Carmen Portinho

Carmen Velasco Portinho (1903–2001) was a Brazilian civil engineer, urbanist, and feminist. A pioneering woman in her field, Portinho was the third woman to graduate as an engineer in Brazil.

Life Carmen Velasco Portinho was born on January 26, 1903, in Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. At the age of four, Portinho's family moved to Rio de Janeiro. the federal capital at the time, where she soon became involved with the feminist movements, together with Bertha Lutz, for the right of women to vote. The campaigns that happen in the 1920s and 1930s for more rights for women, was where she fought tirelessly for equality between men and women. She was an activist for the education of women and for the valorization of women's work outside the domestic sphere. She graduated in 1925 at the Polytechnic School of the former University of Brazil, today the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Upon the completion of her studies in 1925, she became the third woman to graduate as an engineer in Brazil.

In 1929, Portinho enrolled in Brazil's first urban planning course at the University of the Federal District. For her final thesis, she created a conceptual design for the future Brazilian capital.

Due to the machismo within the Municipality's Directorate of Traffic and Works on the part of colleagues who questioned her competence and knowledge, Carmen was challenged several times at work. Her first task in the directorate was to inspect a lightning rod installed on top of the old city hall building, which her colleagues believed she would not overcome. Her experience abroad made her suggest to the then mayor of Rio de Janeiro the creation of a Department of Popular Housing to remedy the lack of lower income housing, a concept introduced by Carmen. which made several demands for women for the new Constitution. In addition to urbanism, Carmen was also advancing in the visual arts, aware of the role of the museum for local art and for the new urban project in Rio de Janeiro.