Intersectional Access to Learning

Sor Juana's position as a woman in 17th-century colonial Mexico demonstrates how multiple axes of oppression compound to restrict access to knowledge. She faced barriers not only because of her gender but because of race, class, and the institutional power of the church. Contemporary children face similarly intersecting barriers: a poor girl of color with a disability may face multiplied obstacles to education that a wealthy boy does not encounter. Intersectional access recognizes that children's rights must address these compound barriers simultaneously rather than treating them as separate issues. A children's rights framework addressing only gender equality while ignoring economic inequality will fail children experiencing both. Intersectional access to learning means ensuring that educational resources reach children across all demographic categories, that curricula represent diverse intellectual traditions, that teaching methods accommodate varied learning needs, and that pathways to intellectual development are actively built for historically excluded groups. Sor Juana's work across multiple domains—theology, philosophy, poetry, science—also models intellectual breadth as a children's right: children should have access to diverse fields of knowledge, not tracked into limited paths based on predetermined categories. True intellectual access is intersectional or it remains partial and unjust.