Marianne into Battle?: The Mulher Paulista and the Revolution of 1932

Unlike previous Brazilian conflicts, women played an active role in the Constitutionalist Movement and in a wide range of support services for the 1932uprising. The prominent role of women also served to reinforce claims about regional modernity and the paulistas’ sense of civic duty. However, the principal theme of this chapter is to show how the archetype of “the Paulista Woman” imbued the female participants in the uprising with specific racial and class attributes and depoliticized women’s entrance into the public sphere. It also considers the limits of acceptable forms of participation for women in an armed uprising, and the ways in which women pushed the boundaries of the Mulher Paulista archetype.