A Woman to Know: Bertha Lutz
We, the Latin American women, shall have to do the next stage of battle for women. — Bertha Lutz
(image via Library of Congress)
She was a zoologist, a writer and *also* a pioneering leader of the Brazilian women’s movement that rocked the country at the turn of the century. Oh, and also, even after all that, Bertha led the activism that secured women's inclusion in the charter of the United Nations. A simple word in the 1948 Universal declaration of women's rights encapsulates her life’s work: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, *sex,* language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
Add to your library list:
Power Interrupted: Antiracist and Feminist Activism Inside the United Nations (Sylvanna M. Falcon)
Chilean Feminists and the International Women's Movement (Corinne A. Pernet)
Emancipating the Female Sex: The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil (June E. Hahner)
Read more:
The origin of "women's rights are human rights": Pan-American Feminism (Radcliffe Institute)
How Latin American Women Fought for Women's Rights in the UN Charter (IPS)
The Dinner Party: Bertha Lutz (Brooklyn Museum)
Brazilian Species of 'Hyla' (Bertha Lutz)
A brief survey of women's rights (UN Chronicle)
Transnational Pan-American Feminism: The Friendship of Bertha Lutz and Mary Wilhemine Williams (Katherine M. Marino)
The heritage of Latina American women's political empowerment (Stanford University)
The virtual museum (Museum of Bertha Lutz)
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