Women in Class Society: Contributions to a Feminist Historiography

Abstract

At the 50th anniversary of the book A mulher na sociedade de classes: mito e realidade (Women in class society: myth and reality), this article proposes to revisit the work of the sociologist Heleieth Saffi oti (1934-2010). The objective is to perform a historiographical analysis questioning what interpretation of the history of Brazil the author developed and its contribution to a feminist theoretical perspective. The author dedicated the second chapter to discuss “The evolution of the condition of women in Brazil”. Saffi oti made use of debate with some of the leading interpreters in the country's history, such as Antonio Candido, Caio Prado Jr., and Gilberto Freyre. At the same time, she made use of various documentary sources such as traveler reports, statistic data and letters in order to corroborate her arguments about patrimonial and patriarchal character of the Brazilian society. In this sense, the article seeks to examine the book as a work that contributed to the history of women in Brazil.