Carlota Pereira de Queiroz: first woman elected a federal representative in Brazil

The life of Carlota Pereira de Queiroz (1892-1982) was marked by her medical education and political activities following the 1932 Constitutional Revolution in Sao Paulo. She graduated from medical school in 1926 and received a Miguel Couto Award for her thesis on cancer research. She was appointed head of the Pediatric Clinical Laboratory at Sao Paulo Medical School in 1928. The following year, she went to Switzerland as a government representative to study children’s diets.

In 1932, she left the laboratory and, during the Constitutional Revolution in Sao Paulo between July and October of that year, she led a team of 700 women that cared for the wounded. In May 1933, she was the only woman elected to the National Constitutional Assembly, for the United Sao Paulo Party, nominated by the Federation of Volunteers.

As a member of the assembly, she served on the Health and Education Committee, working to promote literacy and social welfare. She drafted a proposal to create social services in Brazil and an amendment to set up a workers’ welfare center and childhood biology laboratory.

After the Constitution was ratified on July 17, 1934, she was elected a federal representative for the Constitutionalist Party of Sao Paulo in October of that year. She served in the House of Representatives until 1937, when the Estado Novo regime began (1937-1945). She then campaigned to reintroduce democracy in Brazil.

She was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 1942. Eight years later, she founded the Brazilian Academy of Female Doctors, of which she was the president for several years. She supported the civilian and military coup that brought down President João Goulart in 1964. 

This article is part of a special series called Women’s Archives, which was launched on International Women’s Day.