Hello, my name is Carolina Beatriz Ângelo and I am, in Portugal, the first woman surgeon and

the first woman to vote in Portugal. I was born on April 16th, 1878, and I died on October 3rd,
1911 at the age of 33 with an acute myocardial infarction. My mother was Emília Clementina
de Castro Barreto and my father Viriato António Ângelo. I was married to Januário Gonçalves
Barreto Duarte who died a year before me, from this marriage we had a daughter Maria Emília
Ângelo Barreto Fagundes. As for my education, I studied at the Lisbon Medical Surgical School,
and my occupations became surgeon, gynecologist, suffragette, and republican activist.

In 1891, I entered the Guarda High School, I stood out for being a brilliant student and I
finished the course in a period of 4 years, continuing my studies at the Lisbon Polytechnic
School. When I finished my studies, I married Januário, an illustrious doctor and republican. In
1903 my daughter was born; in that same year I presented my inaugural dissertation "Genital
Prolapses (notes)" and specialised in gynaecology. This started my career as a surgeon, going
against all the sexist tendencies that existed in the operating theatres. Parallel to my career, I
became an advocate of women's emancipation, I took part in founding the Portuguese
Feminist Studies Group and was elected as a Substitute Member of the Board at the General
Assembly of the Republican League of Portuguese Women. In 1910, Adelaide Cabete and I
were responsible for the secret confection of the red and green flags symbolising the
successful Revolution.

On March 14, 1911, the First Electoral Law of the Republican Regime was published, not being
explicit that the right to vote was forbidden to women.

On May 28 of the same year, I voted in the Elections for the National Constituent Assembly,
thus becoming the first woman to vote in the country and in Southern Europe.

A day later there were images and letters published announcing this achievement, thus
reinforcing the suffragettes' struggle, but as a consequence the law was changed preventing
women from voting.