institution used in the distribution of property. Socially, marriage allowed a man or woman to increase, maintain or weaken their place within society. Women could only maintain their purity by having sexual intercourse after being offered formal marriage. Unmarried women could not have private pregnancies in order to protect their own honor and that of their family. Among elite women, sexual and other behaviors were tightly controlled, but among women of lower social classes, they enjoyed relative freedom. Purity was a social value supported by Catholic and Judeo-Christian ideologies which described that the redeemer from sin was born of a non-sexual, pure, virgin woman. Therefore, Christian womanhood was linked to purity and advocated that women stay at home while men were expected to provide for the family. But because elite women achieved high social class, Christian womanhood helped reinforce and rationalize the lack of honor and status held by the majority. Whether Spanish or Indian, whether slave or free, honor was a set of ideas that separated a man's honor from that of a woman[footnoteRef:6]. Honor measured the extent to which women and men played their social roles. A woman's honor was defined by whether she remained sexually pure, while a man's honor was seen by his ability to defend his daughters' virginity and his wife's fidelity. Consequently, poor widows and middle-class slaves of indigenous peoples were less honored, which helped them maintain their social status quo of white elitism. Upper-class women did not work or leave their homes. [5: Socolow, 160.] [6: Melanie, 148.] Widows, single women, and those whose husbands were absent engaged in activities that kept them at home, while men interacted socially and sold goods. products[footnoteRef:7]. These economic activities limited direct access to the public and, therefore, activities were permitted to individuals of the more refined class. Additionally, lower-class women also worked in the fields, contrary to norms that allowed women to own property and businesses. All races combined, women also engaged in commercial activities, held agricultural positions, were merchants and grocers. In Mexico City, some women worked as maids and nannies while others sold tobacco. These workers were grouped together through humiliation and verbal, physical and sexual abuse because of the little honor accorded to them compared to the women who were protected. All of these factors influenced and complicated women's lives in colonial Latin America. [7: Burkholder, Mark and Lyman Johnson. “Colonial Latin America.” (OUP Catalog, 2010), 121.]Women's Contribution to Resistance to PatriarchyWomen found it worthy to resist patriarchy using techniques such as maintaining indigenous culture, religion, and witchcraft. However, in the 16th century, a Spanish colony formed in Peru attempted to civilize the people of Peru to match European values by destroying their culture. The Spanish colony filed a complaint against the religious cult of female witches[footnoteRef:8]. In an attempt to fight back, the women stuck to their indigenous ways of life. Through Spanish colonization, patriarchal power developed where some indigenous men gained political ranks. However, the marginalization ofindigenous people continued and went unnoticed, forcing non-Christians to flee to the mountains of Peru, where they resisted European culture and recreated the feminine component and social ideologies that governed the world of their ancestors[footnoteRef: 9]. This was a useful method of resistance, thereby establishing women as representatives of indigenous culture. They were able to retain their ancient culture because they were not given any chance to rise politically. [8: Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun and Witches (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 32.] [9: Silverblatt,209.]Irene Silverblatt opened resistance to witchcraft to remain in the colonial period[footnoteRef :10]. The fear associated with witchcraft was used by women to empower themselves. When the colonials went to Christianize Peru, the healing customs used by women were considered witchcraft. As a result, these beliefs led to an indirect gift of power. For example, Spanish men made powerful social comments because they feared the unknown source of the healing power that women used. In return, women were given the opportunity to resist the colonials and their religious views. During the colonial period, women of African descent also made powerful social commentary by manipulating religion. Ursula de Jesus, one of the religious servants, unlike other indigenous women in Peru, adopted religious beliefs to resist the patriarchy that oppressed poor and non-white people. She was believed to have a power of visions, so she used these visions to resist patriarchy. She used the European faith to resist patriarchy in the Church and rebuke those who held more power[footnoteRef:11]. Sor Juana de ka Cruz, also a nun, used the Church to manipulate social values by becoming nun and rejecting marriage and the patriarchy associated with it. By entering the convent, women were respected