Radio, reception and memory: Portuguese female audiences and housewife politics from the 1930’s to the 1950’s

Abstract

The popularization of radio broadcasting in Portugal coincided with the starting decades of the New State dictatorship (1930-74). From the 1930’s to the 1950’s, there were considerable changes in the ways common people from a scarcely literate country could experience the world, but it was also a time of ideological supervision within a country under relative isolation. In this context, the specificity of women as radio audiences has to be placed into an atmosphere of traditionalism towards gender roles. How was, then, the reception of the new media in the home? Did radio reception set new challenges to patriarchy or did it reinforce traditional conceptions of women? The article draws on qualitative research with elder women from Lisbon, presenting data focusing on their memories of radio use in everyday contexts.