The authors of this edited collection explore the contributions of the Junta de Damas de Honor y Mérito, a secular association of elite Spanish women, to the Bourbon monarchy’s reform programs, as well as how the women of the Junta fulfilled the expectations of their class and gender while at the same time vying for more authority and more visible participation in Enlightenment endeavors. The contributors, though mostly historians, allow for a diversity of perspectives by employing a range of disciplines, including intellectual history, social history, biography, literary analysis, and art history to provide a multifaceted analysis of the Junta de Damas and its members.
The first section lays out the history of the Junta de Damas. Bolufer examines the debate over women’s admission to Spain’s economic societies that preceded the creation of the Junta and situates the association in a broader European context. Martín-Valdepeñas Yagüe discusses the Junta’s membership...