Mexico has become a world leader of gender equality in politics

January 25, 2022

Mexico is known for its macho culture, and the country has now become one of the world's leaders in gender political equality.

The gist:

The journey to parity…

Marina del Pilar Avila who is going to be the first woman to be governor of Baja California, as well as the state's youngest governor (and who holds two Master’s Degrees) sets the stage by saying, “a long line of suffragists fought to get us where we are today.

• That struggle began in earnest about three decades ago. In the 1990s, Mexico's opposition pushed through electoral reforms to break the country from one-party rule.

• In 1996, lawmakers recommended that 30% of all congressional candidates be women.

• Six years later, they mandated it, then raised it to 40 and in 2014, set it at 50%.

• In 2019, lawmakers went even further, passing a constitutional amendment mandating gender parity in everything - something unprecedented in Latin America. That's given women a chance for top jobs in all levels of government, from Cabinet positions to mayorships.

Women at the time insisted those reforms include their participation, too…and their argument was, well, if this is the path to democratization, then democratization includes, you know, being a more gender-equal society. It started with a very sort of weak recommendation, and it took a lot of time to ratchet it up to where it is now. J

—Jennifer Piscopo, Political Scientist, Occidental College

NPR correspondent, Carrie Kahn, says “the reforms are finally leveling the playing field,” and that “male party leaders for years put women candidates in lesser races or in ones they were sure to lose, and if they won, they'd even force women to resign and give the post to a male substitute.”

Montserrat Caballero, anIndigenous single mom and the newly elected mayor of Tijuana, who also has a law degree and worked as a criminal detective, says “men in this northern border city fought hard to keep women like her off the ballot. One politician told me that with my work and experience, I could maybe aspire to one day be his secretary. There's nothing wrong with being a secretary, for sure, but I had already worked three times harder than this guy and other men around.”

Newly elected leaders like Marina del Pilar Avila, “say they understand expectations are high,” but she is ready for the challenge, even though she gets catcalls on the streets from men telling her to go home and raise her children.”

Find the NPR article here.