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La Quijotita y su prima (1818) by Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi (1776-1827) is a highly significant consideration of women and their role in New Spain presented in the form of a novel. It is the first book-length treatise dedicated to a discussion of the education of women in the viceroyalty. Lizardi emphasizes the importance of preparing women for marriage, while denouncing the oppression and violence to which they were often subjected. He stresses their role as heads of the domestic sphere, but ultimately ascribes their success to the guidance of an enlightened paterfamilias. A discussion of Lizardi's controversial career as a reformer and writer at the end of the viceregal regime, his position with regard to the Church, and his reading of Cervantes, Fénelon, Feijoo, Montengôn and others, provide a context for his reflections on education. This analysis calls into question some of the anachronistic interpretations of La Quijotita.