This paper examines women’s representation within ministerial private offices (MPOs) in Portugal, addressing a significant gap in the literature on political representation. While existing research has focused primarily on elected office and ministerial positions, less attention has been paid to the “backrooms” of executive power, where ministerial advisers play a central role in policy-making and coordination. Drawing on publicly available data covering the period between 2011 and 2019, the study analyses patterns of recruitment, hierarchical distribution and policy allocation to assess whether MPOs function as gendered institutions. It further explores the extent to which political factors, such as party ideology and leadership characteristics, shape women’s presence and roles within these structures. By combining insights from the literature on ministerial advisers and feminist institutionalism, the paper contributes to broader debates on democratic representation, highlighting how informal and weakly regulated arenas of governance may reproduce or challenge gender inequalities.