Writing gender and nation : El Album de la Mujer, 1883-1884

This thesis studies the intersection of print, nationalism, and gender in Porfirian Mexico. The primary source, El Album de la Mujer, was one of very few periodicals directed and written mainly by women during the 1880s in Mexico City. Political, legal, and cultural structures and assumptions during the Porfirian era significantly restricted access by women to the public world of print, politics, and national identity. But, El Album de la Mujer, entered into this sphere both in its form, as a public, written record, and in its content, devoted to venerating women and creating a space for them in the national community. The writers of El Album created and intertwined the history and destiny of women and nations. They expanded positivist and liberal ideas to portray women as worthy of national belonging, and as necessary to the progress of Mexico. In doing so, they challenged the gendered concepts of Mexican society and politics during the Porfiriato. Yet, they reimagined this public sphere, and created a national identity for women, as privileged members, in racial and class terms, of that society. Hence, along with studying the rethinking of gender and nation in the periodical, this thesis also considers how in its form and content, the periodical maintained and established social boundaries.Arts, Faculty ofHistory, Department ofGraduat