Portugal. By 1965 she had become the Grail's international vice-president. She was also appointed by the Vatican and served as woman's liaison between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. After leaving Companhia União Fabril, she held a job in government until 1969 which was to run Portugal's program for development and social change. In 1970, she presided over government working groups involving women's affairs, as well as being a member of the Portuguese delegation to the United Nations, 1971–72. In 1974 she was appointed secretary of state for social welfare in the first provisional government following the revolution. She moved her way up to Minister of Social Affairs by early 1975. In 1975, Pintasilgo became Portugal's first Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. Prime Minister and after In 1979 she was called on by General António Ramalho Eanes, the president of Portugal, to become prime minister. Pintasilgo was sworn in as the Prime Minister of the Portuguese caretaker government on 1 August 1979 with the term of three months in office. During her time in office she pushed to modernize the out-dated social welfare system. She left her mark by making social security universal and improving health care, education, and labor legislation in Portugal. She contributed the piece "Daring to be different" to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, edited by Robin Morgan. Pintasilgo was the first woman to run for president in 1986. She ran as an independent and received 7% of the votes. The following year she was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the Socialist Party which she held until 1989. From 1992 and for almost a decade, she chaired the Independent Commission for Population and Quality of Life - ICPQL. Hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in Paris, the international Commission was established by a coalition of governments and global Foundations in order to make recommendations to be presented to the UN system and donors community. In her statement at the Cairo UN International Conference on Population and Development on Sept, 7, 1994, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo explained, "The ultimate goal of Population and Development is to accord an improved quality of life to the people of the world. Not only to count people but to ensure that people count in Development". The commission's