Marie Rennotte

Marie Rennotte (11 February 1852 – 21 November 1942) was a Belgian-born Brazilian physician, teacher, and women's rights activist. She was active in the fight for women's rights. After earning her teaching credentials in Belgium and France, Rennotte taught for three years in Germany before moving to Brazil as a governess. Giving private lessons and teaching at a girls' school, she lived in Rio de Janeiro from 1878 to 1882. Hired to teach in the State of São Paulo, she moved to Piracicaba where from 1882 to 1889 she taught science, developed the curriculum, and enhanced the reputation of the Colégio Piracicabano [pt]. The co-educational school was an innovative institution offering equal education to girls and boys.

In 1889, on a scholarship provided by the State of São Paulo, Rennotte enrolled in medical school at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. That year, she was granted citizenship when a legal change allowed all foreigners permanently living in Brazil to become naturalized. Graduating in 1892, she studied at the Paris Hôtel-Dieu Hospital between 1893 and 1895, completing a specialization in obstetrics and gynaecology. Upon her return to Brazil, she defended her thesis to a jury from the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the University of Rio de Janeiro, validating her degree and allowing her to practice medicine in the country. From 1895 to 1899, Rennotte directed the obstetrics and maternity unit of the Maternity Hospital of São Paulo [pt]. She attended patients in the hospital as well as in private homes where she helped to deliver babies. Opening her own practice after she resigned from the Maternity Hospital, she operated a dispensary for the poor and immigrant communities, while continuing to see paying patients.

In 1901, she was admitted as a member of the São Paulo branch of the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute. She conducted research at the surgery of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia on the effects of chloroform as an anesthetic from 1906 to 1910. Then she traveled to Europe to study how to establish a Red Cross Branch in São Paulo. Upon her return she founded the local branch in 1912, opened a nurses training school, and began a campaign to found the first children's hospital in São Paulo. She continued to practice medicine through the mid-1920s, but increasingly in the late 1920s and the 1930s became more involved in the international feminist movement and scientific conferences. In 1922, she founded the Aliança Paulista pelo Sufrágio Feminino (Paulistan Alliance for Women's Suffrage). By the late 1930s, suffering from ill health, blindness and deafness, she was granted a state pension, which she collected until her death in 1942. She is remembered for her work to improve women's educational and health care options, and women's rights to employment and citizenship. She is also recognized as one of those who defined feminist thought in Brazil during the 19th century.

Jeanne Françoise Joséphine Marie Rennotte was born on 11 February 1852 in the Souverain-Wandre near Liège, Belgium. After graduating in 1873 from the École normale de Liège (Normal School of Liège), she continued her education in Paris. In 1874, she earned a certificate to teach elementary education from the Société pour l'Instruction Élémentaire (Society for Elementary Education) and the following year, passed the examination required by the French government to begin teaching.

Upon receiving her certification, Rennotte accepted a post in Mannheim, Germany, where she taught French language courses for three years. In May 1878, she arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to work as a governess. She remained there working as a private tutor and teaching at private schools, including the Colegio Werneck (Werneck College), a girls' school directed by Ana Isabel Peixoto de Lacerda Werneck. Rennotte taught drawing, French and German languages, and writing at Colégio Werneck until 1882, when she was hired by missionary Martha Watts of Kentucky to teach at the newly founded Colégio Piracicabano [pt] (Piracicabano College) in Piracicaba. The girls' boarding school implemented innovative principles for women's education, instead of the typical education available at the time which prepared girls for domestic and social spheres. Championing co-education and gender equality, it offered a well-rounded curriculum, including courses in languages, literature, mathematics, philosophy, and natural and physical sciences. Classes were also open to boys, as lawyer Manuel Morais Barros [pt] sent four of his sons there and encouraged others to do so.

Rennotte's initial qualification for the post, according to Watts, was her ability to speak French. During the 19th century, French was the universal language and access to classical literature, such as the works of Byron, Goethe, or Schiller, was only available in Brazil through French translations. Hired as a botany teacher, Rennotte's teaching methodology combined diverse elements incorporating lessons on the teachings of Auguste Comte, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Herbert Spencer with pedagogical theory based on Fröbel and Pestalozzi. Rennotte rejected the method of memorization previously used in Brazilian schools, instead requiring her students to give reasoned and complete answers to questions. She also taught French, anatomy, chemistry, physics, geography, and general history, using French textbooks, and promoted extracurricular activities by founding a literary society and a natural history museum. The aim of the school, since private institutions were not allowed to issue diplomas at that time, was to prepare students for higher education at normal schools or universities.

Though the methods of the Colégio Piracicabano had the support of abolitionists, masons, and progressive politicians like Prudente Morais Barros and his brother, Manuel, there were anti-liberal and ultramontanist factions which aggressively opposed the school. In 1883, the Sisters of St. Joseph, who operated the Colégio de Nossa Senhora do Patrocínio (Our Lady of Patronage College) in Itu, began a campaign to discredit the move away from traditional education for women. Because Watts was not able to speak Portuguese well, Rennotte became the spokeswoman for the Colégio Piracicabano, defending their educational methods in a series of articles written for the Gazeta de Piracicaba (Piracicaba Gazette). She also published articles in A Mensageira (The Messenger), A Província de São Paulo (The Province of São Paulo), Correio Paulistano (The Paulistan Courier), Diário Popular (The People's Daily), Município (The Municipality), and O Estado de São Paulo (The State of São Paulo). Watts acted as the administrator of the school, while in annual reports to the Methodist Woman's Missionary Society, Rennotte was given much of the credit for directing the curricula and enhancing the reputation of the Colégio Piracicabano.

At the end of the 1886 term, Rennotte went abroad to study new teaching methods in the United States and France, securing textbooks and other materials for her science classes. Returning to São Paulo, in August 1887, she learned that Literary Inspector of Education, Abílio Vianna had filed a report that the school's co-education and its failure to instruct on the Catholic religion were in violation of the Education Law of 1854. The state legislature rejected the report, allowing the school to continue, and spurring Rennotte to begin offering night classes in chemistry and physics, open to any citizen who wanted to take part. In 1888, Rennotte began collaborating with Josefina Álvares de Azevedo, founder of the new feminist journal, A Família (The Family). Writing articles about women's illiteracy and customs which kept them cloistered in the home, she equated the position of women in Brazilian society to slavery, calling out the "degrading servility" of their lives. She also argued that educating women was essential to preparing children for their social roles and duties of citizenship.