Institutional Accountability and Power Rebalancing

Sor Juana's conflict with the Church hierarchy reveals how individual punishment leaves intact the institutional systems that enabled harm. Her experience demonstrates that true justice must confront the power imbalances and institutional practices that allow harm to occur repeatedly. Restorative justice, when applied at institutional levels, requires those in power to acknowledge systemic contributions to harm and commit to structural reforms. Unlike punitive approaches that may sacrifice individual actors while protecting institutional interests, restorative frameworks demand that institutions themselves transform practices, policies, and cultures. This concept examines how courts, schools, workplaces, and governmental bodies can be held accountable not through scandal or lawsuits alone, but through genuine commitments to change conditions that produced harm. Sor Juana's case illustrates that until institutions recognize their role in injustice—silencing women's intellectual participation, enforcing obedience over truth—individual accountability remains incomplete and future harm inevitable.