Pre-Columbian Period: The Role Of Indigenous Women

In the pre-Columbian period, Indigenous women held diverse roles, which included occupations such as artisans, doctors, midwives, and marketers. Indigenous women collaborated in harvesting crops, preparing food, herded animals, and oversaw school dances and songs. Pre-Columbian Indigenous societies believed that women and men should obey each other because they were equal. Although the organization of work was based on gender suitable tasks, not one person was restricted from doing each other’s work. Most importantly indigenous women served important roles such as performing public rituals and being public figures. The role of indigenous women was uplifted in merely every way. In fact, indigenous women who died during childbirth were equated
Women who were perceived as “Dona’s” were most likely from Spaniard or Portuguese descent. Very few mixed women were able to be considered with high regards. Before the conquest, women were allowed to be viewed as nobility and were even allowed to possess land. Don Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala states that many Inca women were allowed to have rights and land, yet with the influence of a very strict patriarchal society many were forced to give up all their property to their husbands. Spaniard men had ideals of how women should act. If the women were from a good family, she was supposed to be a virgin. This view was a double standard because men could have relations with other women. The indigenous women were most likely the ones that were forced to be lovers (Women in Mexico, 26).Women were supposed to follow traditional gender roles. This is seen when women were taught to sew and cook rather than be educated. Education was only important to males because they were the ones that did all the laws. The text Colonial Latin America states, “[women] could not be elected to the local cabildo nor could they expect to learn to read or write” (108). This patriarchal society influenced women like Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. For example, she resisted the injustices of women by trying to persuade church officials that women were intelligent. By showing her intelligence to males she shows her views about the oppression they are undergoing (Women in Mexico,