Juana InÉs De La Cruz (Essay Date 1692)

SOURCE: Cruz, Juana Inés de la. The Answer=La respuesta, edited by Electa Arenal and Amanda Powell, pp. 77-87. New York: The Feminist Press, 1994.

In the following excerpt from her "Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz," written in 1692, Sor Juana argues for the importance of education for women. She cites several precedents for scholarly and wise women, then addresses the common claim that in his letters St. Paul forbade women to teach.

If studies, my Lady, be merits (for indeed I see them extolled as such in men), in me they are no such thing: I study because I must. If they be a failing, I believe for the same reason that the fault is none of mine. Yet withal, I live always so wary of myself that neither in this nor in anything else do...