Empowering Women through Sport: Women's Basketball in Brazil and the Significant Role of Maria Helena Cardoso

As historian June Hahner observes in her 1990 book Emancipating the Female Sex: The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940, 'Although women have always comprised an essential element in the evolution of Brazil, their activities have received scant scholarly attention'. Major journals such as Women's History and the International Journal of Women's Studies seldom contain anything having to do with the experiences, much less the achievements, of women in Brazil. Therefore, few individuals have any understanding of how important the sport of basketball has been in helping foster their advancement. This article, which sets forth their involvement in this game from the time that it was brought to Brazil from the United States in 1896 to the present, is about more than sporting competitions. It also is about how sport can be - and has been - used to improve the lives of girls and women.