O Movimento Sufragista Britânico na Imprensa Portuguesa (1908-1919)

This paper analyses nine articles, written in the Portuguese press between 1908 and 1919, which focus on the activities of the British suffragette movement. The articles are taken from four contemporary periodicals: O Mundo, A Madrugada, A Mulher e a Criança and Alma Feminina. The first was a Republican daily newspaper, whilst the others were newspapers or magazines whose main purpose was the defence of women’s rights. The last of the four contains articles which were translated from the magazine Jus Suffragii and are analysed in this paper. Concepts such as imagology, reception theory, representation, propaganda and the polysystem theory were employed in the analysis of the articles. As different as the tactics of the Portuguese and British feminists were, the writers of the articles tended to consider all feminists as part of a single community who strived to defend basic human rights for women. Although an admiration for the suffragettes and their violent tactics transpires from the articles (which contrasts with the more passive attitude of Portuguese women), most of the writers were dismayed by the repression inflicted by the Police and the Government upon the suffragettes. This was due to the fact that the United Kingdom was considered to be a countrywhere the right of free speech was believed to be paramount. Hence, some of the articles stress the biased attitudes of British institutions against the suffragettes.