Lutegarda Guimarães de Caires, also Lutgarda and Luthegarda, (1858–1935) was a Portuguese

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

activist and poet. She is remembered for starting the Portuguese tradition of bringing gifts of clothes, toys and sweets to children in hospital at Christmas. She fought successfully to have conditions for female prisoners significantly improved. In addition to her award-winning poetry, Lutgarda de Caires published articles in the press calling for

equal opportunities Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. The intent is that the important ...

for women and improvements to their property rights.

Biography

Born in

Vila Real de Santo António Vila Real de Santo António (, often run together as ) is a city, civil parish, and municipality in the Algarve, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 19,156, in an area of 61.25 km2. It is one of the few municipalities in Portugal without ter ...

in 1858, Lutgarda Guimarães was the daughter of María Teresa de Barros y José Rodrigues Guimarães. After her mother died when she was still a small child, she and her brother were lovingly cared for by her father who introduced them to the harp, violin and sitar. While still young, Guimarães left the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

and moved to

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

where she met and later married João de Caires, a lawyer from Madeira. He founded the Sociedade de Propaganda de Portugal which met regularly in their home, bringing together guests interested in discussing literature. Guimarães also took part in the meetings but was initially saddened by the death of her infant daughter. It was her daughter's death that encouraged her to take clothes, toys and sweets to the children in the Hospital da Estefânia. From 1905, she began to contribute articles on social issues to newspapers and journals. As for her poetry, her first work was ''Glicínias'' (1910). Other popular works were ''Papoilas'' (1912) and ''A Dança do Destino, contos e narrativas'' (1913). In 1923, her sonnet ''Florinha da Rua'' won the first prize in the Hispano-Portuguese Floral Games in

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...

. In 1911, the Ministry of Justice invited her to undertake a study of the conditions in which prisoners lived, especially women. As a result of her criticisms, improvements followed. In June 1913, she, Ana Augusta de Castilho, Beatriz Pinheiro, Joana de Almeida Nogueira and

Maria Veleda Maria Veleda, the pseudonym widely used by Maria Carolina Frederico Crispin (1871–1955), was a Portuguese educator, journalist and activist. One of the most effective early feminists in Portugal, she fought for the rights of women factory worker ...

were part of the Portuguese delegation at the

Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance The Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance met in Budapest, Hungary, June 15–21, 1913. As had been the case with all the preceding conferences, the location had been chosen to reflect the status of woman suffrage: a place ...

in Budapest. Lutgarda Guimarães de Caires died in Lisbon in 1935. Lutegarda Guimarães died at the age of 76, at her residence, the second floor right of number 53 of Avenida da Liberdade, parish of São José, in Lisbon, her age being erroneously stated as 63 in the death register. The cause of death is given as breast cancer and cardiac syncope. She is buried in a family plot in the Prazeres Cemetery in Lisbon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caires, Lutegarda de 1873 births 1935 deaths People from Vila Real de Santo António Portuguese feminists Portuguese women activists Portuguese women's rights activists Portuguese philanthropists 20th-century Portuguese poets Portuguese women poets Portuguese women writers Order of Saint James of the Sword