An introductory exploration of women’s experience of and participation in the Catholic Church and colonial Christianity in Spanish America. Through primary sources, secondary readings, lectures, and discussion, we will look at women’s roles in the processes of conquest and colonization; how conversion and religious change affected gender ideologies and gender relations within indigenous communities; women’s daily encounters with the church and participation in devotional culture; and the ways women’s complex relationships with the colonial church was shaped by race and social status.
