Social Status of Indian Women before and after Spanish conquest.

In the readings this week we focused on Andean Women and it seems their change after conquest and their marginalization from society, at least from history. Elinor Burkett points out several changes that led to this occurrence. She discusses the greater impact on rural women and also migration and social and economic biases.


The marginalization of Indian women was bad enough before the Spanish came, but after the conquest seemed only to get worse, especially for the rural Indian woman. Burkett claims there are two major reasons for this: the first being the modification of the tribute requirements under the Spanish. Under the previous system the community would pitch in to help take care of the widows and the elderly, however under the Spanish system it seemed that the majority of the labor fell to the widows. The labor expected of the men of age didn’t seem to change however widows were expected to perform the same work load as if they still had a husband and a fully productive economic unit. The second major reason for heightened impact on rural Indian women was the character of the labor demands. The division of work fell into the agricultural labor preformed mostly by men and the household duties still called “women’s work”. The new demands on women forced some of them to leave the rural areas altogether and migrate towards urban centers. Also, much of the migration done during this time was involuntary. Women were enslaved or married off to the Spanish.

Another issue of marginalization for women came from the Spanish “conquering” everything. The Spanish felt that women as well as villages could be conquered. They could intermarry with the indigenous tribes and take their offspring could take positions in both societies. Mostly the Spanish men felt that they could force the women into submission and simply take what they wanted. These Indian women were not only victims of their economic status but also based on their race and their sex, factors in which they couldn’t or were never given a chance to change. In many history classes we learn of the conquering Spanish and how great they were to come and civilize the native peoples but it seems the older we get I suppose the more history teachers think we can handle and thus go about completely changing everything we’ve always known. In reading the documents from this past week it seems the Spanish did nothing but take and pillage towns, villages, and women.