Maria Cláudia de Campos (1859–1916) was a Portuguese writer, feminist, and pacifist, best known for her controversial 1899 novel Elle. Born in Sines to a well-educated family, she was fluent in several languages and studied English and German literature, even writing a manuscript on Percy Shelley.
At sixteen, she married Joaquim d’Ornelas e Matos and had two children before separating in 1888, a rare step for a woman of her time. After gaining her independence, she dedicated herself to writing and journalism, publishing in A Leitura and A Sociedade do Futuro under her own name and the pseudonyms Colette and Carmen Silva.
Her literary debut, the short story collection Rindo (1892), was followed by Elle (1899), a semi-autobiographical novel set in Sines that stirred controversy for its candid portrayal of local society. De Campos was also a committed feminist and pacifist: she served on the Board of Directors of the Portuguese League for Peace’s Feminist Sector and was part of the Portuguese Committee of the Women’s League for Peace and Disarmament.
Her 1895 essay collection Mulheres. Ensaios de psicologia feminina analyzed major female literary figures and articulated early feminist ideas, earning her recognition as one of the first ambassadors of Portuguese feminism.
She died in Lisbon in 1916, and her novel Elle was republished in Sines in 1997, reaffirming her place in Portugal’s literary and feminist history.