Maria Ernestina Carneiro Santiago de Souza (pseudonym, Miêtta Santiago;

Varginha Varginha is a municipality in southwest Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Varginha stands out as one of the major centers of commerce and coffee production in Brazil and the world. The city is a center for export of coffee draining most of the producti ...

, 1903–1995) was a Brazilian writer, poet, lawyer, suffragist and feminist activist in support of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), 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 c ...

. She was one of the early women in Brazil to fully exercise their political rights.

Biography

With Celina Guimarães Viana, Santiago was a pioneer in 1927 in the struggle for women's suffrage in Brazil. In 1928, Santiago challenged the constitutionality of the ban on women voting in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, stating that it breached Article 70 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of the United States of Brazil, dated February 24, 1891, which was then in force.Séguin, Elida (2002). ''Minorias E Grupos Vulneraveis: Uma Abordagem Juridica'' (in Portuguese)

Selected works

* ''Namorada da Deus'' (1936) * ''Maria Ausência'' (1940) * ''Uma consciência unitária para a humanidade'' (1981) * ''As 7 poesias'' (1981)

References

1903 births 1995 deaths People from Varginha, Minas Gerais Brazilian women poets 20th-century Brazilian lawyers Brazilian suffragists Brazilian feminists Brazilian women's rights activists 20th-century Brazilian poets 20th-century Brazilian women writers Brazilian women lawyers 20th-century Brazilian women lawyers {{womensrights-activist-stub