Pious and educated: The education of girls and women in Brazil – fragments of the historical past (1846-1930)

Abstract

Using a bibliographic research, the article analyzes some fragments of the theories about women’s education inserted in the republican popular education project, from 1846 to 1930. It presents ideas about women’s education in Brazil, the relations between the political power and the Catholic Church and its idea of mother and wife inside a universe of submission. From the theoretical perspective, the paper is based on Aranha, Hilsdorf and Vidigal works, concerning the general questions of Education History during the beginning of the Republic and on Duarte, Nunes e Paiva regarding the women’s education universe. The analysis showed that the project did not involve feminine education and considered women only as children’s teachers and, therefore did not approve the idea of women attending regular courses; that the change of this mentality started from the spread of the liberal concepts, the reorganization of the family and a more equitative division of parent’s responsibilities and, therefore, the importance of women’s role in society increased. It points out the existence and goals of the religious schools on girls’ education and, during the twentieth century, the teaching career as a way to the first opportunities of economical wealth, the expression of the word not only figurative, and the transition of the domestic space to social visibility. The study concludes that the renewed ideal aligned with the State’s project to educate the people has not been enough to solve the inequalities of gender that had only been attenuated from the 1930s on, through the achievement of women’s right to vote.

Key words: republican education, women’s education, religious schools.