The streetcar of desire: the feminist movement in Recife and the debate about sexism in republican politics (1927-1931)

Abstract

This article investigates how the Feminist Movement in Recife problematized the silence and denial of political rights to women in the First Republic. Strategically, feminists have focused on the conquest of political rights, as the possibility of achieving equal civil and social rights. The intense use of the press, radio and the creation of newspapers and magazines tell about feminist practices of freedom and power games, which seek to redefine the relationship of gender within the framework of a democratic and republican regime. If the movement did not fight against the naturalization of the difference between genders, it questioned its assumptions and laid bare the deep and ingrained concept of women's inferiority before men. The feminists took the modern streetcar and made the paths of desire.

Feminisms; Feminist Movement; Gender Relations; Citizenship