20 Brazilian women who made history

Did you know that the most valuable Brazilian painting was painted by a woman? And that the first feminist book in the country was written there in 1832? Did you know that there was once a Women’s Republican Party and that it was founded in 1910, before women even had the right to vote? Did you know that a Brazilian woman was once the highest paid woman in the US and that there were women going to the battlefronts during colonialism?

So check out the stories of 20 incredible women who changed Brazil and who will give you an extra dose of inspiration for life!

Dandara

Wikipedia reproduction

Everyone knows that Zumbi was the leader of Quilombo dos Palmares, but how many times have you heard about him? Dandara🇧🇷 She was Zumbi’s wife and fought alongside him for the liberation of blacks in the colonial period. Her story is surrounded by mysteries, but it is known that she didn’t run away from a fight, she fought capoeira, she knew how to handle weapons and she hunted very well. She committed suicide in 1694, along with several other quilombolas, during the taking of Palmares.

Tarsila do Amaral

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She is the author of the most valued Brazilian painting in history, the Abaporu (which exceeds US$ 2.5 million). Tarsila is one of the central names of the first phase of artistic modernism in Brazil and was one of those responsible for organizing the revolutionary Week of Modern Art in 1922, held in São Paulo.

Marta

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Elected the best player in the world for five consecutive years (between 2006 and 2010), the Alagoan achieved an unprecedented feat in Brazilian football. Among men, neither Pelé nor Ronaldo reached that mark! She is also the top scorer in the Brazilian national team (counting the men’s and women’s teams) and the top scorer in the Women’s World Cup.

Maria Quitéria

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Considered the Brazilian Joan of Arc, Maria Quiteria de Jesus fought for Brazil’s independence at the beginning of the 19th century. In order to enter combat, she disguised herself as a man and presented herself as a Medeiros soldier to the other officers. She was eventually unmasked by her own father, but was defended by her commander and continued to fight alongside the men.

Shirley Mallmann

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Everyone knows that Gisele is the greatest Brazilian model, but can you say who paved the way for her and all the other top models made in Brazil? Shirley Mallmann🇧🇷 She was discovered working in a shoe factory in the 1990s and became the first Brazilian to be considered an international top model. Jean Paul Gaultier was such a fan of Shirley that he was inspired by her silhouette to create the bottle for the iconic Classique perfume.

Fernanda Montenegro

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The greatest lady of national cinema is to date the only Brazilian woman to receive an Oscar nomination and also the only one (between men and women) to be nominated in an acting category. Fernanda was nominated for the feature “Central do Brasil”, in 1999, which also competed for Best Foreign Film that year. She also received the International Emmy (considered the Oscar of television) as best foreign actress, for her role in the series “Doce de Mãe”.

Hebe Camargo

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Eternal queen of national television, Hebe he was at the side of Assis Chateaubriand in the birth of Rede Tupi, the first Brazilian TV station. At the time, she commanded the first female program launched here in Brazil, entitled “O Mundo é das Mulheres”. She worked until the end of her life and died in 2012, aged 83, from cancer.

Leila Diniz

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During the military dictatorship, Leila she was an advocate of free love and female emancipation. She was a pioneer in wearing a bikini on the beach during pregnancy and paved the way for this taboo to be demystified. At the age of 20, she was one of the greatest muses on Brazilian television and also the one who most talked about sex openly. She died at age 27 in a plane crash. She was returning from a trip to Australia and her daughter was only 7 months old at the time.

Roberta Close

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She was the first transsexual celebrity in Brazil and gave visibility to the trans cause at a time when nobody was talking about it in the country. She operated in England in 1989 and fought for the right to legally change her name. Even though she is an international model, the process ran in court for many years and she was only recognized as a woman in 2005.

Lota de Macedo Soares

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Never having attended college, Lota was one of the most important architects in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s. Even though she was a targeted woman, she did not hide from anyone that she was a lesbian and was one of those responsible for the ambitious project of Parque do Flamengo, the largest landfill urban world. The great love of her life was the iconic American poet Elizabeth Bishop, with whom she lived from 1951 to 1965.

