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Catholic Women and Mexican Politics, 1750–1940
How women preserved the power of the Catholic Church in Mexican political life
What accounts for the enduring power of the Catholic Church, which withstood widespread and sustained anticlerical opposition in Mexico? Margaret Chowning locates an answer in the untold story of how the Mexican Catholic church in the nineteenth century excluded, then accepted, and then came to depend on women as leaders in church organizations.
But much more than a study of women and the church or the feminization of piety, the book links new female lay associations beginning in the 1840s to the surprisingly early politicization of Catholic women in Mexico. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials spanning more than a century of Mexican political life, Chowning boldly argues that Catholic women played a vital role in the church’s resurrection as a political force in Mexico after liberal policies left it for dead.
Shedding light on the importance of informal political power, this book places Catholic women at the forefront of Mexican conservatism and shows how they kept loyalty to the church strong when the church itself was weak.
What accounts for the enduring power of the Catholic Church, which withstood widespread and sustained anticlerical opposition in Mexico? Margaret Chowning locates an answer in the untold story of how the Mexican Catholic church in the nineteenth century excluded, then accepted, and then came to depend on women as leaders in church organizations.
But much more than a study of women and the church or the feminization of piety, the book links new female lay associations beginning in the 1840s to the surprisingly early politicization of Catholic women in Mexico. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials spanning more than a century of Mexican political life, Chowning boldly argues that Catholic women played a vital role in the church’s resurrection as a political force in Mexico after liberal policies left it for dead.
Shedding light on the importance of informal political power, this book places Catholic women at the forefront of Mexican conservatism and shows how they kept loyalty to the church strong when the church itself was weak.
376 pages, Hardcover
Published January 3, 2023
23 people want to read
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December 30, 2024
Margaret Chowning’s book analyzes the role of women in Mexican politics from the late colonial period (1750 ) to the Porfiriato (1940). The principal aim of the book is to challenge the assumption that Mexican women did not actively participate in Mexican politics until the 1910’s Revolution. In order to do so, Chowning studies the role of Catholic women who, already in the late colonial period, were part of cofradías (lay confraternities) and used them as channels for the promotion of female leadership and autonomy within the Catholic Church and their own communities. For Chowning, in order to understand the rising participation of women in politics after the 1910’s Revolution, historians must look back to the 19th century to better comprehend the factors that promoted this action, which she believes those are found principally in these cofradías associated with the Catholic Church, but also in acts like signing petitions and participating in political campaigns in defense of the Church, especially during the Liberal Reform period when lots of measures were promulgated attacking the Church’s interests.
Chowning ascribes to the high fatality rates of men after the wars of independence and the liberal values of the time the association of the public sphere, such as politics and culture, with men; and the private sphere, such as the household and the Church, with women. As a result, women were often secluded and deprived of their most basic rights, which made them turn to the Catholic Church as a safe space, where, despite its hierarchy and gender bias, could still provide a sense of community belonging and more opportunities for participation to these women than secular society. This has led historians to term this phenomenon as the ‘feminization of religion’. As men left these confraternities, women gained more control and power of decision, that conspicuously used to promote their space in Mexican society, such as example show with the creation of the Vela Perpetua in 1840 (pp.81-2).
I believe this book can offer a new perspective on the study of women in modern Mexico and their increasing participation in politics, however, the book presents some problems when framing its main argument. Chowning argues that the successive liberal governments in Mexico during the Reform period were characterised by the high activity of political protests and campaigns where these conservative and religious women partook defending the Catholic Church, such as the 1856 petition when 96 women signed against the proposed religious tolerance act that was going to be included in the new constitution. As Chowning argues, ‘‘secularization does not necessarily mean modernization’’, and this period was characterised by the fierce attacks these women suffered by the liberal press, using misogynistic discourses to reduce them as mere political pawns used by the Church to exert pressure on Mexican politics. Yet, the evidence provided by the author to support her argument of these conservative women as active agents of change is consistently weak.
First, the aforementioned petition of 1856 where 96 women signed against the proposed religious tolerance, the author admits that it was most probably written by a man to then be signed by women, evidencing the political uses these women were subjected to: ‘‘I conclude that some [petitions], including the earliest ones, were likely written by men, probably priests’’ (pp.112). Chowning has no problem in criticizing Mexican liberals for promoting a public sphere that was intrinsically connected to men, while they relegated women to private spaces such as the household. She then sees these political campaigns and petitions where women participated as pivotal events by making these Catholic women active agents of change in Mexican history as they are actively engaging in politics, despite recognizing before they are being used by the Church and the conservative sectors of Mexican society. Interestingly, during the period of the Porfiriato, Chowning admits that there are no equivalent of petition campaigns, as priests were supporting the regime to regain all the power they had lost during the liberal era. Diaz’s policy of conciliation with the Church meant that Catholics were less combative with the government, although the conservative press would still attack liberals and specific government measures. As the author admits it, women are more silent in this period: ‘‘Catholic women appear to have been surprisingly politically quiescent in the Porfiriato’’ (p.231). This can prove again to what extent these Catholic women were used as social and political pawns to exert pressure on Mexican liberal governments, which forces us to beg the question: Can we still regard these women as active agents of change? What impact did they really have with these campaigns? Should we consider them more as secondary players?
