Director of GenderInSITE until December 2017, is Emeritus Professor of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil. Professor Abreu is the former Director of the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Council for Science (ICSU) from 2007 to 2011. She was also the Regional Coordinator of the ICSU Rio+20 Initiative, in 2012.
PhD in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo Brazil (1980), and M.Sc. in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science(LSE) of the University of London (1971), she was a Full Professor of Sociology at the UFRJ until 2005, and has published extensively in sociology of work and gender.
She also held a number of important positions within the academic community of Brazil and internationally, which included the Vice Presidency of the National Research Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of Brazil, and Director of the Office of Education, Science and Technology of the Organization of American States, in Washington D.C.
Professor Abreu received the Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico (Comendador) of Brazil in 2001; the  Palmes Académiques (Officier), of the Ministère de la Jeunesse, de l’Éducation Nationale et de la Recherche. République Française, in 2003. She was awarded the Florestan Fernandes Prize for Sociology in 2009 and the ANPOCS Award in Academic Excellence Antonio Flavio Pierucci Sociology in 2013.