This article is based on an extensive research that examined women's participation in scientific activities at the beginning of 20th century, in Brazil, and it focus mainly on the analysis of the naturalist Bertha Lutz's performance as representative of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro in the "Brazilian Inspection Council on Artistic and Scientific Expeditions", between 1939 and 1951. Working at this Council, Bertha had been involved with important discussions about the development of sciences and about the protection of Brazilian's environment, and took part in the process of formulating national scientific policies, consolidating an important participation in a group constituted mainly for scientists and intellectuals which, between the decades of 1930 and 1940, mobilized themselves against environmental degradation and for the protection of resources for the accomplishment of scientific researches in Brazil.
Bertha Lutz; scientific policies; women and sciences