I wrote this for Colonial Latin America class.
The governing ideology of gender in Colonial Latin America was very chauvinistic. Patriarchy was practiced. Men were in charge of the household and were responsible for their wives. The ideal for men was machismo while women were expected to practice marianismo – or Mary-like modest behavior. There were some deviations from these norms.
The deviations from the governing ideology of patriarchy significantly threatened the prevailing social order. The society was male oriented and “men of all social ranks had compelling reasons to internalize the ethos of patriarchy and to join authorities of church and state in articulating and reinforcing its behavioral imperatives”. Men were the ones who were involved in politics and all political processes and were also the ones who usually “performed the heavy manual labor of fields and mines, constructed buildings and ships, worked on roads, and transported goods as carriers, muleteers, and seamen.” They also ran the military and only they could take part in higher education or join a guild. Women sometimes took part in traditional male roles if they were widows, their husbands were absent, or if they were single mother. However, the dominant role of women was to be housewives.
Men sometimes used violence against their wives. Women were required not to be promiscuous and they would be held accountable for breaking this social norm while men being promiscuous with them were not held accountable because no one was supposed to be watching over them. Men could punish their wives with physical violence for being promiscuous.
While clergy of the Catholic Church in Colonial Latin America was male dominated, there were convents were deviant women were sometimes placed. There were two kinds of convents: conventos grandes and conventos recoletos. The first housed a large number of nuns in a large physical plant. A microcosm of colonial rule, it had diverse social groups. There was a hierarchy of nuns with servants and slaves below them. Conventos recoletos on the other hand were much smaller. There were a few number of nuns there and it was a more austere environment. The nuns there were deeply devout and true to the ruler. The lower social class was represented in these convents and they were really cloistered. Although these women practiced sexual modesty, nunniers were scene as deviant to patriarchy. These deviations were a threat to the governing ideology of patriarchy because it was not a part of women as housewives being ruled by men while raising a family.
All the deviations from the perceived role of women in the male dominated society threatened the social order of patriarchy. When women took public roles that men took, they were stepping in the way of the role of the men. Being involved in convents also threatened the social order because it prevented them from raising a family. They were expected to be ruled by the men were in charge of their household. The women were supposed to be the inferior of the supposed superior men who were supposed to be responsible for their wives. This ideal of male machismo and female marianismo was the idea for society. Anything else was a form of deviation from the social norm.
Topic: Gender In Colonial Latin America (Read 5988 times)