That Claudia Sheinbaum or Xóchitl Gálvez become the first elected president of Mexico on June 2 will be a symbol for the country and a milestone that culminates a slow but accelerated process in recent years in which women have been gaining political power.
Mexico now has the “strongest” set of laws and regulations in Latin America, according to Flavia Freidenbergsenior researcher at the Legal Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Since the normalization of elections after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and for almost a century, only a few dozen women had the opportunity to be elected to Congress, to govern a state in the country or to occupy a seat on the Supreme Court.
That changed in the last two decades, especially starting in 2019 with a law that since then requires “parity in everything”that is, that women occupy 50% of the candidacies and positions in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial, at the federal, state and municipal level.
Having more women in political power allowed progress, but not effective legislation to achieve equality in issues such as salaries, the reduction of violence against them and femicides, or that allows them full access to health systems.
“Since a reform, the reality of women does not change from one day to the next, but progress is being made, things are improving,” explains the researcher. Lorena Vazqueza specialist in gender policies.
“It was not about resistance from Mexicans against the nomination of women to decision-making positions. Actually “What was seen was the resistance of the parties, not the resistance of the citizens.”Explain
“But today the majority parties, those with a chance of winning, for the first time nominated women for the presidency of the Republic. And that is historic,” she adds.
The change numbers
When Mexico elected a woman representative for the first time in 1954, Aurora Jimenezfor that same position they had already passed thousands of men in more than 130 years of independent history.
After Jiménez, it had to happen one more decade so that the country had its first senators (1964), Alicia Arellano and María Lavalle. Another 25 years to see one governor state (1979), Griselda Álvarez. And the first president of the Supreme Court just took office only in 2023Norma Piña.
The election of Judge Piña was a milestone and the confirmation of the notable growth of women in the three powers since the last decade, a reflection of that women represent 51% of the Mexican population, they make up the majority of party militancy and are the ones who participate the most in campaign events.
In the formation of the federal Congress, from 1988 to 2018, women’s participation quadrupled until reaching current parity with men.
In the case of the Executive, Pink Light Joy She was the first woman to join a presidential cabinet in 1980. And there were only 23 women in all the government portfolios of more than 120 positions available in subsequent governments.
In the current government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador Since 2018, women occupy ten of the 20 secretariats (ministries) of the federal government.
In the Judicial Branch, women’s participation has been more limited. María Cristina Salmorán was the first jurist to join the Supreme Court in 1961 and since then there have been only 9 women among more than eight dozen men.
But since the new laws came into effect, five women have been appointed to the Supreme Court now presided over by Norma Piña.
From 1953 to 2015 there were only six female governors. There is now a woman at the head of ten of the country’s 32 states.
And although in the past there were female candidates for the presidency, with Rosario Ibarra As a pioneer in 1982, never before had a woman run for a party that had enough opportunities to challenge for first place.
In the current race, the two main candidates, Sheinbaum and Gálvezthey are women.
For Freidenberg, it is encouraging that in 2024 two women were nominated for the presidency by the majority coalitions, although from her perspective it was also due to a partisan logic of the moment.
“It is very positive to have two presidential candidates, That in itself is a milestone.”, he highlights.
The “wonderful combination”
Freidenberg and Velázquez agree that it was the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 that provided the starting point for many democracies, including Mexico, to begin adopting affirmative laws and norms to guarantee women’s access to spaces. decision-making publics.
The momentum of women led Mexico to approve a “gender quota” in 2002 that gave a third of party candidates to women. And that number grew to 40% after several sentences promoted by activist and political movements.
The resistance of the parties, however, was seen in regressive strategies such as the case of the “Juanitas” or “Manuelitas”, So called by politicians who intervened so that male substitutes for female legislators or elected officials could replace them as soon as they began their duties.
The Electoral Tribunal and the National Electoral Institute established changes to avoid that. But what was key in parity came from Congress by establishing at the constitutional level mandatory parity in 2014which for the first time put women on equal footing in political nominations.
But then they detected another problem: the parties were registering women as candidates in districts where they historically had little chance of winning. And then the INE established a new measure to prohibit parties from nominating them in “losing” districts, according to a scale they created.
And in 2019 new legislation emerged: the “Parity in Everything” which orders that the three levels of government – federal, state and municipal – and autonomous public organizations reserve 50% of decision-making positions for women.
All this evolution was accompanied by groups such as Women in Plural either 50+1 made up of networks of politicians, academics, officials and activists.
“This is the wonderful combination that exists in Mexico,” highlights Freidenberg.
“You have equal rules in the Constitution; “You have actors with the political will to make the norm effective in the jurisdictional and administrative authority: and a cohesive women’s movement,” the researcher emphasizes.
In particular, the struggle of groups that monitor compliance with the laws to avoid “escape valves” that allow those responsible, especially political parties and their leaders, to find ways to evade the rules stands out.
“What Mexico has are bulldogs and rottweilers that are like this [vigilantes] to file a lawsuit when the parties do not comply. And on the other side are the magistrates waiting to sanction when they do not comply,” says Freidenberg.
For Velázquez, “Mexico is at the forefront of all countries in the world in adopting formal mechanisms to guarantee women’s access to all decision-making spaces.”
“The country was very constant in the reforms and in improving the mechanisms. And it was progressive: reforms were made until 2019. Institutionally there are strong mechanisms so that what the law says becomes reality.”
More women, better laws?
The formation of Congresses with 50% or more women became a reality as the chambers were renewed at both the federal and state levels since the last decade.
Freidenberg explains that this is a remarkable achievement. But he also points out that It is not a guarantee that elected women have a feminist perspective or defend the women’s agenda.nor are there full guarantees that they will exercise their positions free of sexist or patriarchal violence.
“No matter how much there is parity, that the rules are approved, that the candidates are equal, there is still resistance. Of male citizens and female citizens as well,” he considers.
The researcher led a large study of 24,397 proposals presented before the congresses of 64 legislatures in the 32 states of the country. Of these initiatives, around 4,000 had to do with plans to improve the lives of women in the country.
“The agendas that have been most promoted and approved are those that have to do with women’s participation and gender-based political violence,” and those that have to do with economic autonomy, reproductive rights, care systems, but “without challenging the parties in power, in the majority.”
“More women in positions does not always mean more women with power to promote agendas aimed at women’s rights, for their autonomy and equality.”
The decriminalization of pregnancy termination It also occurred in the last two decades with the push of some of the women who sought protections before the Supreme Court, which finally in 2023 issued a ruling at the federal level.
Also 13 states created laws in their local Congresses that allow the election of women without justification.
Velázquez also exemplifies the laws to provide social security to domestic workers, the Olimpia Law against violence in digital spaces, or the one that sanctions “vicarious violence”, in which the aggressor uses the sons and daughters as an instrument to do harm to the mother or ex-partner.
However, there are many issues that are still a debt to women: access to formal employment It is even lower for them (barely 45% of the female workforce) and the average wage gap means that women have an income 16% lower than that of men.
And Mexico registers a rate of 1.5 femicides per 100,000 inhabitantsthe fifth highest among Latin American countries, with more than 4,700 cases between 2018 and 2022, according to an analysis by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
“Of course we can criticize the efficiency of these regulations or the effectiveness, but even though we can make observations, the issue was put on the table and progress was made,” considers Velázquez.
“Mexico still has many patriarchal practices is and there is a lot of machismo, definitely. Cultural changes always take longer. What affirmative actions, such as in this case gender quotas or parity, do is reduce the time it would take for a society like Mexico to achieve that equality without the intervention of the State.”
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