Maria José de Castro Rebello Mendes ( Salvador, September 20, 1891 –

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, October 29, 1936) was the first Brazilian woman to be accepted to work for the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a controversial event back when women were expected to be subordinated to their husband.

Early life

Maria José de Castro was born to a wealthy family in the city of Salvador, Brazil. Her father died when she was young and her mother, to support the family and her education, opened a school called ''Colégio Alemão''. Rebello Mendes excelled in her studies, becoming fluent in German, French, Italian and English. However, with the death of her mother, she moved to

Rio de Janeiro state Rio de Janeiro () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil. It has the second largest economy of Brazil, with the largest being that of the state of São Paulo. The state, which has 8.2% of the Brazilian population, is responsible for 9.2% of ...

Career

In Rio de Janeiro, Rebello Mendes briefly worked as a private tutor for children, but her income was not enough to her. A relative told her about the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

public examination for ''oficial de secretaria''. She enrolled in ''Escola do Comércio'' to learn

typing Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can b ...

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

, and other disciplines. She then applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in April 1918. At first, Rebello Mendes was dissuaded to give up but she did not turn down her opportunity to work there.

Nilo Peçanha Nilo Procópio Peçanha (; 2 October 1867 – 31 March 1924) was a Brazilian politician who served as seventh president of Brazil. He was governor of Rio de Janeiro (1903–1906), then elected the fifth vice president of Brazil in 1906. He assu ...

defended her aṕplication, arguing that many of the abilities required for the job, like discretion, was not exclusive to men. Rebello Mendes and eight men took the exams during two weeks and she placed first. Local newspapers vocalized their fears that a woman working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs undermined men from government offices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebello Mendes, Maria Jose de Castro Brazilian women diplomats 1890s births 1936 deaths People from Salvador, Bahia