and achieved a certain feeling of freedom. She resisted the patriarchy in marriage that threatened her. Micaela Bastida Puyucahua played an important role in resisting the patriarchy of the home and the patriarchy of colonialism. She fought with her husband Gabriel Tupac Amaru, which was dangerous at that time[footnoteRef:12]. To resist domestic patriarchy, Micaela used the reflection and well-being of social values to resist domestic patriarchy. [10: Silverblatt, 182.] [11: Nancy E. Van Deusen, “Ursula de Jesus; An Afro-Peruvian Mystic of the 17th Century,” in Kenneth J. Andrien, ed. Human tradition in colonial Latin America. (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2002), 97.] [12: Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, “Indian Revolt in Peru,” June E. Hahner, ed. Women in Latin American History: Their Lives and Views (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980), 35.] In the 19th century, women faced the patriarchy of their own countrymen, not foreign invaders. As a result, women began to seek new resistance management techniques that resembled support for the home and the state. At that time, patriarchy favored men before women and children. Independence did not solve women's problems as was believed. Women considered feminists advocated only the education of women. Intelligent women have become better mothers and good citizens. Education was aimed at raising patriotic sons who benefited the state. Clorinda Matto de Turner wrote a novel to discuss better lives for women and indigenous people[footnoteRef:13]. In her story she described the struggles betweenwealthy city dwellers, the landed elite and indigenous peoples[footnoteRef:14]. So she started with a plea for the poor. In the novel, she describes that government officials left the poor family with large, unwanted loans, which are then demanded at a high interest rate. Other feminists, such as Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, have used education as a tool to achieve rights[footnoteRef:15]. She called on women to use their intelligence and moral beauty to demand the political right to vote and be elected[footnoteRef:16]. In her novel, Carolina Maria de Jesus attacks men and patriarchy[footnoteRef:17]. She rejected the patriarchy of marriage by remaining single and revealed that most men cling to their wives to survive due to their own poverty. She also rejects state patriarchy saying that everything in the country, including democracy and politicians, is weak[footnoteRef:18]. She says her state still preaches democracy and equality, but fails to deliver on its promises to the poor and non-white. [13: Clorinda Matto de Turner, Torn from the Nest (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc, 1998), 67.] [14: Matto de Turner, 48.] [15: Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, “What Do We want? in June E. Hahner, ed., Women in Latin American History: Their Lives and Opinions. (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980)., 54.] [16: Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, 54.] [17: Carolina Maria de Jesus, Child of the Dark (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), 31.] [18: Maria de Jesus, 31.]During the Mexican Revolution, many women acted to resist independence from the patriarchy and therefore worked as soldiers and camp followers. With the failure of the revolutionary regime, the memory of these women was lost. After the post-revolutionary regime, the modernization of the idea strengthened the patriarchy. Women adopted new techniques of resistance such as the Progressive Era, but the government controlled education in the interest of national development. Revolutionary leaders were cruel and harmful to the poor, because those who benefited from land, water, and justice were elite white men[footnoteRef:19]. This forced women to adapt their resistance again through methods such as military force which retained their role as protectors of culture and their label as mothers. However, they were not given the freedom to fully exercise their rights and their promises were not kept. Under leftist regimes, women worked as spies, army generals, and soldiers. But men were reluctant to follow women's orders; therefore, they began to fight patriarchy from below, under the control of lower status men. Women began to prove to men that as leaders they would succeed. Ana Julia even said that it was essential for men to know that women had earned their right to participate in the struggle[footnoteRef:20]. [19: Martinez, Pedro. “The Revolution”, by Pedro Martinez; A Mexican Peasant and His Family (1964), 88.] [20: Margaret Randall, "The Women in Olive Green," in Sandino's Daughters, (Toronto: New Star Books, 1981), 133.] However, a true achievement of equality for women has not been achieved. The unisex military comrades were broken not because women were not capable, but because some men had no experience fighting against women[footnoteRef:21]. Other extremist governments, such as the Proceso Militaire in Argentina, entered Latin American power[footnoteRef:22]. The group of Mothers of the Disappeared rose in the, 2015.

