Rights as Capacities for Role Fulfillment

Sor Juana argues for women's right to education as prerequisite for fulfilling duties as mothers, teachers, and moral agents—not for individual self-expression alone. She frames rights as enabling conditions. In Confucian role identity, this reorients rights discourse: you need certain protections and resources to be the parent, worker, citizen, or community member your role requires. The parent needs time and resources to nurture children; the worker needs fair treatment to contribute with dignity; the student needs access to learn their craft. Rights protect role capacity. This perspective prevents both unlimited individualism and oppressive hierarchy—rights exist not to escape relationship but to enable it. For practitioners, this means advocating for what you and others need to fulfill roles with integrity. It means resisting both pure autonomy claims and demands for self-denial. Your right is real when it enables you to serve those depending on you.