Carolina’s vote

The stops

1. 1

   Stop 1: A woman doctor’s consulting rooms

   Rua Nova do Almada, 84, 1100-225 Lisboa

   Today: A building with a shop on the ground floor

   

   Carolina Beatriz Ângelo came from Guarda to study in Lisbon, graduated in medicine in 1902 and devoted herself to gynaecology. An advertisement from 1909 places her consulting rooms here, at No. 84 Rua Nova do Almada.³

   The Baixa was also the territory of another feminist doctor: Adelaide Cabete had consulting rooms on Rua da Prata and Rua Áurea before moving to Restauradores, where we go next.⁴

   • 1906Five women doctors join the pacifist movement “La Paix et le Désarmement par les Femmes”
   The story of the place See on the map

   To stop 2710 m · 10 min on footDirections

2. 2

   Stop 2: The Women’s Council

   Praça dos Restauradores, 13, 1.º andar, Lisboa

   Today: Praça dos Restauradores, 13

   

   On the first floor of No. 13 in this square, in Adelaide Cabete’s consulting rooms, the National Council of Portuguese Women was born in 1914 — for the historian Rosa de Lurdes Correia, “the most important and longest-lasting Portuguese feminist association of the first half of the twentieth century”. It had its headquarters here for 32 years.⁵

   Adelaide Cabete gave free consultations to poor women.⁴ The Council lived through the Republic and the dictatorship: it was presided over by Maria Lamas from 1945 and closed by the police in 1947.⁵

   • 1914Founding of the National Council of Portuguese Women
   • Jul 1945Maria Lamas becomes president of the CNMP
   • 28 Jun 1947The police close down the National Council of Portuguese Women
   RTP Arquivos · Video · broadcast on 31 August 1974 · 50 minMaria LamasA portrait of Maria Lamas in the series “Nome Mulher” (Name: Woman), by Maria Antónia Palla and Antónia de Sousa, with interviews in Torres Novas and in the newsroom of “Modas e Bordados” (Fashions and Embroidery) at “O Século”, and footage of Caxias prison. She talks about presiding over the National Council of Portuguese Women and its closure, about prison and about what 25 April meant.Open in the archive
   The story of the place See on the map

   To stop 3870 m · 15 min on footDirections

3. 3

   Stop 3: The first woman surgeon

   Rua José António Serrano, 1150-199 Lisboa

   Today: São José Hospital

   

   Carolina Beatriz Ângelo was a pioneer in surgery and, according to Lisbon’s street-naming office (Toponímia de Lisboa), the first Portuguese woman doctor to operate in this hospital.³ It was a small generation: in 1906 she, Adelaide Cabete, Domitila de Carvalho, Emília Patacho and Maria do Carmo Lopes joined a women’s movement for peace and disarmament together.³

   • 1906Five women doctors join the pacifist movement “La Paix et le Désarmement par les Femmes”
   The story of the place See on the map

   To stop 4740 m · 10 min on footDirections

4. 4

   Stop 4: The Republican League of Women

   Rua dos Castelinhos, 6, 2.º, Lisboa

   

   The Republican League of Portuguese Women was launched in 1908 by Ana de Castro Osório and António José de Almeida, and was formally constituted in February 1909 — according to the street-naming office, on the second floor of No. 6 on this street. It aimed “to guide, educate and instruct Portuguese women in democratic principles” and to change the laws that concerned them.⁶⁷

   After 5 October, the League asked the Provisional Government for a revision of the Civil Code, for divorce and for the vote.¹¹ In 1911 it split over which vote to ask for: Ana de Castro Osório wanted it for educated women; Maria Veleda, for all women.¹

   • Feb 1909Founding of the Republican League of Portuguese Women
   • 12 May 1911Feminist Propaganda Association founded
   RTP Arquivos · Video · broadcast on 15 August 1973 · 24 minAna de Castro OsórioIn the series “Grandes Escritores Tal Como Foram” (Great Writers as They Were), Maria Elisa interviews Raquel Bastos, Ana de Castro Osório’s daughter-in-law, about the writer’s life and work. Family photographs are shown, along with a postcard commemorating the Republic on which she appears.Open in the archive
   The story of the place See on the map

   To stop 51.3 km · 20 min on footDirections

5. 5

   Stop 5: The night classes

   Calçada de Arroios, Lisboa (número por identificar)

   In 1907 the Portuguese Group of Feminist Studies — women doctors, writers and above all teachers — gave night classes to women who could not read at the Dr Afonso Costa Republican School Centre, here on Calçada de Arroios.⁸ Teaching women to read also opened the door to the vote: the 1911 law would only give it to those who could read and write, or were heads of household.¹

   • 1907Founding of the Portuguese Group for Feminist Studies
   The story of the place See on the map

   To stop 6410 m · 5 min on footDirections

6. 6

   Stop 6: 28 May 1911 — “That’s me!”

   Rua de Dona Estefânia, 62, Lisboa (sede atual do clube: Rua Alexandre Braga, 24-A, 1150-004 Lisboa)

   

   Turned down by the electoral registration committee, Carolina went to court, and the judge João Baptista de Castro — father of Ana de Castro Osório — ordered her to be registered: by saying “portugueses” (the Portuguese), the law covered both men and women. She became voter No. 2513.²

   On the day of the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the polling station for São Jorge de Arroios was here, in the Clube Estefânia, then frequented only by men.¹⁰ A voter protested; Carolina pointed out that the law barred only “the insane or the drunk” from voting. At the second call, on hearing her name, she stepped forward — “That’s me!” — and handed in her ballot paper, to applause.⁹ The magazine Ilustração Portuguesa called her “the only Portuguese woman voter”.² She died four months later, aged 33.¹²

   What you can see today

   A plaque with Carolina Beatriz Ângelo at the entrance to the club’s current premises, on nearby Rua Alexandre Braga, a few metres from no. 62 Rua de Dona Estefânia.¹⁰

   • 14 Mar 1911The Republic’s first electoral law does not exclude women
   • 28 Apr 1911Court ruling orders Carolina Beatriz Ângelo to be registered as a voter
   • 28 May 1911Carolina Beatriz Ângelo, the first woman to vote in Portugal
   • 3 Oct 1911Death of Carolina Beatriz Ângelo
   • 3 Jul 1913Electoral Code reserves the vote for men
   RTP Arquivos · Video · broadcast on 30 May 1988 · 21 minAs FeministasIn the programme “Mátria” (Motherland), Natália Correia evokes Ana de Castro Osório: her granddaughter, Isabel de Castro, reads a text on the right to vote, and portraits of Carolina Beatriz Ângelo, Maria Veleda and Adelaide Cabete are shown. Elina Guimarães gives her testimony on women’s struggle and 25 April.Open in the archive
   The story of the place See on the map