Mujeres y reforma de cofradías en Nueva España y Sevilla, ca. 1750-1830

In this article we examine how the participation of women appears in various documents dealing with the reform of the confraternities from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The constitutions of the confraternities, both of New Spain and the kingdom of Seville, show that there was a wide range of possibilities in this regard, since their exclusion to their exclusive participation, including also limits in the assumption of the charges and specific admission requirements. Without ever clarifying the ambiguities, reformers tended to confirm women's limited participation on the grounds of decency and protection of worship, however making them subject to confraternal charity. Nonetheless, the example of the slaves of Our Lady of Sorrows of Carmona shows that they could take advantage of the reform to settle local disputes with fraternities of male members.