<< Return to Program Overview

Mexico

1. Historical and cultural context for women and their participation:

Urbanization and Catholicism

Historically, Mexico was largely a rural country, with each community defining the status of women uniquely. Traditionally, Mexican women are expected to lead the household, practice Christianity, and be submissive to their husbands. The prominent roles of Spanish colonialism and the spread of Catholicism in Mexico have created a norm that expects women to be nurturers and follow Virgin Mary as the ultimate model of womanhood. Mexican women are expected to follow “marianismo“, meaning true femininity as defined by St. Mary of Guadalupe by seeking feminine virtues like: family, self-sacrifice, chastity, morality, and being spiritually stronger than men.

Status of women today

The current situation in Mexico today is deeply troubling. There are multiple ongoing violent conflicts that escalate the oppression of women. Drug cartels fight each other, the Mexican government fights the cartels, and the result is mass civilian casualty in the thousands and human rights abuses through illegal detainment, torture, murder, and even disappearance. A combination of drug, weapons, and human trafficking has pushed gender equality to the side of Mexico’s focal point. Women experience domestic abuse, sex trafficking, as well as workplace harassment at an exorbitant rate in Mexico. Patriarchal norms have placed Mexico 32nd on the Global Gender Index, and reinforce the disparities Mexican women face in their roles.

In 2020, 57% of the Mexican women workforce went on strike in order to demonstrate how society would fail without their contributions. It cost the country $1.5 billion. Yet, two weeks later, the COVID pandemic forced everyone back home, and hotline reports of GBV rose 80%. 209 women were killed in 2020 during lockdown.

For more information on the history of women in Mexico:

2. UNSCR1325, National Action Plans and legislation

UNSCR1325
Mexico is a signatory of 1325, and released a 2022 report on their WPS strategy that included input from multiple ongoing institutions created to expand this work:

  • the National Program for Equality between Women and Men 2020-2024
  • the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
  • the UN Secretary-General’s Initiative on Action for Peacekeeping and Gender Parity

NAPs
Mexico released its first NAP in 2021 in compliance with the WPS agenda of: Prevention, Participation, Protection, Relief and Recovery and in coordination with their WPS policy launched in 2020 called “Feminist Foreign Policy”.

Legislation
In 2020, Mexico became the first LAC country to pass a version of “Feminist Foreign Policy”, and they are ranked 3rd in the world on the Feminist Foreign Policy Index. According to Ann Deslandes at Foreign Policy, “Mexico’s feminist foreign policy is a welcome development, but the incongruence between the country’s aspirations and leadership on the world stage and the actual state of gender relations in the country remains problematic.”

For more information on NAPs in Mexico:

3. Political context and women in leadership roles

Despite these glaring social disparities, Mexico is 4th in the world for highest proportion of elected women in the national legislature. Women make up 48% of the Chamber of Deputies and 50% of the Senate. 4 female justices serve on the Mexican Supreme Court, and Mexico is on track to elect its first female president in June 2024. Yet, this political power has not translated to substantial legislation that could improve the everyday conditions of life for Mexican women through policies on reproductive health, safety, and equal pay.

Political violence against political candidates is astronomically high in Mexico during the 2024 election season. 24 candidates have been murdered in the last 7 months alone. On April 1, the only female candidate for mayor, Bertha Gisela Gaytan, was shot and killed at a political rally. A 2018 study found that just 1 act of political violence in Mexico decreased voter turnout by 1%. This has major repercussions for democracy and the expansion of women’s rights.

For more information on women in leadership in Mexico, please see:

4. Women’s rights and civil society

According to UN Women, “Mexico has made significant progress in the achievement of women’s rights and gender equality, especially in key areas at federal level: strengthening of national laws to ensure women and men equality; strong gender institutionalism and increased public resources earmarked for gender equality. Despite the progress made, gender equality in Mexico faces a series of structural challenges characterized by an unrelenting gap between formal and substantive equality in all areas of development; it means that there is an implementation gap between what is stated in the laws, plans, programs and budgets on women’s rights and practical implementation and compliance in daily life. Progress has also been made in law and policy harmonization with international commitments, especially CEDAW, this harmonization is still partial, mainly at state and municipal level.”

Women’s Civil Society Organizations:


For more information on women’s rights in Mexico:

5. Gender-based violence:

Violence against women in Latin America is the highest in the world despite many LAC countries having passed laws that criminalize femicide. Mexico ranks second (under Brazil) for highest rate of femicide in 2022. for 98% of cases of GBV in LAC went unpunished in 2016. Violence against women in Mexico is largely upheld by dangerous social norms rather than actual inequitable laws or policy. The concept of “machismo” influences male behavior towards women in Mexico, and reinforces internal artificial barriers for women that leads to tolerance.

In 2014, Mexico was the 16th highest rate of femicide in the world. In 2023, 10 women and girls were killed a day by intimate partners or family in Mexico. That’s 3,000 a year, but only 24% are counted as actual femicide. Combined with social discrimination, there is widespread institutional neglect in the legal system that prevents women’s reported cases of GBV to be prosecuted as crimes of femicide. Instead, the Mexican government is using a loophole to try the over 1.7 million reported cases of GBV with attempted femicide in the last 8 years  as cases of general injury or abuse, which gives male perpetrators less sanctioned consequences.

While femicide has been recognized in Mexico’s penal code since 2012, judges and prosecutors continue to engage their roles with gender bias against women. Women are further perpetrated by dangerous social stigma and unnecessarily lengthy legal processes after reporting. Femicide in Mexico has grown 200% since 2007. According to Ann Deslandes with Foreign Policy, “There’s little doubt that structural sexism and impunity are the greatest barriers to justice for victims of femicide, and to bringing the numbers down. Additionally, indigenous women, transgender women, and women with disabilities face compounded discrimination and risk. Women who work in Mexico’s large informal economy are particularly vulnerable to poverty and violence.”

For more information on GBV in Mexico, please see:

6. Key takeaways

Previous
WPS Overview
Next