Bertha Lutz
Bertha Lutz | |
---|---|
Born | Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz August 2, 1894 São Paulo, Brazil |
Died | September 16, 1976 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | (aged 82)
Other names | Lutz Berta |
Occupation | Scientist |
Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz (August 2, 1894 – September 16, 1976) was a Brazilian
Early life and education
Bertha Lutz was born on August 2, 1894, in
Career
Early Brazilian women's organizations
Bertha Lutz returned to Brazil in 1918 after her seven-year academic career in Paris. Upon her return, she joined the Legiao da Mulher Brasilera (Brazilian Women's Legion) as an administrative director of a commission.[6] The established goal of the organization, founded by Alice Rego Monterio in 1919, was to provide organized social services for women in Brazil.[6] After gaining organizational experience, Bertha Lutz cofounded a new organization, the Liga para a Emancipação Intelectual da Mulher (The League for Intellectual Emancipation of Women), with Maria Lacerda da Moura in 1920.[6] This organization advocated for the inclusion of women in scientific areas. In 1922, Lutz established Federação Brasileira pelo Progresso Feminino (the Brazilian Federation for the Advancement of Women, FBPF).[7] This organization was different as it included women from across Brazil and created a national platform focused on socio-economic issues affecting women.[8] After some time, the FBPF broadened the focus on socio-economic issues to include the right to vote.[9] Within the first year of the FBPF's creation, Lutz and other members organized an international convention to take place in Brazil, which was attended by dignitaries within Brazil and from foreign nations, including notable feminists like Carrie Chapman Catt, Ana de Castro Osorio and Rosa Manus.[7]
Inter-American feminist and suffrage campaigns
The FBPF began advocating for women's rights and extending suffrage to women across the American states, campaigns Lutz also participated in. Lutz's involvement in the fight for women's suffrage made her the leading Brazilian figure of women's rights until the end of 1931, when Brazilian women finally gained the right to vote.
Lutz's advocacy for the rights of women did not end with the right to vote, and she continued to play a prominent role in feminist campaigns. In 1933, after obtaining her law degree from the
In 1935, Lutz decided to run for a seat in the National Congress of Brazil and came in second behind Cándido Pessoa. She replaced him when he died a year later, making Lutz one of the few Brazilian Congresswomen of the era. The first initiative that Lutz presented while in Congress was the creation of the “Statute of Women”, a committee to analyze every Brazilian law and statute to ensure none violated the rights of women.[13]
Lutz, however, was unable to push forward her measures after Getúlio Vargas was reinstated as dictator in 1937, which led to a suspension of parliament, and the Statute project.[14] Lutz nonetheless continued her diplomatic career. She was one of the four women to sign the United Nations Charter at the Inter-American Conference of Women held in San Francisco in 1945. She also served as vice president of the Inter-American Commission of Women from 1953 to 1959.[15]
Political conferences
At the 1922 Pan-American Conference of Women, Lutz advocated for the equality of rights and opportunity of women, with a special focus on political inclusion.[15]
Lutz came prepared to the 1933 Inter-American Conference of Montevideo with a study of the legal status of women in the Americas, and advocated that the nationality of married women should not be contingent on that of their husbands. She also proposed an Equals Rights Treaty and pushed the Inter-American Commission of Women to refocus and recommit to analyzing working conditions of women in the Americas.[16]
During the 1945
In 1964, Lutz headed the Brazilian delegation at the 14th Inter-American Commission in Montevideo.[19] Additionally, at the 15th annual meeting of the Inter-American Commission of Women held in 1970, she proposed to hold a seminar dedicated to addressing the specific problems faced by indigenous women. Although she was a little over seventy at this stage of her life, Lutz continued to attend conferences and push for the expansion of women's rights, including the World Conference on Women, 1975, in Mexico City.[20]
Scientific career
After returning to Brazil in 1918, Lutz dedicated herself to the study of
Lutz is honored in the names of two
Bertha Lutz's collections held at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro were destroyed in the fire that devastated most of the museum's collections in September 2018.[26]
Selected works
- “Observations on the life history of the Brazilian Frog” (1943)
- “A notable frog chorus in Brazil” (1946)
- “New frogs from Itatiaia mountain” (1952).
Death
She died in 1976 at the age of 82.[14] The Diploma Bertha Lutz for notable Brazilian women is named in her honor.[27]
See also
References
- ^ June E. Hahner, "Bertha Maria Julia Lutz" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 3, pp. 474–75. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
- ISBN 9780429437939.
- ^ "Vida Pessoal". Museo Virtual de Berta Lutz. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
- ^ Lôbo, Yolanda Lima (2010). Bertha Lutz. Recife, PE: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana. p. 129.
- OCLC 1084655495.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ OCLC 21077746.
- ^ OCLC 45727500.
- OCLC 45727500.
- ^ OCLC 45727500.
- ^ Lôbo, Yolanda Lima (2010). Bertha Lutz. Recife, PE: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana. pp. 31–33.
- JSTOR 3641229.
- ^ Lôbo, Yolanda Lima (2010). Bertha Lutz. Recife, PE: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana. p. 73.
- ^ Lôbo, Yolanda Lima (2010). Bertha Lutz. Recife, PE: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana. p. 75.
- ^ a b Lôbo, Yolanda Lima (2010). Bertha Lutz. Recife, PE: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana. p. 132.
- ^ a b Miller, Francesca. "Women, Culture, and Politics in Latin America". UC Press E-books Collection. University of California Press.
- ^ Marques, Teresa Cristina. "Between the Equalitarism and Women's Rights Reformation: Bertha Lutz at Montevideo Interamerican Conference, 1933". Revista Estudos Feministas. 21 (3).
- S2CID 153554479.
- ^ "Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD) at SOAS University of London". www.cisd.soas.ac.uk. Archived from the original on June 23, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
- ^ Lôbo, Yolanda Lima (2010). Bertha Lutz. Recife, PE: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana. p. 97.
- ^ Hahner, "Lutz", p. 475.
- ISBN 978-0292707047.
- ^ Lôbo, Yolanda Lima (2010). Bertha Lutz. Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Editora Massangana. p. 133.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Lutz, A." and "Lutz, B. M. J.", p. 163).
- ^ "Pristimantis lutzae Páez and Ron, 2019 | Amphibian Species of the World".
- ISBN 978-1-907807-44-2.
- ISSN 1468-0424.
- ^ "Nos 20 anos do Diploma Bertha Lutz, defesa dos direitos da mulher é destaque". Senado Federal (in Brazilian Portuguese). March 19, 2022. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
Further reading
- Hahner, June E. Emancipating the Female Sex: The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850–1940. (1990)
External links
- Bertha Lutz: Photographs from LIFE Magazine, three black-and-white photos, captioned in English
- Berta Lutz: Biografia. Getúlio Vargas Foundation CPDOC (In Portuguese)
- Berta Lutz: Biografia. Mundo Físico (In Portuguese)
- How Latin American Women Fought for Women’s Rights in the UN Charter, by Phoebe Braithwaite Article about Lutz's spearheading the effort to get women's rights in the UN Charter, accessed September 17, 2016. Includes photo of Lutz.