Marianismo
""Marianismo"" originally referred to the devotion to Mary (). The term was first used by political scientist Evelyn Stevens in her 1973 essay ""Marianismo": The Other Face of "Machismo"". It was in direct response to the male word "machismo" and was meant to explain the phenomenon in Latin America in which women were either "saints or whores". It is the supposed ideal of true femininity that women are supposed to live up to—i.e. being modest, virtuous, and sexually abstinent until marriage—and then being faithful and subordinate to their husbands. In essence, marianismo is the female counterpart to machismo, and as such, probably originated during the time of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Machismo
The power difference in the relationship between a man and a woman not only creates the social norm of machismo, but by consequence also creates the social concept of marianismo. which is the idea that women are meant to be pure and wholesome. Marianismo derives its origins from Spanish Colonization, as many social constructs from Latin America do. It emphasizes the perfect femininity of a woman and her virginity. One could argue that in the similar manner of Patriarchy, the man is the head of the household while the "fragile" woman is submissive and tends to remain behind the scenes. This brings to focus the idea that women are inferior and are thus dependent on their husbands. As a result, they not only rely on their husbands for financial support, but in the social realm are put at the same level as "children under age 12, mentally ill persons, and spendthrifts" (265). By way of tradition, not only are women given limited opportunities in what they are able to do and to be, but they are also viewed as people that cannot even take care of themselves. Getting married provides a woman with security under her husband's success, but also entails a lifelong commitment towards serving her husband and her children.