Helena Pato

Helena Pato was born in Mamarrosa (Aveiro), in 1939.
A mathematics graduate and teacher, her professional life has been entirely dedicated to teaching children and young people and to teacher training. She has published books, papers, and studies in the fields of pedagogy and mathematics didactics. She directed the education supplement of the newspaper "O Diário".
She was a leader of the Association of the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon in the early 1960s and a political leader of the CDE (Democratic Electoral Commission) from 1969 to 1973. In the late 1960s, she was one of the founders of the Democratic Women's Movement.
He was part of the core group of teachers who, in the early 1970s, created and led the Study Groups for Teaching Staff and founded the first teachers' unions, which emerged in 1984. He belonged to the first boards of directors of the Greater Lisbon Teachers' Union.
In the two decades preceding the Revolution, she actively participated in the resistance against the fascist regime. She was in exile for three years. She was arrested and detained by the political police several times.