A republican doctor who only began studying after she married, she founded the National Council of Portuguese Women in 1914, chaired it for more than twenty years and made her practice in Restauradores its headquarters.
Republicobstetrician and gynaecologistteacher of Hygiene and Childcarefounder and president of the National Council of Portuguese Women (1914–1935)co-founder of the Republican League of Portuguese WomenFreemason
Born
25 January 1867, Elvas (Alcáçova)
Died
14 September 1935, Lisbon (São Sebastião da Pedreira)
She was born in Elvas on 25 January 1867 and only began studying after marrying the republican Manuel Fernandes Cabete. She qualified in medicine at the age of 33, in 1900, at the Lisbon Medical-Surgical School, with the thesis “Protecção às mulheres grávidas pobres” (Protection for poor pregnant women).1 In 1907 she opened a practice as an obstetrician and gynaecologist in the Baixa, at Rua da Prata, 153; she moved it in 1908 to Rua Áurea, 267, and from 1910 to Praça dos Restauradores, 13, where she gave free consultations to poor women.1
A republican, she was one of the founders of the Republican League of Portuguese Women, with Ana de Castro Osório: first conceived in August 1908, the League was formed in February 1909.17 For the 1910 revolution she sewed and embroidered, with Carolina Beatriz Ângelo, green and red flags to be raised in Lisbon.3 In Freemasonry she took the name “Louise Michel”.13
In 1914 she founded the National Council of Portuguese Women, which she chaired until her death and which had its headquarters in her Restauradores practice for 32 years.24 She called for a month’s rest before childbirth for women workers, and for the right of women to vote.1 The Council organised the First Feminist and Education Congress, from 4 to 9 May 1924, at the Lisbon Commercial Employees’ Mutual Aid Association, and a second in 1928; Adelaide Cabete also organised the first abolitionist congresses on prostitution.218 For 17 years she taught Hygiene and Childcare at the Odivelas Women’s Institute.1
In 1929, disillusioned with the dictatorship, she left for Angola with her nephew Arnaldo Brazão; she came back ill in 1934. She died in Lisbon on 14 September 1935 and is buried in the Alto de São João Cemetery.1 In 1946 the Council moved to Amoreiras and, led since 1945 by Maria Lamas, it was closed down by the police on 28 June 1947.2
Who she shared the Restauradores practice with, and on which floor: with her niece, the dentist Maria Brazão, on the 2nd floor (Toponímia de Lisboa), or with her sister, Maria Brazão, and her nephew Arnaldo Brazão, on the 1st floor (FCSH+Lisboa).
Whether she edited the magazine “Alma Feminina”: Toponímia de Lisboa and Wikipedia say she founded it and edited it between 1920 and 1929; the National Library gives Maria Clara Correia Alves as its editor from 1917.
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7Teresa Nunes, Liga Republicana das Mulheres Portuguesas (1909). Dignipédia Global — Dicionário Global — consulted on 4 October 2026A Liga foi delineada em agosto de 1908 (António José de Almeida e Ana de Castro Osório) e formada em fevereiro de 1909; a Liga Portuguesa da Paz foi fundada por Alice Pestana e Magalhães Lima em maio de 1899.
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