Maria da penha

Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/Agência Brasil

After escaping two assassination attempts by her husband and fighting for 20 years to see the aggressor and the State punished, she alerted the government to the urgency of legislation to protect women victims of domestic violence. Her battle was not in vain and the law that bears her name has been in force since 2006. Today, she coordinates an NGO that helps victims and works to combat the problem.

Zuzu Angel

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She was one of the first fashion designers to mix Brazilianness and haute couture, but she became an icon for rebelling against the military dictatorship. Her son was killed and tortured, without the body delivered to the family and Zuzu fought for the right to bury him. She took the protest to the catwalks and drew the attention of the international press and even the US government. She never found her son’s body and died in a mysterious car accident in 1976.

Chiquinha Gonzaga

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She was the first woman to conduct an orchestra in Brazil and is also the author of the first carnival march in history: “Ó Abre Alas”, composed in 1899. She left her husband for art, raised two children alone, composed more than 2 thousand songs and still fought against the monarchy and in favor of the abolition of slavery. The National Day of Brazilian Popular Music is celebrated on October 17, the date on which she was born.

Elza Soares

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Because of poor childhood, elza she was forced to marry at 12 and was already a mother at 13. At the same time, she surprised everyone by singing on a talent show, but she only managed to pursue a career after becoming a widow, at 21. Even with the fame, she suffered a lot for being accused of ending the marriage of the player Garrincha and even received death threats at the time. She turned around and is today a living legend of MPB.

Anita Garibaldi

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Entitled “the heroine of both worlds”, Anita was a revolutionary who made history in the 19th century. She was born in Santa Catarina and there she married the Italian guerrilla Giuseppe Garibaldi, with whom she fought in the Farroupilha Revolution (here in Brazil) and against the invasion of the Austro-Hungarian army (in Italy). She had five children but never left the front lines, even while she was pregnant.

Leolinda Daltro

Reproduction of the book “Catechesis of the Indians in Brazil – News and documents for History”

Considered one of the precursors of feminism in Brazil, Leolinda was a teacher who fought for the indigenous cause and for the autonomy of women in the 19th century. She is one of the most important names in the suffragist movement in the country and was the main founder of the Female Republican Party in 1910. In addition, she even separated from her husband to travel through the interior of the country in favor of lay literacy for the Indians.

Mary Lenk

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Regarded as one of the great heroines of national sport, she was the first South American woman to compete in the Olympic Games, in Los Angeles, in 1932. She was also the first Brazilian to set a world record in swimming and the only one to appear at the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Florida.

Nísia Floresta

Reproduction of the book “Nísia Floresta – A woman ahead of her time”

Another precursor of feminism in Brazil, she is the author of the mythical book “Direitos das Mulheres e Injustice dos Homens”, written in 1832. This is considered the first feminist work in Brazil! She also wrote important books in defense of the Indians and the abolition of slavery. Nisia was born in Rio Grande do Norte, but traveled the country defending the literacy of women and even founded schools for girls in Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul.

Zilda Arns Neumann

prefecture.sp.gov.br

Recognized as one of the greatest humanitarians in Brazil, she was a very important pediatrician for the reduction of infant mortality in the country. Her legacy began in 1983, when she founded the Pastoral da Criança, a gigantic institution linked to the Catholic Church that today operates in 20 countries and serves more than 1.5 million children and adolescents. Zilda died in Haiti in 2010, victim of the earthquake that decimated the country that year.

Carmen Miranda

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Carmen Miranda was born in Portugal by chance, but arrived in Brazil at just one year old and became one of the greatest symbols of the country. She was responsible for putting the country on the international showbiz map and became the highest paid woman in the US in the mid-1940s. She was also responsible for leveraging tropicalismo, the most important cultural movement in Brazil’s history.