The right to vote in the nineteenth century in Brazil: the political performance of Josephina Alvares de Azevedo (1851-1913)

Josephina Alvares de Azevedo (1851-1913) was an important literary, journalist and feminist, active in the Carioca press during the period of transition between the monarchist regime and the Republic. With the foundation of the feminist newspaper A Familia (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, 1888-1897), the journalist brought together writers from various locations in Brazil, forming a network of literary women's rights defenders, such as the right to education, to work and voting, the latter being a fundamental right that should be guaranteed by the Republic. Josephina Azevedo's clashes with the nascent Republican government are the key to our incursion into political debates in support of the female vote in the late nineteenth century.