The Secret History of Gender

In this study of gender relations in late colonial Mexico (ca. 1760–1821) Steve Stern analyzes the historical connections between gender power and politics in the lives of peasants Indians and other marginalized peoples. Through vignettes of everyday life he challenges assumptions about gender relations and political culture in a patriarchal society. He also reflects on continuity and change between late colonial times and the present and suggests a paradigm for understanding similar struggles over gender rights in Old Regime societies in Europe and the Americas.<br/><br/>Stern pursues three major arguments. First he demonstrates that non-elite women and men developed contending models of legitimate gender authority and that these differences sparked bitter struggles over gender right and obligation. Second he reveals connections in language and social dynamics between disputes over legitimate authority in domestic and familial matters and disputes in the arenas of community and state power. The result is a fresh interpretation of the gendered dynamics of peasant politics community and riot. Third Stern examines regional and ethnocultural variation and finds that his analysis transcends particular locales and ethnic subgroupings within Mexico. The historical arguments and conceptual sweep of Stern’s book will inform not only students of Mexico and Latin America but also students of gender in the West and other world regions.