.
Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic, who does not forget the “for connection and friendship that united him to Maria Carrilho, recalls the “long journey of life dedicated to the public cause” started “still during the Estado Novo dictatorship and which led to to exile in Italy” and recalls that “Maria Jesuína Carrilho Bernardo, had a doctorate in sociology and was a member of the Assembly of the Republic in the VII and X Legislatures, elected in the Socialist Party lists, MEP and president of the European Movement”.
Helena Carreiras, director of the National Defense Institute, who maintained “a long and great friendship” with Maria Carrilho, highlights the unavoidable pioneering spirit of her teacher at ISCTE in the 1980s. On the relationship between the Armed Forces and civil society, I also emphasize the role in terms of the entry of women into the Armed Forces.
“Maria Carrilho in the fight against the Estado Novo was a woman who opened and a woman who opened new horizons”, she emphasizes.
Professor at ISCTE, Maria Carrilho graduated in sociology from the University of Rome, having completed a doctorate in political sociology from the Technical University of Lisbon, and was coordinator of the Master’s in European Studies at ISCTE. She was at the forefront of politics with the election of António Guterres to the post of secretary general of the PS in 1992, having belonged to the National Secretariat of this party.. Defense in European Affairs, Specialist in European Affairs, Defense and National Elected in 2004. Defense Specialist and National Elected.
Throughout her life, Maria Carrilho published several works, highlighting New media, new policies? (2002); Portugal in the International Context: Public Opinion, Defense and Security (1998); Security and Defense in Portuguese Public Opinion (1995); Democracy and Defense, (1994), Women and National Defense, (1992); Armed Forces and Political Change in Portugal in the 20th Century (1985); Sociology of Negritude (this first published in Rome in 1973); and Portogallo, La Via Militare, Milan (1975).
At the time of the publication of his latest book, Parceiros Desiguais, A Defesa Europa-USA, a renowned expert in military matters in an interview with DN, explained, as is mentioned in the text that opens a conversation, the “complexity behind NATO and how Portugal has known how to respond to the challenge of fitting in with Atlanticism”.
“A defenseless woman, João Gomes with Portugal’s European future”, emphasizes Defense Minister João Gomes Cravinho
Maria Carrilho died this Sunday, aged 78, of leukemia, at the CUF Tejo Hospital where she was hospitalized.
with Lusa