Essay / institution used in the distribution of property. Socially, marriage allowed a man or woman to increase, maintain or weaken their place within society. Women could only maintain their purity by having sexual intercourse after being offered formal marriage. Unmarried women could not have private pregnancies in order to protect their own honor and that of their family. Among elite women, sexual and other behaviors were tightly controlled, but among women of lower social classes, they enjoyed relative freedom. Purity was a social value supported by Catholic and Judeo-Christian ideologies which described that the redeemer from sin was born of a non-sexual, pure, virgin woman. Therefore, Christian womanhood was linked to purity and advocated that women stay at home while men were expected to provide for the family. But because elite women achieved high social class, Christian womanhood helped reinforce and rationalize the lack of honor and status held by the majority. Whether Spanish or Indian, whether slave or free, honor was a set of ideas that separated a man's honor from that of a woman[footnoteRef:6]. Honor measured the extent to which women and men played their social roles. A woman's honor was defined by whether she remained sexually pure, while a man's honor was seen by his ability to defend his daughters' virginity and his wife's fidelity. Consequently, poor widows and middle-class slaves of indigenous peoples were less honored, which helped them maintain their social status quo of white elitism. Upper-class women did not work or leave their homes. [5: Socolow, 160.] [6: Melanie, 148.] Widows, single women, and those whose husbands were absent engaged in activities that kept them at home, while men interacted socially and sold goods. products[footnoteRef:7]. These economic activities limited direct access to the public and, therefore, activities were permitted to individuals of the more refined class. Additionally, lower-class women also worked in the fields, contrary to norms that allowed women to own property and businesses. All races combined, women also engaged in commercial activities, held agricultural positions, were merchants and grocers. In Mexico City, some women worked as maids and nannies while others sold tobacco. These workers were grouped together through humiliation and verbal, physical and sexual abuse because of the little honor accorded to them compared to the women who were protected. All of these factors influenced and complicated women's lives in colonial Latin America. [7: Burkholder, Mark and Lyman Johnson. “Colonial Latin America.” (OUP Catalog, 2010), 121.]Women's Contribution to Resistance to PatriarchyWomen found it worthy to resist patriarchy using techniques such as maintaining indigenous culture, religion, and witchcraft. However, in the 16th century, a Spanish colony formed in Peru attempted to civilize the people of Peru to match European values by destroying their culture. The Spanish colony filed a complaint against the religious cult of female witches[footnoteRef:8]. In an attempt to fight back, the women stuck to their indigenous ways of life. Through Spanish colonization, patriarchal power developed where some indigenous men gained political ranks. However, the marginalization ofindigenous people continued and went unnoticed, forcing non-Christians to flee to the mountains of Peru, where they resisted European culture and recreated the feminine component and social ideologies that governed the world of their ancestors[footnoteRef: 9]. This was a useful method of resistance, thereby establishing women as representatives of indigenous culture. They were able to retain their ancient culture because they were not given any chance to rise politically. [8: Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun and Witches (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 32.] [9: Silverblatt,209.]Irene Silverblatt opened resistance to witchcraft to remain in the colonial period[footnoteRef :10]. The fear associated with witchcraft was used by women to empower themselves. When the colonials went to Christianize Peru, the healing customs used by women were considered witchcraft. As a result, these beliefs led to an indirect gift of power. For example, Spanish men made powerful social comments because they feared the unknown source of the healing power that women used. In return, women were given the opportunity to resist the colonials and their religious views. During the colonial period, women of African descent also made powerful social commentary by manipulating religion. Ursula de Jesus, one of the religious servants, unlike other indigenous women in Peru, adopted religious beliefs to resist the patriarchy that oppressed poor and non-white people. She was believed to have a power of visions, so she used these visions to resist patriarchy. She used the European faith to resist patriarchy in the Church and rebuke those who held more power[footnoteRef:11]. Sor Juana de ka Cruz, also a nun, used the Church to manipulate social values by becoming nun and rejecting marriage and the patriarchy associated with it. By entering the convent, women were respected and achieved a