In The Women of Mexico City, 1796-1857, Sylvia Marina Arrom argues

1991 10 SECTION A 24-27

In The Women of Mexico City, 1796-1857, Sylvia Marina Arrom argues that the status of women in Mexico City improved during the nineteenth century. According to Arrom, households headed by females and instances of women working outside the home were much more common than scholars have estimated; efforts by the Mexican government to encourage female education resulted in increased female literacy; and influential male writers wrote pieces advocating education, employment, and increased family responsibilities for women, while deploring women’s political and marital inequality. Mention of the fact that the civil codes of 1870 and 1884 significantly advanced women’s rights would have further strengthened Arrom’s argument.

Arrom does not discuss whether women’s improved status counteracted the effects on women of instability in the Mexican economy during the nineteenth century. However, this is not so much a weakness in her work as it is the inevitable result of scholars’ neglect of this period. Indeed, such gaps in Mexican history are precisely what make Arrom’s pioneering study an important addition to Latin American women’s history.

1. ​​​The passage is primarily concerned with doing which of the following?

(A) Reviewing a historical study of the status of women in Mexico City during the nineteenth century
(B) Analyzing the effects of economic instability on the status of women in Mexico during the nineteenth century
(C) Advancing a thesis explaining why women’s status in Mexico City improved during the nineteenth century
(D) Rejecting the thesis that the status of women in Mexico City during the nineteenth century actually improved
(E) Praising an author for a pioneering attempt to bridge significant gaps in Mexico’s economic history prior to 1790

2. ​​​According to the author of the passage, Arrom’s study can be characterized as “an important addition to Latin American women’s history” (Highlighted) because it

(A) offers a radical thesis concerning the status of women’s civil rights in Mexican society during the nineteenth century
(B) relies on a new method of historical analysis that has not previously been applied to Latin American history
(C) focuses only on the status of women in Mexican society
(D) addresses a period in Mexican history that scholars have to some extent neglected
(E) is the first study to recognize the role of the Mexican government in encouraging women’s education

3. ​It can be inferred from the passage that Arrom would agree with which of the following assertions?

(A) Efforts by the Mexican government to encourage education for women during the nineteenth century were hampered by the economic instability of that period.
(B) The most significant advances in the rights of Mexican women during the nineteenth century occurred prior to 1857.
(C) Improvements in the status of women in Mexico City during the nineteenth century were accompanied by similar improvements in the status of women in other large Latin American cities.
(D) Scholars have in the past accorded the most significance to nineteenth-century Mexican literature that supported the status quo in women’s political and marital rights.
(E) Scholars have in the past underestimated the number of households headed by females in Mexico City.

4. ​​​​​Which of the following best describes the author’s attitude toward Arrom’s work?

(A) Uncritical approval
(B) Enthusiasm tempered by minor reservations
(C) Praise for her thesis, despite skepticism regarding the sources of her evidence
(D) Reluctant acceptance, despite lingering doubts regarding the accuracy of her thesis
(E) Rejection, despite admiration for her attempt to break new ground in a hitherto neglected field