Day 1- Reading Response

Step 3, Study Question A:

Juana Ines de la Cruz, also known as Sor Juana, was a well-educated woman who lived in Mexico during the 1600’s. She was a self-taught scholar, mathematician, poet and nun. She is considered today to be a Mexican writer who wrote at the start of Mexican history. She is considered by many to be a child prodigy because by the age of 3 she had learned to read and write, by 5 could do math, and at 8 had written a poem on the holy sacrament. She was sent to Mexico at age 16 and begged her parents to allow her to disguise herself as a student and attend the university. However, when her parents did not allow her to do this she continued her studies in private. In the late 1660’s she entered the convent and stayed a member until her death.

Sor Juana was accused of acquiring too much intellect. Basically she was said to be to smart and that she was educated beyond that which a woman should be educated. It could be justifiable to accuse a nun of “too much intellectual interest” because if they were too smart than they might recognize that women were not inferior to men; an idea that the church rested its laurels on. The church did not want women to gain intellect because it could threaten their power. If women gained knowledge and realized that they truly were of equal intellect to men then the church would not have been able to hold onto the power that they had. The political reasons why women were not allowed to gain intellectual knowledge (power) are that once in power women could change the sexist social structure that was in place. Also, if they gained intellect they would realize that all women should be allowed to be educated and that would lessen the grasp that the men of the era had over their women. If women had been allowed to go to school and be educated the way that men of the era were allowed to then we would live in a very different community today.

If you were a woman in the 1600’s the best idea for you was to never let a man know how smart you really were. Sor Juana was a well-educated woman, but I doubt that she ever really showed the extent of her knowledge, which is a shame because women needed to demonstrate their intelligence in the 1600’s.