Modernity embryo in thinking about Parana’s women in the Dezenove de Dezembro newspaper of the 19th century

Abstract

This article makes an analysis of the conflicting idea of the women’s social role and position (an ascribed characteristic of modernity) in some pages of the first printed Paraná Province newspaper, the “Dezenove de Dezembro” (December 19^th), in the second half of the 19^th century. Two columns of the newspaper were used as the source of the analysis: the “Varieties” and the “Official Part”. The goal is to show the differences over the treatment that should be given to women in this period, some confused with past ideas and others pointing new ways, such as the need for education and the “small freedoms” that fashion could offer.