Women and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico

Abstract

This chapter provides a historical overview of the situation of women in Mexico. In contrast with Canada and the United States, the two nations with whom it shares the continent of North America, Mexico has only recently qualified as a “formal” democracy, characterized by competitive elections and peaceful transition of power from one elected political party to another. Only in the year 2000 did free and fair elections transfer power into the hands of a president elected from a party other than the Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI), the party that has dominated Mexican politics since the Mexican revolution in the early twentieth century. Consequently, Mexican women’s struggles for political, economic, and social rights have taken place in a very different context from those of the other two North American countries. Mexican women’s political activism is part of the broader, ongoing struggle for democratization of the country. Because Mexico’s economy is less developed than that of its neighbors to the north, and because levels of poverty are far higher in Mexico, globalization has very different effects on Mexican women. This chapter explores the changing roles of women in Mexico since the sixteenth century, illuminating their many contributions to Mexican history, economy, culture, society, and politics, contributions that remain largely invisible in standard accounts of Mexican history. It also explores women’s contemporary activism to promote public policies that reconcile the competing demands of work and family life, while fostering Mexico’s sustainable development. For a brief overview of Mexico, see table 2.1.