Portuguese Women's Crusade
The Portuguese Women's Crusade was a Portuguese feminist beneficence movement, founded in 1916 by a group of women led by First Lady Elzira Dantas Machado, aiming to provide moral and material assistance to those in need in the context of the First World War and the enforcement of conscription. It disbanded in 1938. A staple of the so-called first-wave feminism in Portugal, it has been studied as a key feature of the history of feminism in the context of the Portuguese First Republic.
The Portuguese Women's Crusade was not meant to be perceived as a political organisation, rather, it called itself a "patriotic and humanitarian institution" in its statutes, and brought together women of different political and cultural backgrounds. Along the Women's Crusade several founding members were the wives and daughters of several important politicians and military officers, namely Alzira Costa, Ester Norton de Matos, and Amélia Leote do Rego, as well as important feminists, such as Ana de Castro Osório.
On 12 June 1919, President Canto e Castro made the Portuguese Women's Crusade a Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit, and founder Elzira Dantas Machado a Grand Cross of the Order of Christ.
