Nísia Floresta e a defesa do ensino de ciências e de matemática para meninas/mulheres (1831-1853): educação, matemática e a formação feminina no Brasil do século XIX

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of a research study that investigated women's education in 19th-century Brazil, focusing on the restrictions imposed on women/girls in accessing scientific knowledge, particularly mathematics. The Educational Law of October 15, 1827, by establishing gender-segregated curricula, limited mathematics education for women to the four basic arithmetic operations, while men had access to a broader curriculum. In this context, the study centered on Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (1810–1885), an educator, writer, and advocate for the rights of women, Indigenous peoples, and enslaved individuals, with the aim of identifying, in her works, Direitos das Mulheres e Injustiça dos Homens (1832), Máximas e Pensamentos (1832), Conselhos à Minha Filha (1845), Discurso que às Suas Educandas Dirigiu Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (1847), Fany ou o Modelo das Donzelas (1847), and Opúsculo Humanitário (1853), a defense of science education, particularly mathematics, for women/girls. For the analysis of these works, this historical and documentary research was based on the Social History of Women's Culture, an articulation between Cultural History, Social History, and Women's History, employing gender, appropriation, and representation as the main analytical categories. The evidence found suggests that Nísia sought to subvert the educational logic of her time, proposing that women's education be grounded in moral and Christian principles, but also in a more intellectualized education for women/girls, advocating for access to the sciences and, suggestively, to a broader study of mathematics. Her argumentative strategy varied between emphatic discourses in defense of equality and more conciliatory approaches, adapting to the 19th-century social context. Furthermore, her advocacy for women's education was part of a broader project of social transformation, in which women's instruction was seen as essential to national progress. By highlighting the historical struggle for gender equality in access to scientific knowledge, this dissertation contributes to the historiography of mathematics education in Brazil and underscores Nísia Floresta’s pioneering role in advocating for women's education.