Gender and Education in Eighteenth-century Spanish American Newspapers

This essay focuses on the study of two main Spanish American colonial newspapers, Mercurio Peruano (1791–1795) and Papel periódico de la Ciudad de Santafé de Bogotá (1791–1797), to understand how the role of women regarding education was debated in articles authored about women and by women. It examines the role that these newspapers had as discursive artifacts of cultural and gender mediation when it came to the important topic of public education. My critical intervention departs from the idea that the geographic localities in which these discourses were originated impacted the way women’s roles in society were viewed by male editors while also underscoring how women themselves understood their contributions and place in it. Particular attention is paid to how such gender constructions were connected to European debates taking place at the time about how women ought to be educated.