The institutional structures—rules, customs, and assumptions—that systematically exclude certain groups from meaningful participation in intellectual, civic, and professional life.
Sor Juana could not attend university, hold an official teaching position, or publish under her own name without ecclesiastical approval. These were not accidental limitations but structural features of her society. Fairness analysis must move beyond individual prejudice to examine how systems are designed. Colonial Mexico's institutions were organized to protect male intellectual authority and to naturalize women's exclusion as inevitable rather than enforced. Every civilization that has advanced has done so partly by recognizing and dismantling systemic barriers. The Periagoge concept encourages practitioners to ask: which groups are systematically kept from participating? What institutional rules and practices accomplish this exclusion? How are these barriers justified as natural or necessary? Sor Juana's life is evidence that these barriers are always constructed and therefore can be reconstructed toward greater fairness.
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