Women In Contemporary Mexican Politics

Since the mid-1980s, a dramatic opening in Mexico's political and electoral processes, combined with the growth of a new civic culture, has created unprecedented opportunities for women and other previously repressed or ignored groups to participate in the political life of the nation. In this book, Victoria Rodríguez offers the first comprehensive analysis of how Mexican women have taken advantage of new opportunities to participate in the political process through elected and appointed office, nongovernmental organizations, and grassroots activism. Drawing on scores of interviews with politically active women conducted since 1994, Rodríguez looks at Mexican women's political participation from a variety of angles. She analyzes the factors that have increased women's political activity: from the women's movement, to the economic crises of the 1980s and 1990s, to increasing democratization, to the victory of Vicente Fox in the 2000 presidential election. She maps out the pathways that women have used to gain access to public life and also the roadblocks that continue to limit women's participation in politics, especially at higher levels of government. And she offers hopeful, yet realistic predictions for women's future participation in the political life of Mexico.

This comprehensive and engaging text explores contemporary Mexico's political, economic, and social development and examines the most important policy issues facing the country today. Readers will find this widely praised book continues to be the most current and accessible work available on Mexico’s politics and policy.

This book offers an analysis of how women's participation is conducted in Mexico´s political sphere. Federalization and decentralization processes can have a significant impact on women’s participation and discrimination. By questioning the form in which a democratic state is built (that is, the degree of (de)centralization) the book looks to a set of forms and processes affecting women’s political life. A decentralized form of state-government implies three levels of government in which women (or any other group of people) can have active participation: central-federal government, state-regional-province government, and local (municipalities) government. This book offers an analysis of how gender discrimination operates in a different way in each of these levels of government and the corresponding political activity. Policies that fight against gender discrimination and promote women's participation, in both administration and political parties, do not always operate cooperatively, and often exist in contradiction with each other.

To date, the mainstream literature on Mexican politics has said little about women, even though their participation as formal political actors has increased dramatically in the past fifteen years. Somewhat surprisingly, the political participation of women, although well documented in other Latin American countries, has been neglected in the case

The constant changes that occur in a globalized world have pushed gender equality to the forefront of many debates in the western world. Nevertheless, cultural values continue to influence the way in which governments, societies, and individuals behave in regard to the roles that men and women play. In Mexico, despite the cultural values that are embedded in society, women have been able to succeed in areas where, until a few decades ago, it would have been unimaginable. During the last forty years, the Mexican government has gone through a gradual transformation that has allowed women to become an active part of the political arena. Nevertheless, the path continues to be arduous, as deep-seated social values and prejudices still influence the thoughts of many individuals. Few studies have specifically addressed the involvement of women in Mexican history and politics, especially using first-hand accounts. This study aims to fill that gap and help understand the importance of the involvement of women throughout the history of Mexico, and offer a privileged insight to their lives and experiences. To do so, twelve women who have actively participated in Mexican politics through direct appointment, elections, activism, and academia were interviewed. While the sample is small, these twelve women are part of a very small and select group of female political leaders in Mexico, which include former first ladies, ministers of the Supreme Court, senators, congresswomen, ambassadors, members of different presidential cabinets, academicians, and activists. The common themes that the women interviewed discussed were culture and prejudice, the role of traits in leadership, gender quotas, the role of first ladies, the importance of political parties, and the possibility of having a female president. None of the leaders identified as politicians first; rather, they saw their family as a primary focus. This research gives a limited but rich and useful journalistic perspective on the careers of women who have helped shape contemporary Mexico. While the small convenience sample provides a limitation to generalizing the results, the women interviewed are all key leaders in Mexican politics and their experiences can inform the role and impact of women in Mexico.

Near Tijuana, Baja California, the autonomous community of Maclovio Rojas demonstrates what is possible for urban place-based political movements. More than a community, Maclovio Rojas is a women-led social movement that works for economic and political autonomy to address issues of health, education, housing, nutrition, and security. Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas tells the story of the community’s struggle to carve out space for survival and thriving in the shadows of the U.S.-Mexico geopolitical border. This ethnography by Michelle Téllez demonstrates the state’s neglect in providing social services and local infrastructure. This neglect exacerbates the structural violence endemic to the border region—a continuation of colonial systems of power on the urban, rural, and racialized poor. Téllez shows that in creating the community of Maclovio Rojas, residents have challenged prescriptive notions of nation and belonging. Through women’s active participation and leadership, a women’s political subjectivity has emerged—Maclovianas. These border women both contest and invoke their citizenship as they struggle to have their land rights recognized, and they transform traditional political roles into that of agency and responsibility. This book highlights the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a space of resistance, conviviality, agency, and creative community building where transformative politics can take place. It shows hope, struggle, and possibility in the context of gendered violences of racial capitalism on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border.