The claim that parents possess an inalienable right to pursue knowledge and identity beyond parental roles, defending intellectual autonomy as essential to parental becoming.
Sor Juana's relentless defense of her right to study, write, and think independently despite social pressure models a principle crucial for parents: that intellectual life and parental identity need not conflict but can strengthen each other. She refused the false choice between motherhood and scholarship, asserting that a thinking parent is a more complete parent. For those navigating parental identity, this concept validates the pursuit of knowledge, creativity, and personal intellectual projects as acts of self-actualization rather than selfishness. It reframes the becoming-a-parent transition not as an erasure of one's former self, but as an integration point where curiosity, learning, and wonder can deepen both personal and parental life. Sor Juana's example shows that fighting for intellectual space is not rebellion against family but investment in it.
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