Elisa Scheid

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the trajectory of a public primary school teacher of Rio de Janeiro’s city and a militant in the labor movement, Elisa Scheid, based on her writings and records of her activities published in widely circulated newspapers of the city and in those linked to labor movements. The study is part of a wider research on the trajectory of women, focusing on teachers and their participation in the struggles for civil, political and labor rights between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The analysis suggests that Elisa Scheid formed a broad network of sociability based on her family experiences her educational background, on her primary teaching practice in the suburbs of Rio and on her participation in associations, publications and formal political organizations. She participated in the creation and was part of the board of the Workers Union of Engenho de Dentro and the Independent Workers Party. Despite historical constraints and inequalities based on gender, class and race, our hypothesis is that Elisa Scheid performed a prominent leadership in defending workers' rights and education. She was engaged in political propaganda and worked for the formation of workers associations. Traces of her trajectory portrayed in this article, along with that of other teachers of her time, demonstrate how women occupied several spaces, at least those women of educated circles. Their struggles challenge the current representation of a supposed predominance of female experiences limited to the domestic world in that historical context.