Historical Context: 

This piece was originally written for Nosotras, a magazine founded by María Abella de Ramírez and Justa Burgos Meyer in 1902. Nosotras emphasized female perspectives, advocated for suffrage, and promoted women’s rights in Argentina at a time when women were considered second-class citizens. Inspired by movements arising in other parts of the world, feminism began to make an impact in the River Plate toward the end of the 19th century. Feminist advocates spoke out against femicide and various other crimes against women. Concepts central to liberalism, anarchism, and communism began seeping into popular Argentine media. Abella de Ramírez wrote “The Masculinization of Women” to defend feminist ideals and to criticize men who stood in opposition. The author calls out the incessant harm inflicted on women in a nation that failed to grant women full citizenship rights. 

''The Masculinization of Women" (Argentina, 1903) By Maria Abella De Ramirez, Translated by Paulina Tejada Cabreja. Copyright 2023.

ENGLISH: 

“Women are trying to become men, they want to masculinize themselves… they’re losing the grace and charm associated with their sex… they’re abandoning the home!” This is the relentless chanting of alarmed reactionaries with hoarse voices.  

You’re such hypocrites! You’re just afraid women will gain the same rights as you. You’re worried they’ll stop being the vile instruments of your pleasure, they’ll stop being your silent captives, and they’ll stop serving you at all hours tucked away in the corner. You’re afraid they’ll stop keeping your bad temper, disrespect, and continuous wrongdoings to themselves. 

Yes, it must be nice to have a woman at your beck and call, to take away all her rights and keep her in forced servitude. Any woman who denies you passive obedience could be verbally mistreated or harmed any way you, please. If she refuses to blindly obey you, you claim the right to kill her. That is because judges are all men. You’re so content with teaching lessons to women that you continue to absolve one another.  

“Women are the heart, Men are the brains”, you all say: Women are the heart. Men are the brains. What a beautiful saying! But, it makes absolutely no sense! If that were true, nature would not have blessed women with a brain, nor men with a heart. Even though, I don’t think men who wish to condemn women to centuries of neverending servitude have a heart. 

“Women are the heart, Men are the brains”, means to say, for those who can understand the true meaning of these words, women serve and suffer, and men relish, command, and triumph. 

A woman wouldn’t stop being a woman if she were given bliss and freedom, on the contrary, she would be more kindhearted, loving, healthy, and beautiful, because she'd be happier. 

Love wouldn’t be lost if women were to gain independence. Today, love is degraded, and sold, sometimes in public auctions, other times in those legal transactions accepted by society, called marriage. Love would be spontaneous and pure. Unlike today, you wouldn’t have to hold a woman in your arms that you had no faith in. No longer questioning if she were with you out of love or necessity. You would lay in her loving arms cradled like a child in his mother’s bosom. 

But, the selfish reactionaries could care less about love. All they want is enough to them that women only serve, support, and become the ruinous instrument of their careless passions. 

It would be disgraceful to these reactionaries if the women were to become actualized!... The actualized or masculinized woman, as they say, would understand her rights and wouldn’t be standing by, waiting for earthly injustices to be answered by a blessing that awaits her in an afterlife specifically created for her. Men are expected to put in much less effort to earn the same blessings! 

The actualized woman would want to experience legitimate liberty and joy while living. This does not please those who want women to continue to be the angel of the house. 

The home… another very poetic name, that in most cases could be redefined by this word: prison. This is where the woman remains chained by her love, condemned to partake in monotonous tasks that take up her thoughts and time. 

How odd is it that women have not invented and discovered things at the same rate as their male counterparts? They have never had the freedom to do so! All of their time has been in the service of men! 

Now the supportive and troubled captive wants to become independent, to have the same rights as men. She no longer wants to be the vile instrument used to satisfy male desires or carry the deadweight in other aspects of life! 

The masculinization of the woman would be a huge disgrace to traitorous men! 

I have some advice for you, reactionary men: If any of you are believers, Why don’t you pray to Santa Rita and beg for forgiveness, so that such disgrace does not occur? 

ESPAÑOL: 

“La mujer quiere hacerse hombre,  la mujer pretende masculinizarse… perder las gracias y encanto de su sexo… dejar del hogar!” estos son los gritos de alarma que pronuncian con voz ronca y destemplada todos los reaccionarios. 

!Ah, Hipócritas! lo que no queréis vosotros es que la mujer tome los mismos derechos que tenéis, que deje de ser el vil juguete con el que entrétenis vosotros ocios callejeros, o la esclava sumisa y callada que os sirve a todas horas y que soporta en el rincón de su casa , sin ni comunicar a nadie, Vuestro mal humor, vuestros desprecios, vuestras continuas injusticias. 

