Women in early republican Caracas pursued their quest for equality before the law through their numerous actions in court. The new republic's constitution of adopted the Β« Rights of Men Β», and provided for equality and citizenship to Venezuelans.
However Spanish civil codes which supported class, race, and gender distinctions still operated in the new republic. This was the basis for two contending sets of rights : those of the padres de familia male household heads , who tried to maintain their ancient legal prerogatives, and those of the ciudadanas female citizens who expected some type of material reciprocity in their relationships with men.
Elite women openly used their rights as citizens to defend their property, while lower-class women made persistent claims to defend their individual rights. Most of the sampled cases came from the lower classes 72 percent and most of the cases were filed by women themselves 51 percent. It has also been argued that both men and women held the same traditional attitudes concerning gender, and that in Gran Colombia women had a very limited notion of their own rights 3.
Research on Mexico has presented a more complex picture of the female condition, as women won respect, visibility, and an appreciation for their capacities through the independence struggle. However, after the wars, women went back to their traditional roles 4. The paucity of research notwithstanding, the general notion is that independence from Spain did not bring major changes to the female condition in Latin America.
The problem with this perspective is that it fosters the impression that women were passive members of society during a period of revolutionary change because they did not react in a particular, expected way. We must consider, however, that a substantial proportion of women's everyday activities in Latin America as in other parts of the world unfolded in unobserved places like the domestic sphere, not in public, mostly male-dominated areas.
