Women of the resistance
Maria Guardiola
1895–1987
Maria Baptista dos Santos Guardiola
A Mathematics teacher and headmistress of the Liceu Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho, she was one of the first three women elected as deputies, in 1934, and a central figure in the women’s organisations of the Estado Novo (“New State”).
- Born
- 13 January 1895, Bragança (Sé)
- Died
- 27 September 1987, Lisbon (São Sebastião da Pedreira)
Biography
She was born in Bragança on 13 January 1895.24 She graduated in Mathematics in 1920 and taught at the country’s leading girls’ secondary schools (liceus); she was headmistress of the Liceu Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho from 1928 to 1946.1
In the elections of 16 December 1934 she entered the National Assembly with Domitila de Carvalho and Maria Cândida Parreira: they were the first three women deputies in Portugal.13 She was a deputy in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th legislatures (from 1935 to 1945 and from 1949 to 1953), vice-president of the Mothers’ Work for National Education (Obra das Mães pela Educação Nacional) and, from 1938 to 1968, national commissioner of the Women’s Portuguese Youth (Mocidade Portuguesa Feminina).41 The Dicionário no Feminino (Dictionary in the Feminine) calls her “one of the most important and emblematic women of the Estado Novo”.1
Her presence shows the other side of this story: it was not the Republic that opened the doors of parliament to women, it was the dictatorship, albeit in a very restricted way. For the researchers Susana Fontes and Sónia Coelho, this was a strategy of Salazar’s, who saw women as “a necessary means of building and spreading the ideology of the Estado Novo”.1 She died in Lisbon in 1987, aged 92.2
Places
Dates
1933
The first girls’ secondary school moves into a building of its own16 Dec 1934
The first three Portuguese women deputies are elected11 Jan 1935
The National Assembly opens, with the first three women deputies15 Aug 1936
Statutes of the Mothers’ Work for National Education approved7 Mar 2025
Parliament marks 50 years of universal suffrage for women
People
They crossed paths with her
Domitila de Carvalho
1871–1966 · first woman to attend the University of Coimbra
Maria Cândida Parreira
1877–1942 · lawyer
Carolina Beatriz Ângelo
1878–1911 · surgeon and gynaecologist
António de Oliveira Salazar
1889–1970 · professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Coimbra
Álvaro Cunhal
1913–2005 · general secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party
Ana de Castro Osório
1872–1935 · writer, pioneer of children’s literature
Sources4
- 1Um olhar sobre a participação feminina na Assembleia Nacional: a deputada Virgínia Faria Gersão (Faces de Eva, n.º 47). Susana Fontes e Sónia Coelho / Faces de Eva (SciELO Portugal) — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 2Maria Baptista dos Santos Guardiola. Wikipédia (pt) — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 3O voto das mulheres em Portugal (Irene Flunser Pimentel, 29/9/2013). jugular (blogue, SAPO) — consulted on 2 October 2026
- 4Maria Baptista dos Santos Guardiola (Os Deputados da Assembleia Nacional, 1935-1974). Assembleia da República — consulted on 4 October 2026Legislaturas I, II, III e V; nascida em Bragança a 13 de janeiro de 1895; comissária nacional da Mocidade Portuguesa Feminina (1938-1968).