Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A public intellectual in nineteenth-century Portugal

2019; Berghahn Books; Volume: 19; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3828/jrs.2019.24

1752-2331

Cláudia Pazos Alonso,

French Historical and Cultural Studies

This article focuses on the role of Francisca de Assis Martins Wood at the helm of a periodical endowed with a distinctively progressive ethos, A Voz Feminina [‘The Female Voice’] subsequently rebranded O Progresso [‘Progress’]. It argues that Wood’s editorials marked a turning point in terms of a modern conceptualization of politics and religion from a gendered perspective. In her self-appointed mission to foster debate on religious, political, and ethical questions, Wood deployed a variety of tactics. The article examines the publication of open letters, often in the form of petitions, addressed to men in positions of authority. Her public interventions, addressed to Pope Pius IX and the Spanish Republican Emilio Castelar, should be understood as political activism at a time when women’s voices were not easily heard in the public sphere.