certain feeling of freedom. She resisted the patriarchy in marriage that threatened her. Micaela Bastida Puyucahua played an important role in resisting the patriarchy of the home and the patriarchy of colonialism. She fought with her husband Gabriel Tupac Amaru, which was dangerous at that time[footnoteRef:12]. To resist domestic patriarchy, Micaela used the reflection and well-being of social values to resist domestic patriarchy. [10: Silverblatt, 182.] [11: Nancy E. Van Deusen, “Ursula de Jesus; An Afro-Peruvian Mystic of the 17th Century,” in Kenneth J. Andrien, ed. Human tradition in colonial Latin America. (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2002), 97.] [12: Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, “Indian Revolt in Peru,” June E. Hahner, ed. Women in Latin American History: Their Lives and Views (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980), 35.] In the 19th century, women faced the patriarchy of their own countrymen, not foreign invaders. As a result, women began to seek new resistance management techniques that resembled support for the home and the state. At that time, patriarchy favored men before women and children. Independence did not solve women's problems as was believed. Women considered feminists advocated only the education of women. Intelligent women have become better mothers and good citizens. Education was aimed at raising patriotic sons who benefited the state. Clorinda Matto de Turner wrote a novel to discuss better lives for women and indigenous people[footnoteRef:13]. In her story she described the struggles betweenwealthy city dwellers, the landed elite and indigenous peoples[footnoteRef:14]. So she started with a plea for the poor. In the novel, she describes that government officials left the poor family with large, unwanted loans, which are then demanded at a high interest rate. Other feminists, such as Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, have used education as a tool to achieve rights[footnoteRef:15]. She called on women to use their intelligence and moral beauty to demand the political right to vote and be elected[footnoteRef:16]. In her novel, Carolina Maria de Jesus attacks men and patriarchy[footnoteRef:17]. She rejected the patriarchy of marriage by remaining single and revealed that most men cling to their wives to survive due to their own poverty. She also rejects state patriarchy saying that everything in the country, including democracy and politicians, is weak[footnoteRef:18]. She says her state still preaches democracy and equality, but fails to deliver on its promises to the poor and non-white. [13: Clorinda Matto de Turner, Torn from the Nest (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc, 1998), 67.] [14: Matto de Turner, 48.] [15: Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, “What Do We want? in June E. Hahner, ed., Women in Latin American History: Their Lives and Opinions. (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980)., 54.] [16: Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, 54.] [17: Carolina Maria de Jesus, Child of the Dark (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), 31.] [18: Maria de Jesus, 31.]During the Mexican Revolution, many women acted to resist independence from the patriarchy and therefore worked as soldiers and camp followers. With the failure of the revolutionary regime, the memory of these women was lost. After the post-revolutionary regime, the modernization of the idea strengthened the patriarchy. Women adopted new techniques of resistance such as the Progressive Era, but the government controlled education in the interest of national development. Revolutionary leaders were cruel and harmful to the poor, because those who benefited from land, water, and justice were elite white men[footnoteRef:19]. This forced women to adapt their resistance again through methods such as military force which retained their role as protectors of culture and their label as mothers. However, they were not given the freedom to fully exercise their rights and their promises were not kept. Under leftist regimes, women worked as spies, army generals, and soldiers. But men were reluctant to follow women's orders; therefore, they began to fight patriarchy from below, under the control of lower status men. Women began to prove to men that as leaders they would succeed. Ana Julia even said that it was essential for men to know that women had earned their right to participate in the struggle[footnoteRef:20]. [19: Martinez, Pedro. “The Revolution”, by Pedro Martinez; A Mexican Peasant and His Family (1964), 88.] [20: Margaret Randall, "The Women in Olive Green," in Sandino's Daughters, (Toronto: New Star Books, 1981), 133.] However, a true achievement of equality for women has not been achieved. The unisex military comrades were broken not because women were not capable, but because some men had no experience fighting against women[footnoteRef:21]. Other extremist governments, such as the Proceso Militaire in Argentina, entered Latin American power[footnoteRef:22]. The group of Mothers of the Disappeared rose in the, 2015.

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