Abstract
Zimmerman offers one of the few examinations of female entrepreneurship and patent activity in nineteenth-century Brazil. Analysing patent applications and business contracts registered by women in Rio de Janeiro between 1876 and 1906, this chapter considers the role of gender and legal tradition in national plans for economic modernity. Although the Brazilian government enacted policies that encouraged female entrepreneurship and innovation, women faced strong social expectations to privilege their domestic responsibilities over any commercial obligation or interest. Comparing legal code and social prescription with female patent activity, Zimmerman calls into question traditional conclusions on the role of female property rights, business innovation and gender in Brazilian economic development.