Women from the Federation of Societies for the Care of Lepers and Defense Against Leprosy, 1926-1947

Abstract

This paper studies the family profiles of women holding key decision-making positions in the Federação das Sociedades de Assistência aos Lázaros e Defesa Contra a Lepra in different parts of Brazil. Using prosopography as a research method and technique, information was collated on women who were closely involved in Brazil’s health policy concerning leprosy from the mid-1920s to the late 1940s. The research confirms the involvement of the women in the control and management of the country’s preventoria and suggests that the social and professional standing of the fathers and/or husbands of the women who ran the federation was an element that influenced their actions towards the disease.

Federação das Sociedades de Assistência aos Lázaros e Defesa Contra a Lepra; prosopography; philanthropy; care; preventoria