Women’s History Month
The Writers Who Inspire Me to Stand for Women’s Inclusion
The true story of three empowered women and their role in the first national campaign for gender equality in Portugal
As International Women’s Day draws near, I am rereading the worn-out pages of a book written before the dawn of the Portuguese Revolution of 1974.
A book written by the defiant hands of Maria Velho da Costa, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Isabel Barreno.
This is the riveting story of the “Three Marias.”
For half a century, the Portuguese people endured a dictatorship, during which women’s rights were stifled and freedom of speech was curtailed.
The days before the Carnation Revolution of 1974 that freed my country from the clutches of Salazar’s dictatorship were a time when three fearless women stood up to an oppressive regime and battled for democracy and women’s rights.
In May 1971, Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho da Costa, the “Three Marias,” defied the dictatorship and decided to co-author a book entitled Novas Cartas Portuguesas (“New Portuguese Letters”).
