Gender and Property: Women's Economic Personhood

Sor Juana lived in a legal context where women could not fully own property, make contracts, or control their earnings. Her own convent life was partly a strategic escape from marriage—the only institution that would have stripped her of economic autonomy entirely. In libertarian justice, property rights are inseparable from personhood. When women cannot own, they cannot be fully persons in the eyes of law and society. Sor Juana's life demonstrates that gender-based property restrictions are not minor inequities—they are denials of fundamental liberty. This concept insists that genuine libertarian justice must include women's full economic personhood: the right to own property, inherit freely, keep earnings, and control resources without male intermediaries. Her philosophy shows that a society cannot claim to protect property rights or freedom while systematically excluding half its population from economic agency. Gender equality in property is prerequisite to any coherent theory of libertarian justice.