A intelectual Maria Eugenia Celso com a penna e a palavra em prol dos direitos das mulheres (1920-1952)

Abstract

This dissertation in the field of History of Education focuses mainly on the period between 1920 and 1952, attempting to underline the efforts of writer Maria Eugenia Celso in support of women's rights. It engages in dialogue with studies on the history of women in Brazil and in the West, as well as with issues of gender. In order to do so, it relies on sources such as the literary output of the writer, articles in the press and texts extracted from the archives of the Brazilian Federation for Women's Progress, as well as speeches given at lectures. To this end, we resorted to the content of books written by the author, to the collection of the National Archives, specifically the Foundation of the Brazilian Federation for Women's Progress, the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute, and to periodicals found in the collection of the National Library Foundation. We pored over the literary writings of Maria Eugenia Celso, her newspaper articles, her participation in the Brazilian Federation for Women's Progress, in the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute, as well as the speeches given by the writer in lectures. In this perspective, we intend to shed light on the writer's trajectory, so that her work may attain a broader visibility. Furthermore, we aim to offer a detailed reading of both the society of those days and the conjuncture involved in the achievement of women's rights and the context of the feminist movement in relation to the middle and upper classes of that particular time.