Adelaide Cabete

A staunch Republican, she was an obstetrician, gynecologist, teacher, Freemason, author, philanthropist, pacifist, abolitionist, animal rights defender and humanist.

She was the founder of the Portuguese women's organization, Conselho Nacional das Mulheres Portuguesas (CNMP), and served as its president from 1914 to 1935.

In addition to being the lead editor of the CNMP’s bulletin, Alma feminina, she wrote articles about social and medical equality for women.

Adelaide de Jesus Damas Brazão Cabete was born on 25 January 1867 in Alcáçova near Elvas in the Alentejo region of Portugal, the daughter of rural workers.

Her father died when she was young and, in order to help her mother, she did not go to primary school and worked as a housemaid as a child to support her family.

The following year, Adelaide Cabete enrolled at the Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de Lisboa [pt] (Medical-Surgical School of Lisbon), concluding her course in 1900 with the thesis "Protection of poor pregnant women as a means of promoting the physical development of new generations", in which she proposed the introduction of maternity leave.

[3] In 1929, disillusioned with the authoritarian Estado Novo government, accompanied by her nephew, Cabete went to Portuguese Angola, where she worked to defend the rights of indigenous people and to provide medical treatment.

Adelaide Cabete
The Medical-Surgical School of Lisbon, 1900.
Photograph of Portuguese Republican activist Adelaide Cabete, included in the Album Republicano, published in 1908.
Supplement to the newspaper O Século about the suffragettes of the Liga das Mulheres Republicanas , published on May 12, 1910: 5 - Ana de Castro Osório ; 6 - Maria Veleda ; 7 - Beatriz Paes Pinheiro de Lemos ; 8 - Maria Clara Correia Alves ; 13 - Sofia Quintino ; 14 - Adelaide Cabete; 15 - Carolina Beatriz Ângelo ; 16 - Maria do Carmo Joaquina Lopes .