ABSTRACT
Discussions and discourses of modernity reveal multiple and conflicting responses to the ways in which society has changed. Over the course of the twentieth century, the transformation of the political and social environment of Portugal contributed to shifts in the gender and class structure of the country. The changes witnessed in society become especially evident when we focus on the capital city, Lisbon. The industrialization of Lisbon took place later than that of Paris or London, and Lisbon remains a small city in comparison with other European capitals. While gendered medical discourses abounded in the early part of the twentieth century, Mark Micale observes that medicine no longer has the same strength of influence on how we perceive gender. Where fragmentation means protective isolation in Livro and Homem, in Historia it offers the possibility of overcoming the limitations of gender. Objectivity, assertiveness and rationality were seen as masculine traits, while emotional expressiveness and submission were associated with the feminine.
