Rita Lobato

Rita Lobato

Rita Lobato on a 1967 stamp

Rita Lobato Velho Lopes (June 7, 1866 in Rio Grande – January 6, 1954 in Rio Pardo) was the first woman to practice medicine in Brazil. She received her degree in 1887 from a school in Bahia. Her initial enrollment caused debate, with some people arguing that women had brains too small to understand medicine or that a female doctor would never find a husband, although others were in favor of her entrance and the Echo das Damas saw her as an example for Brazilian girls. She did, in fact, marry and practised medicine for several years.^[1]

References

1. June Edith Hahner (1990) Emancipating the Female Sex: The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850–1940, Duke University Press, pp. 62–63.