When looking through the archive, I was curious to see the roles that women played when these photos were taken. As I searched up “mujeres,” most images I found were nuns, self-portraits, wedding photos, or of motherhood. It was very clear that women were subjected to domestication, as distinctly portrayed by this image taken between the years 1883-1930. The description of the image stated that this was a cooking class at a school for young ladies.
Upon further research, I stumbled upon a website about a brief history of women’s rights in Mexico. I learned that education was a tool of domination, control, and assimilation, and women’s education was centered around religion and domestic activities. Changes in the educational system started to occur after the War of Independence, when a new constitution La Reforma was established in 1857. This caused a shift from the Catholic Church as the key player in education and gave the government more control. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 greatly impacted women’s involvement and inspired feminism as a collective movement in Mexico and took up jobs that were traditionally held by men working as soldiers and nurses, but were quickly sidelined which encouraged even more need for equality.
Although great strides were made in terms of representation of education, there is always more work to be done especially for indigenous women in Mexico who are faced with hardships such as language barriers and discrimination that go unnoticed by the government.
