Enedina Alves Marques was born on 13 January 1913 in Curitiba, the capital of Paraná state in southern Brazil, to a family of modest means. She worked as a domestic worker and later a schoolteacher to fund her own education, at a time when access to higher education for Black women in Brazil was severely restricted both by race and by gender.
In 1940 Marques enrolled at the Federal University of Paraná to study civil engineering, entering a class of 33 students in which she was the only woman. She graduated in 1945, becoming the first Black woman to earn an engineering degree in Brazil, and the second woman overall to graduate in engineering from the university.
She went on to build a career with Paraná's state Department of Water and Electric Power, working on hydraulic engineering projects including water supply and sanitation systems that expanded infrastructure access across the state. Her technical work on dam design and water distribution systems contributed to the modernisation of Paraná's public utilities during the mid-20th century.
Marques died in Curitiba in August 1981. In recognition of her pioneering role, the Federal University of Paraná later named its Meteorology Centre after her, and she is increasingly recognised in Brazil as a foundational figure for Black women in engineering and the sciences.
- First Black woman to earn an engineering degree in Brazil, 1945
- Second woman overall to graduate in engineering from the Federal University of Paraná
- Contributed to major water supply and sanitation infrastructure projects across Paraná state
- Federal University of Paraná's Meteorology Centre later named in her honour
- Funding your own path can be the only path available. Marques worked as a domestic worker and teacher for years before she could afford to enrol in engineering school.
- Being the only one in the room does not have to be the end of the story. As the sole woman among 33 engineering students in 1940, she completed the degree others assumed she could not.