Masters Thesis

Women's roles : relationship of Aztec norms & beliefs of contemporary Mexican women

The subject of this study is the Mexican woman who has apparently been misunderstood and erroneously stereotyped as a helpless, dependent woman, unwilling and/or unable to make decisions and effect changes in her life. To better understand the feelings, beliefs and behaviors of the Mexican woman, the study was conducted in two parts: 1) Review of literature from the Aztec era, the Spanish-colonial and the contemporary periods. 2) Personal interviews with women of different ages, cities of Mexico, civil, educational and socioeconomic levels, to learn from the women themselves how they perceive their roles as individuals in relation to the roles of the Mexican males, their roles and functions as daughters, wives and mothers, and how they perceive their life in the Mexican society. Research into the cultural documents yielded substantial and invaluable information for the study, and the personal interviews, although the samples obtained cannot be claimed as complete, did yield a variety of responses which greatly helped in the formulation of the Mexican woman's present value system. The results of the research and interviews, along with the findings and the formulated recommendations, are reported in this thesis.

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