Gender Gaps in Students Leadership at a University in Portugal

The purposes of this research are to know: 1) the proportion of women and men in the students’ bodies at a university in Portugal, 2) the proportion of women and men to be leaders in the students organization at a university in Portugal, and 3) gender gap in the students leadership at a university in Portugal. The design used in this research was descriptive analysis using a quantitative approach. This research took place in Braga, Portugal, especially in the University of Minho (UMINHO). The main data was quantitative. Sexes separated the data about the number of student bodies in the university in the undergraduate, master, and doctoral program; while the number of students to be a leader in students organization were separated by sexes in the various levels like in the departments, faculties, and university by cultural, sport and science activities. The data collection method was done by documentation. The data analysis used descriptive quantitative. The data was counted by percentage and was showed by tables and graphics or charts. Gender gap occurred mostly to female students (55.06%) than to male students (44.94%). Some departments have a higher number of female students, such as education, sociology, and psychology departments (social sciences background). On the other hand, some departments have a higher number of male students, such as engineering and physics (non-social science background). Due to more department with social sciences background than non-social sciences background in the university, therefore there are more female students than male students in the university. In the university, the gender gap un-advantage occurred to female students in the students’ organization. It shows that the students’ organization dominated by male students (66.67%) than female students (33.33%).