Carmen Escobedo

Brazilian educator and social reformer who pioneered modern women's education in Latin America

Carmen Escobedo (1895-1972) revolutionized Brazilian education by establishing the first coeducational school in Rio de Janeiro's favelas. A visionary educator, she developed the Escobedo Method that integrated vocational training with classical education, enabling marginalized girls to become teachers and health workers. Her 1930s Escola da Rua da Consolação became a model for UNESCO's later literacy programs.

During Brazil's Estado Novo dictatorship (1937-1945), she secretly ran underground schools teaching literacy and labor rights, documented in her memoir Memórias de uma Educadora Rebelde. She founded the Brazilian Institute for Women's Education in 1948, which trained over 5,000 teachers by 1960. Her work influenced later movements like the 1960s Movimento das Prostitutas. Despite facing censorship, she continued advocating for sex education and birth control rights until her death.