Gender roles in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

Gender roles existed in Mesoamerica, with a sexual division of labour meaning that women took on many domestic tasks including child-rearing and food preparation while only men were typically allowed to use weapons and assume positions of leadership.

[2] Gender relations and functions also varied among Mesoamerican cultures and societies over time and depending on social status.

[3] With the arrival of the Spanish and their subsequent viceregal rule starting in the 16th century, Mesoamerican gender relations could no longer be considered distinct cultural practices.

However, despite suppression by Spanish colonialization, aspects of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican gender roles have survived in indigenous communities to this day.

[7] Anthropologists such as Miranda Stockett believe it is likely that men, women, and children all participated in farming and domestic labor to varying degrees.

These range from harvesting the grains and preparing the food for the family to taking care of the domesticated animals.

In the role women have in the preparation of maize, after the grains have been harvested, the next step is to process them so the family can consume them.

Here she spent a good part of her time, taking care of the animals…caring for the chickens, cleaning the dovecote, feeding the mule, rabbits…here in the corral one eats from one’s work.

Additionally, the success of Mesoamerican rituals was dependent on the production of food and textiles, to which women contributed much labor.

For pregnant Aztec women, their part of the pregnancy included some kind of ritual and was also defined by the hygiene they had.

Upper class Aztec society allowed both men and women to be writers, artists, and textile workers.

One was the tlatoani, literally "the one who speaks", and another was the cihuacoatl, meaning "woman snake", both representing a male&female pair.

[11] As Mesoamerican states became more centralized over time, men's power became more associated with their control over women and their capacity for productive and reproductive labor.