Objective.

To explore and demonstrate the roles of a reading club in the promotion of personal development (including cognitive aspects), the processes of symbolization, the re-signifying of life history, the recognition and empowerment of women and their rights in the family, community, political and social context.

Method.

The Grounded theory, was used; strategies of collection included a semi-structured interview and focus groups, for qualitative analysis of the data.

Results.

The study identified seven psychological effects that were derived from the participation in a club of women who read, wrote and discussed great literary works produced by Latin American writers, dealing with roles and performances of women in society. The questions of being a woman, inequality, marginalization and a sense of loneliness were also addressed in the club.

Conclusion.

The last perspective of social psychology was adopted and the concepts of symbolization and aesthetic bribery, were used to establish an analogy between the functions of this club and psychotherapies. In this way, it was possible to account for the importance of these cultural spaces in the personal, community, political and social development of the women who make up the reading club.

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