Ambition Without Apology

Sor Juana's ambition—to be recognized as one of the greatest poets and intellectuals of her era—was extraordinary and unapologetic, even as she had to couch it in religious language to survive. This concept addresses how cisgender women in particular are socialized to diminish their ambitions, to present themselves as modest, to apologize for wanting recognition or power. Ambition becomes coded as masculine, unfeminine, aggressive, unseemly. Yet Sor Juana demonstrates that intellectual ambition is compatible with cisgender female identity; it doesn't require becoming 'like a man' but rather expanding what cisgender womanhood can contain. In examining your own cisgender identity, this concept invites honest reflection: What ambitions have you diminished or hidden? Where have you learned to apologize for wanting something? How has your gender socialization taught you to make yourself smaller? Sor Juana's legacy suggests that claiming your full ambitions—intellectual, creative, professional, spiritual—is not a rejection of cisgender identity but its fullest realization.