International Womens Day Tribute One

As the more enlightened of you might know the 8^th of March is International Women’s days. In honour of this, I will be writing a small article about 7 women whom I believe should be celebrated more for their achievements, and then posting one article each day in the week proceeding the 8^th of March. Now some of you might know a lot more about the subjects then I do, which is all well and good, remember these are women I believe should be more celebrated because I haven’t heard about them a lot. As the articles will be brief I ask you to look up more on these extraordinary women yourself.

Name: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Born: 12 November 1651

Died: 17 April 1695

From: Mexico

Should be known more for: Being a Pioneer for Women’s Education

Born the illegitimate child of a Spanish Captain, Juana Inés de la Cruz, raised herself from her humble beginnings to become a preeminent scholar of her time. In a time when there was a severe lack of both formal education for women as well as an desire by the powers that be to provide any such formal education, de la Cruz was mostly self-taught using books from her grandfather’s library. According to Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography by her mid-teens she had mastered Latin, Accounting, Greek Logic, The Aztec language of Nahuati and had written several poems in different languages.

Her thirst for knowledge was so great that she asked her mother’s permission to disguise herself as a boy to be able to study at the University in Mexico City, this request was denied. She then entered the court of the Viceroy of the colonies as a lady in waiting. Here the viceroy decided to test the young de la Cruz, by bringing in scholars of various subjects to ask a variety of questions for which she would not be prepared. Everyone was dazzled by her intelligence and poise. With her fame growing Juana received many offers of marriage, but turned down all of them, to become a nun, primarily so that she could continue to study without distractions.

The now Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz continued her studies and also produced some of her most famous works of poetry (Hombres Necios and Primero sueo) and play (El Divio Narciso) . Criticized by the church for not concentrating on theology, Sor de la Cruz continued to fight for the rights of girls and women to study, going as far as standing up to her male counterparts, using the bible as evidence to support her arguments. Unfortunately In the end after some of her private letters criticizing members of the clergy were published without her permission, she was forced to give up her writing and her vast library of books, to prevent censure by the church and the attention of the Inquisition. She died two years later helping the poor and afflicted during a plague.