Public Discourse and Models of Womanhood in Yucatán, 1870–1902

Abstract

Abstract In 1870, the women's association La Siempreviva established a school for girls and a journal of the same name; it both exposed the gender gap in educational opportunities and championed women's emancipation, which challenged patriarchal norms. Yet by 1872, La Siempreviva had abandoned its journal and the public debate on women's emancipation. While La Siempreviva directed the Instituto Literario de Niñas in 1877–1879 and in 1886–1902, men from various social sectors publicly discussed multiple models of womanhood, ranging from the Catholic Marian ideal to the conservative “angel of the house” and the model of Hypatia promoted by Protestants and freethinkers. This article analyzes La Siempreviva's drive to reform traditional gender roles and expand women's rights while tracing how this bargaining resulted in a new model of gender during the Porfiriato marked by the double shift.