Pioneering and innovation: contribution of women to Brazilian Economic History, 1940s-1970s

Abstract

This article analyzes the methodological innovations of eight female researchers in Brazilian economic and social historiography between 1940 and 1970. In contrast to traditional synthesis works, these authors promoted an epistemological rupture by introducing monographic and/or quantitative rigor grounded in unpublished primary sources. Emília Viotti da Costa, Katia Mattoso, Mafalda Zemella, Maria Yedda Linhares, Cecília Westphalen, Eulália Lobo, Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco, and Maria Silvia Bassanezi explored previously marginal themes, revealing, some, the agency of subaltern subjects, others, the complexity of regional economic dynamics, indicating that female production not only diversified the objects of study but also established fundamental parameters for economic history in Brazil, being essential for understanding structural inequalities and the formation of national capitalism.