An interesting question to add in the book could have been to what extent conservative sectors of Mexican society allowed women to partake in political campaigns, which were those that usually only benefited them. As Chowning goes to criticize the liberal press for attacking women and their ignorance, the author seems to ignore that the same Catholic sectors these women defended, also used them for their own benefit. Another example can be seen when the author argues that despite ‘‘the lack of nonreligious women’s voluntary associations, does not mean that women were entirely closed out of the nonreligious public sphere’’ (p.144). However, she later admits that, quoting the work of other historians, women in Mexico were still behind in comparison to other countries, where they had already integrated in the public sphere, participated in the publication of books, or journals. She tries to downplay this affirmation by providing some anecdotical examples, that only prove the weakness of the argument. Again, in order to explain the lack of nonreligious women associations, Chowning believes that it was due to the ‘vibrant and satisfying’ religious associations that these women were already part of (p.145). I believe the author should have provided more evidence to back these claims and not just mere suppositions.
Women were consistently used by the conservative sectors of Mexican society as long as they accomplished a determined objective and the Church was comfortable with their participation, distracting them to join the public sphere. While Chowning blames liberals for targeting women who dared to enter the public sphere, either through joining a determined political campaign or expressing their opinions, she fails to acknowledge that conservatives were also secluding women in their own religious organizations and limited their participation in the ‘public sphere’ through coordinated political acts such as petitions, to avoid their infiltration in a public sphere that they also considered, and expected to be, male dominated.
Chowning ascribes to the high fatality rates of men after the wars of independence and the liberal values of the time the association of the public sphere, such as politics and culture, with men; and the private sphere, such as the household and the Church, with women. As a result, women were often secluded and deprived of their most basic rights, which made them turn to the Catholic Church as a safe space, where, despite its hierarchy and gender bias, could still provide a sense of community belonging and more opportunities for participation to these women than secular society. This has led historians to term this phenomenon as the ‘feminization of religion’. As men left these confraternities, women gained more control and power of decision, that conspicuously used to promote their space in Mexican society, such as example show with the creation of the Vela Perpetua in 1840 (pp.81-2).
I believe this book can offer a new perspective on the study of women in modern Mexico and their increasing participation in politics, however, the book presents some problems when framing its main argument. Chowning argues that the successive liberal governments in Mexico during the Reform period were characterised by the high activity of political protests and campaigns where these conservative and religious women partook defending the Catholic Church, such as the 1856 petition when 96 women signed against the proposed religious tolerance act that was going to be included in the new constitution. As Chowning argues, ‘‘secularization does not necessarily mean modernization’’, and this period was characterised by the fierce attacks these women suffered by the liberal press, using misogynistic discourses to reduce them as mere political pawns used by the Church to exert pressure on Mexican politics. Yet, the evidence provided by the author to support her argument of these conservative women as active agents of change is consistently weak.
First, the aforementioned petition of 1856 where 96 women signed against the proposed religious tolerance, the author admits that it was most probably written by a man to then be signed by women, evidencing the political uses these women were subjected to: ‘‘I conclude that some [petitions], including the earliest ones, were likely written by men, probably priests’’ (pp.112). Chowning has no problem in criticizing Mexican liberals for promoting a public sphere that was intrinsically connected to men, while they relegated women to private spaces such as the household. She then sees these political campaigns and petitions where women participated as pivotal events by making these Catholic women active agents of change in Mexican history as they are actively engaging in politics, despite recognizing before they are being used by the Church and the conservative sectors of Mexican society. Interestingly, during the period of the Porfiriato, Chowning admits that there are no equivalent of petition campaigns, as priests were supporting the regime to regain all the power they had lost during the liberal era. Diaz’s policy of conciliation with the Church meant that Catholics were less combative with the government, although the conservative press would still attack liberals and specific government measures. As the author admits it, women are more silent in this period: ‘‘Catholic women appear to have been surprisingly politically quiescent in the Porfiriato’’ (p.231). This can prove again to what extent these Catholic women were used as social and political pawns to exert pressure on Mexican liberal governments, which forces us to beg the question: Can we still regard these women as active agents of change? What impact did they really have with these campaigns? Should we consider them more as secondary players?
An interesting question to add in the book could have been to what extent conservative sectors of Mexican society allowed women to partake in political campaigns, which were those that usually only benefited them. As Chowning goes to criticize the liberal press for attacking women and their ignorance, the author seems to ignore that the same Catholic sectors these women defended, also used them for their own benefit. Another example can be seen when the author argues that despite ‘‘the lack of nonreligious women’s voluntary associations, does not mean that women were entirely closed out of the nonreligious public sphere’’ (p.144). However, she later admits that, quoting the work of other historians, women in Mexico were still behind in comparison to other countries, where they had already integrated in the public sphere, participated in the publication of books, or journals. She tries to downplay this affirmation by providing some anecdotical examples, that only prove the weakness of the argument. Again, in order to explain the lack of nonreligious women associations, Chowning believes that it was due to the ‘vibrant and satisfying’ religious associations that these women were already part of (p.145). I believe the author should have provided more evidence to back these claims and not just mere suppositions.
Women were consistently used by the conservative sectors of Mexican society as long as they accomplished a determined objective and the Church was comfortable with their participation, distracting them to join the public sphere. While Chowning blames liberals for targeting women who dared to enter the public sphere, either through joining a determined political campaign or expressing their opinions, she fails to acknowledge that conservatives were also secluding women in their own religious organizations and limited their participation in the ‘public sphere’ through coordinated political acts such as petitions, to avoid their infiltration in a public sphere that they also considered, and expected to be, male dominated.
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