Before the expansion of the Inca Empire from 1438 to 1493, gender roles were governed by the societal concept of gender parallelism. The Incas allowed this idea to become the basis for equality in areas such as religion, economics, sexuality and work. However, the momentum petered out when the Inca Empire began to expand at an aggressive pace. Culturally ingrained gender parallelism was manipulated to achieve imperial goals. The expansion of the Inca empire deprived women of the autonomy established by gender parallelism, created a hierarchy of conquest, and altered the entirety of Inca cultural practices for the benefit of a larger empire. Gender parallelism, as defined by Karen Vieira Powers, is “women and men.” operating in two distinct but equivalent spheres, each sex enjoying autonomy in its own sphere. From 1150 to 1400, Inca women and men each had their own gender-based hierarchy for religion and political organizations. Work was also segregated by gender; as neither men nor women were considered appointees with higher value tasks or auxiliary tasks. Another facet of parallelism is that of gendered inheritance. Female and male children inherited money, property, and property titles from their parents through their respective genders – from mother to daughter and father to son. Overall, the Incas viewed gender parallelism as an opportunity to create balance and harmony within society. Initially, it was not planned to create blatant dominant and subordinate groups. Nonetheless, it is essential to recognize that these distinct spheres came together at the apex of united political systems, which was the male Inca ruler – the “supreme ruler”. Political convergence plays a crucial role in the further evolution of gender parallelism. There was an inherent loss of feminine spirituality with each redefinition of the empire's boundaries. They lost their powerful female deities and were rewarded with gender predetermination. Men allowed the conquest to detach them from the Inca belief system of balance and equality that predated any need for expansion. The hierarchy of conquest was applied and uncontested. And even though the Inca political people took power, they lost social harmony. Works Cited Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru., (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1987). in the crucible of conquest: the gendered genesis of Spanish-American society, 1500-1600, (Albuquerqu: University of New Mexico, 2005).