La doctrina católica, educación y sociedad: los testamentos de mujeres en Cuenca entre 1778 y 1808

Abstract

Studying women as historical subjects in societies has become a fundamental pillar in the academy, since they have been marginalized from positivist history little is known about their participation and role in social life beyond the general knowledge that reduces them to the interior of domestic spaces. In this sense, this historical work realized on the analysis of women's in the territory of “Gobernación de Cuenca”, Audiencia de Quito between 1778 and 1808, shows that at the end of the Colonia, the society of Cuenca maintained the idea of women's inferiority, as well as the manners and behaviors they had to follow in order to lead a life of feminine modesty. However, these women did not reduce their role to that of housewives, since for various reasons they had to leave the domestic space to enter the public sphere. This work also concluded that religious institutions and society had regulatory powers in the lives and deaths of these women. In addition, they allowed certain behaviors while censoring others, even so, despite the social restrictions, each one sought her place in society from where she influenced directly or indirectly.