The midwives were “tutte quante” Italian (São Paulo, 1870-1920)

Abstract

The article focuses on the midwives (Italian and Brazilian) that graduated in Italian cities and in Innsbruck (Austro-Hungarian Empire) who worked in São Paulo during the period of Italian mass immigration to Brazil. The objectives are: 1. To bring to light the role of foreign graduated midwives working mainly in the city of Sao Paulo, whose number couldn’t be ignored if compared to the Brazilian registered midwives; 2. To examine the immigrant midwife’s image viewed traditionally by the historiography as untrained, ignorant and without professional or technical qualifications; 3. To rethink the women’s participation in the public sphere at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century and it’s relation within the Health Services; 4.To utilize resources not always used in the historiography of immigration, such as the registers of inspection by the Health Service, minutes, registers of qualifications, regulations and dossiers of enrolled students at the Escola de Parteiras de São Paulo (Midwifery School).