Institutional Critique from Within

Sor Juana took vows in a convent partly because it offered her the only legitimate path to education and intellectual freedom available to a woman of her time and place. Yet she used that position to write texts challenging authority, defending women's right to knowledge, and exposing the contradictions in male-centered theology. This models a key intersectional practice: sometimes you must enter the system to change it. In contemporary terms, this applies to people from marginalized groups who become lawyers, doctors, politicians, or academics—their insider status enables critique that outsiders cannot make as effectively. The tension is real and exhausting, but the strategy is proven. Intersectionality in practice requires understanding when to work within institutions and when to reject them entirely, and recognizing the cost borne by those doing the internal work of resistance. Sor Juana's letters reveal this struggle; she was not naïve about the compromises.