The manner in which women have been treated is reflected in literature that has recorded specific periods in history. The manner in which have been treated has been noted specifically and also has been covered by various authors, which all perhaps have common findings and some unique too. It is important to realize that recordings of women’s history are essential due to the fact that it has formed the basis of the feminist notions that one witnesses today. Indeed, there are several individuals that have disputed particular findings when researching the same or similar areas. It is important then to sift through these findings in order to decipher what is most likely to be the truth.

In view of the recordings of women’s history in areas such as Latin America, one needs to take into consideration the social transformations that took place too. It must be asserted during the colonial period there were several changes in society, some of which include the manner in which men and women had to work for the colonists.

It is largely perceived that through this colonization, women were subjected to more suffering than men were. This point is a disputed one, and it must be asserted that now researchers assert that women did not suffer as they did in other reasons. The reasons for this include their strong will, as some of these Potosi women were mighty in their cause. To name a few, the female lovers in the 1650s, ‘Doña Ana Lezama de Urinza, and Doña Eustaquia de Sonza’ are well known. These two women became aware of their strengths and may be described as equals to men. They may have even been able to compete with men, as they were well-versed in combat. They both studied fire arms and had taken interest in these weapons soon after Eustaquia’s brother died.

“Like most mining towns, Potosí was blustering, brawling, bawdy and violent”, a typical environment that would have cultured women accordingly if exposed to the harshness ( Adams, 2004). “During one fight, while facing four opponents, Ana was wounded and fell, while Eustaquia stood over her ‘brandishing her cutlass in all direction’ (Vela, 1991). Ana regained her senses and took revenge against the man who had struck her, dealing such a blow that his shield was split in half and his hand injured” (Adams, 2004). According this account, it may be said that women were not in fact restricted as they were in other cultures during the colonial period. The women of Potosi were in fact the kind that thought of themselves as equals to men. This is especially in the case of war when women were naturally left to protect themselves. However, this was not the exact status of women. This is because of the fact that women were considered as important counterparts. In times of war, they were also seen as helpful. Women were allowed to take up arms and fight for what they believed in equally as much as men did.

Though Potosi women had this kind of privilege that women in other cultures weren’t given in the colonial period, they were still discriminated against considerably in other forms. It must be asserted that recent records of history and literary criticism reveal more; these map “new territory of investigation using historical texts and archival materials. As a result, the Sor Juana monopoly is beginning to relent, allowing us to look into the lives of other women, lay and religious” (Myers & Powell, 1999).

Sor Juana is “Dubbed the "Tenth Muse" of the New World in her own life time, and prominent in the court and church hierarchies of colonial Mexico City” for her rhetorical works. This intellectual side of women was hardly left to blossom because most women that did want to persevere with their education were restricted from doing so; they were compelled to either marry or go to a convent. Sor Juana believed that she could lead an uninhibited life by going to a convent, and so, managed to achieve what she is recognized for today. However, Sor Juana avoided controversy through asserting that “gender as an ambiguous category, perhaps because to have depicted a female protagonist in human form may well have been too dangerous a move within a culture that did not provide women much space to choose their own spiritual or intellectual paths” (Shikem, 2000).

Considering Sor Juana along with ‘Doña Ana Lezama de Urinza, and Doña Eustaquia de Sonza’, one might assert that there was significant difference in the way that women were characterized during the colonial period. Indeed, at Potosi women were allowed to battle in times of war but were generally restricted to leading their lives as married women or as nuns in a convent.