Ada Lovelace Day 2022: Bertha Lutz

 This is a year of politics in Brazil. The election for President of the Republic is going on at the moment, we had the first turn, the second turn of voting is within a week. It occurred to me that I don't know much about the feminist movement in Brazil. I don't know enough about History, and I wish I did. So this blog post is about when voting for women started in Brazil.

The state of Rio Grande do Norte was a pioneer in providing in 1926, in its Electoral Law,  that "all citizens who meet the conditions required by law may vote and be voted on, without distinction of sex." The following year,  Celina Guimarães Viana became the first female voter in the country and, in April 1928, the first woman to vote.

In 1929, Alzira Soriano won 60% of the votes and on January 1 of the following year she was sworn in as mayor of Lajes, in Rio Grande do Norte. She was the first woman in Latin America to assume the government of a city.  It was only in 1932, during the government of Getúlio Vargas, that women gained the right to vote and were able to run for political office. In 1933, Carlota Pereira de Queirós became the first Brazilian federal deputy from São Paulo.

But the post is about Bertha Lutz because she was a scientist, a biologist.

Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz (August 2, 1894 – September 16, 1976) was a Brazilian feminist activist, biologist, educator, diplomat and politician.  She was the daughter of Adolfo Lutz, scientist and pioneer of tropical medicine. She was also one of the most significant figures of feminism and education in Brazil in the early 20th century. 

She specialized in amphibians and, in 1919, became secretary and researcher at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, being the second woman to be part of the public service in the country. She was later promoted to head of the Museum's Botany department, a position she held until her retirement in 1964. In August 1965, she received the title of professor emeritus at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

 In 1922, she organized the First Feminist Congress of Brazil and represented Brazilian women at the General Assembly of the League of Women Voters, held in the United States, where she was elected vice president of the Pan-American Society of Women. After returning to Brazil, she helped found the Brazilian Federation for Feminine Progress (FBPF), of which she was president until 1942 and whose main banner was the demand for women's suffrage.

 In 1929, Bertha and other members of the FBPF created the União Universitária Feminina (Feminine University Union), which in 1961 was renamed the Brazilian Association of University Women. One of the primary goals of the organization was to encourage higher education by the female population. In 1937, the Union was formally invited to participate in the creation of the National Union of Students (UNE). The Brazilian suffragette movement had a great victory on February 24, 1932, the date on which President Getúlio Vargas, through Decree No. 21 076, installed the new Electoral Code and guaranteed the right of women to vote in the country. 

So yes, this jumble of dates and names above is just to say that women can vote and be voted in Brazil since 1932! But in Brazil the law tends to be good, but not sufficiently enforced. As the popular saying goes "leis são como vacinas, umas pegam, outras não". But the real history is always more complicated than what we hear: here (link) is an example.

And, it is true, in 2011, Brazil elected its first woman President, Dilma Roussef. But politics is still dominated by men, in absurd numbers. One of the new developments in which I am putting lots of hope in is the 'Bancada do Cocar' (the headress caucus. More about that, especially the numbers in Brazilian politics, later on.