Si, es verdaderamente muy cómodo, tener a sus órdenes, en esclavitud perpetua, a una mujer con la que tenéis todos los derechos, sin que ella tenga ninguno, y a la que sí os niega la obediencia pasiva,  podeis maltratar a vuestro antojo de palabra o de hecho, y hasta asesinar inpunemente, a pretexto de celos: para eso los jueces son hombres, que satisfechos de la leccion que dais a las mujeres, tendran buen cuidado de absolverlos.

“La mujer para el corazon y el hombre para el cerebro” decis vosotros: la mujer para el corazon y el hombre para el cerebro. !Que bonita frase! Pero, tambien que deprovista de sentido! Si esa hubiera sido la mision de la mujer y del hombre, la naturaleza no nos hubiera dotado a nosotras de cerebro, ni a vosotros de corazon… aunque casi dudo que lo tengan los que quieren eternizar por los siglos de los siglos la esclavitud de mujer. 

“La mujer para el corazon y el hombre para el cerebro”, quiere decir, para los que sepan entender el verdadero sentido de esas palabras: la mujer para servir y sufrir, y el hombre para gozar, para mandar y triunfar. 

La mujer no dejara de ser mujer porque tenga un poco mas de dicha y libertad; al contrario, sera mas bondadosa, mas amante, mas sana, mas hermosa, porque sera mas feliz. 

Tampoco perdera nada el amor con la independencia femina: el amor, que hoy vive degradado, vendido, unas veces en publica subasta, y otras en una venta legal, aceptada por la sociedad, cual es el matrimonio; seria espontáneo y puro: no tendrias, como hoy, en vuestros brazos una mujer de la que no os podeis fiar, porque no sabeis si por necesidad os fingo amor; sino que dormiras dulcemente reclinados sobre el hombro de la mujer amada, tan tranquilos como el niño en el regazo materno. 

Pero a los egoistas reaccionarios de lo menos les importa es el amor: que la mujer les sirva, que les soporte, que sea el ruin instrumento de sus desordenadas pasiones: esto les basta. 

!Ah! Que desgracia tan grande para esos egoístas sera que la mujer se materialice! … La mujer materializada o masculinizada, como dicen, entendera sus derechos y no estara esperando el premio de las injusticias terrenales en un fantastico mundo de ultratumba que parece haber sido hecho expresamente para nosotras !tan poco trabajo se toman los hombres por ganarlo! 

La mujer materializada querrá tener su legitima parte de libertad y de goce en la vida, y eso es lo que no conviene a los que quieren que la mujer siga siendo siempre el angel del hogar. 

El hogar… otro nobre muy poetico, que en la mayor parte de los casos seria mas verdadero sustituirlo por este otro: carcel, donde la mujer vive esclavizada en su amor, condenada a monotonos trabajos que reclaman todo su tiempo y pensamiento. 

Que extraño es que las mujeres no hayan echo los descubrimientos e inventos que los hombres: si nunca han tenido libertad, si todo su tiempo ha sido para servirles a ellos!

Y ahora esa esclava tan servicial y sufrida quiere hacerse independiente, tener derechos como el hombre; no ser mas el vil juguete que entretiene los ocios callejeros, ni la besia de carga en los demas momentos de la vida! 

Ah, que desgracia tan grande para los hombres egoistas la masculinizacion de la mujer! 

Señor reaccionarios, voy a daros un consejo: si teneis alguna fe, haced rogativas a Santa Rita paraque tal desgracia no suceda. 

Translator's Note - Paulina Tejada Cabreja: 

The importance of María Abella de Ramírez cannot be overstated. Her work depicts the beginnings of the feminist movement in Argentina. Breaking down the barriers and reforming a masculine culture is not easy, but Maria Abella does it gracefully. “La masculinization de la mujer" rejects the idea that a woman loses her womanly essence when she receives the same basic rights as a man. This led me to ask myself whose standards are used to set the basis for normalcy. As Abella argues, it is usually the standard set by men. Translating this piece allowed me to see feminism's lasting importance. At its core, feminist ideology advocates for the equality of the sexes and therefore all human beings. I tried to alter the wording as little as possible in order to keep the translation true to the original. The feminist struggle is highlighted in both languages. I aimed to accurately depict the compelling arguments in “La masculinization de la mujer" and to shed light on María Abella Ramírez, who paved the way for Argentine feminism today.

Citation: 

Paulina Tejada, Translator, “The Masculinization of Women" (Argentina, 1903) By Maria Abella De Ramirez,” Spanish and Hispanic Studies Digital Gallery at HWS, Summer 2023. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.