Nísia Floresta

Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta (1810 to 1885) was the pen name of Dionísia Gonçalves Pinto, a Brazilian educator, translator, writer, poet, philosopher and feminist, often called the first Brazilian feminist. Born in Papari in Rio Grande do Norte, she supported herself and her two small children by teaching after her husband died, and in 1837 she moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she established the Augusto College school for girls and taught there for more than ten years. Her first book, Direitos das mulheres e injustiça dos homens of 1832, was a free translation of Mary Wollstonecraft that added her own reflections on women's rights, education and work, and later works such as Conselhos à minha filha and Opúsculo humanitário argued for the education of women and criticised the teaching institutions of her time for neglecting them. She travelled and lived in Europe for long periods, where she heard Auguste Comte lecture on positivism, and she died in Rouen in 1885.