Self-Ownership Through Vocation

Sor Juana chose the convent not for religious devotion alone but as the only institutional space that permitted her freedom to study and write. She claimed the right to shape her vocation according to her intellectual gifts, not external prescription. Self-ownership through vocation means the freedom to decide what you will do with your talents, time, and energies. For libertarian justice, this is foundational: you own your own labour and capacities. No system that assigns you a fixed role—wife, servant, dutiful daughter—without your consent respects your property in yourself. Vocational freedom includes the right to pursue callings that institutions deem unsuitable, to change directions, to refuse prescribed paths. Sor Juana's example shows that libertarian justice requires spaces—whether convents, communities, or markets—where individuals can exercise choice over their vocational lives. Forced labour, indentured servitude, and mandated roles all violate self-ownership. True property rights begin with the right to own and direct your own faculties.