Women Personal Archives: the digitization of CPDOC’s feminine collection and the relevance of women political action in contemporary Brazil

The increasing political participation of women contrasts with historical data showing a shy feminine participation in Brazil’s public affairs. This shyness, which is closely related to the reduced presence of women in hegemonic historical narratives, leaves distinguishing marks in Brazilian archives. The lack of women-collected documents in archival institutions should be considered under a light in which the presence of women in the public life is silenced. The digitization of CPDOC’s feminine collection have the purpose of increasing the amount of historical sources made available online. Of the over 2.7 million pages of archives in the institution, more than 900 thousand have been digitized and made available online. These documents can be considered the largest available and accessible primary source of Brazilian history on the internet. The women archives proposed for digitization will increase the academic relevance of this digital collection, especially considering its specificity.