ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the long polemic regarding the admission of women to the Real Sociedad Economica Matritense and Josefa Amar's role in it. Maria Lorenza de los Rios y Loyo, the Marquesa de Fuerte-Hijar, was a prominent member of the Junta de Damas of the Real Sociedad Ecónomica Matritense for over thirty years, from 1788 until almost 1820. The Marquesa de Fuerte-Híjar was active in Madrid cultural circles and tertulias from the late 1780s until her death, and she became a writer who addressed Enlightenment concerns concerning women. She articulated the need to bring the Enlightened tenets of reform, as well as a Christian ideal of active and pragmatic charity, to bear on these social issues. Enlightenment ideas were spread through books and also through information networks such as salons or tertulias in Spain and other Catholic countries during the eighteenth century. She espoused the Enlightenment values of virtue and friendship as the basis to promote conjugal happiness.
