Union of Women, Alternative and Response – is a women’s association constituted on September 12, 1976. As a Non-Governmental Organization, it has been represented on the Advisory Board of CIDM (Commission for Equality and Rights of Women) since 1977.
UMAR is today an association that claims a socially committed feminism committed to awakening feminist consciousness in Portuguese society.
Over a period of almost 30 years, UMAR has been able to unite several generations of women, open spaces for the young and update its intervention with a Feminist Agenda of new “old” causes, such as the right to contraception and abortion, the fight against domestic violence, parity in political decision-making bodies or international involvement in initiatives such as the World March of Women.
The UMAR board today combines a new generation of women with others who have lived intensely the women’s movements of the 70s, in an exchange of ideas and experiences capable of establishing the links between generations, fundamental so that the historical memory is not lost, but that allows advances in the framework of new times and new positions on feminisms.
Main activities related to gender equality and women’s rights.
UMAR struggles against all forms of discrimination against women, namely gender based violence. It manages 2 shelters and 2 crisis centres for women victims of domestic violence in Portugal. It has participated in national and European projects on trafficking in human beings, female genital mutilation, and sexual harassment in the workplace.
For many years (and still in 2018-2019) UMAR developed several national and regional projects on prevention of gender based violence in schools; It also has an Observatory on Murdered Women since 2004; it has founded a Feminist Cultural Centre in 2011, as well as a Feminist Documentation Centre and Archive in 2005.
UMAR belongs to many municipal, national and European networks on Gender Equality and Gender Based Violence.
