Mexican machismo meets its match: Political women

As Mexicans prepare for Independence Day festivities this week, including the traditional midnight grito, or shout, aspiring nurse Flora Espinosa says this year she’ll be screaming in celebration of Mexican women.

That’s because in the span of a few hours on Sept. 6, many like Ms. Espinosa felt a shift in women’s standing. The Supreme Court decriminalized abortion, expanding reproductive rights, and the ruling party chose a woman as its presidential candidate, matching the opposition, meaning Mexico is almost guaranteed to have its first presidenta next year.

“It gives me butterflies,” says Ms. Espinosa, sipping coffee through a straw on her morning commute. “I’m not used to this; I’m actually feeling hopeful for women.”

Mexico may be a byword for machismo and have sky-high rates of femicide, but in recent years the country has also led the way in ensuring gender parity in politics. Women hold half of all congressional seats and Cabinet positions. And social movements, such as the mothers of children who have disappeared amid historic levels of violence, have become important political players, increasingly well organized and hard to sideline.

A woman president doesn’t guarantee a political agenda focused on women’s rights, cautions Esperanza Palma, a political scientist at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco, and it will take time to ensure that doctors respect the Supreme Court ruling. But these recent moves are reasons for hope, she says.

“This is Mexican women’s moment,” she says, pointing to the years of feminist-led organization and persistence that laid the groundwork for last week’s developments. “These are historic achievements, and we can feel optimistic.”

A more just society?

For decades, Latin America has been known for some of the most restrictive abortion policies in the world. But in recent years, countries such as Argentina and Colombia – and now Mexico – have begun dismantling restrictions on reproductive rights.

“This is a request from civil society that’s getting louder. Courts are listening. Governments are trying to listen,” says Alejandra Coll, advocacy adviser for the Center for Reproductive Rights in Colombia. 

Mexico’s Supreme Court ruling did not instantaneously do away with criminal penalties for abortion, which are still in effect in 20 of 32 states. But for those who use national health care services, regardless of where they live, the decision guarantees them legal access to an abortion, and doctors nationwide no longer face legal consequences for carrying out an abortion. The ruling is expected to serve as an impetus for more states to adopt the federal norm.

“We are moving towards a more just society, in which the rights of all are respected,” Sen. Olga Sánchez Cordero, a former Supreme Court justice, told the national newspaper Milenio last week.

Dr. Palma attributes the recent expansions of reproductive rights to a broader appreciation of gender perspective. “Incorporating an understanding of international mandates, and considering human rights and women’s rights in how decisions are made – it’s a reflection of a new generation of decision-makers,” she says.

Not all women are so enthusiastic.

“I wouldn’t call abortion a win for Mexican women,” says Magdalena Valero, selling pastries and coffee from a folding table outside a metro station one recent morning. “Mexico’s problems like organized crime or violence against women, they all come down to society forgetting family values. That should be the focus for making Mexico a better place for women or for anyone,” she says.

But, Ms. Valero acknowledges, her two teenage grandchildren disagree. “They tell me it is progress,” she says. “Only God knows.”

Coming up in ’24 - “Señora Presidenta”

On the same day as the court’s ruling last week, Claudia Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City, was declared the ruling Morena party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential elections. Earlier, the Broad Front for Mexico, a coalition of leading opposition parties, had tapped Indigenous senator and businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez as its candidate.

Though Mexican women voted for the first time only in 1958, Mexico is now set to elect its first female president before the United States does.

Electoral gender quotas were first introduced in the 1990s, as Mexico emerged from decades of single-party rule, but political parties found ways to work around a requirement that 30% of candidates be women. Civil society groups, such as Mujeres en Plural, helped make parity a reality, taking their complaints to federal court.

Their dedication helped lead to constitutional changes, including the Political-Electoral Reform in 2014 and a 2019 reform that introduced the concept of “parity in everything.”  That demands gender parity in all government positions, at all levels, where public decisions are made.

The proportion of women in politics climbed from 15% in 1994 to 50% in 2021.

Today women serve as president of the national electoral commission, head of the Supreme Court, presidents of the Senate and Congress, and head of the Bank of Mexico, among other high-profile positions.

“We’ve been focused for so long on the quantitative, but now that we have reached parity, there’s more focus on the qualitative,” says Marisol Vázquez, a member of Mujeres en Plural, a network of politicians, academics, journalists, artists, activists, and professionals working for the political empowerment of women.

“Sure, you’re a woman and you’re on the ballot,” she says, “but what’s your agenda? How do your plans affect women? There are two women candidates for president this year, but it’s because they were the best candidates for each party.”

Both were selected through polls of party members, points out Dr. Palma. “That’s to say there seems to be a change in public perceptions around what it means to have a female candidate. It says women have the power, the presence in political parties, and can win over the public.”

But victories for women in politics have not translated directly to other spheres. Mexican women are underrepresented at all levels in the private sector, according to a 2022 report by the consulting firm McKinsey, and their participation in the labor market is among the lowest in Latin America. Femicides are a distressing reality, with an estimated 10 women and girls killed in Mexico every day.

Despite her optimism, Dr. Palma is not running any victory laps yet. “I wouldn’t want to build up my expectations too high,” she says. “Women, like men, have party ties and limitations. They have to respond to other interests, and they will inherit the complex problems of the country” like overwhelming organized crime, she points out.

“Politicians are full of surprises,” she warns. “Sometimes the triumphs are not long term. We could see setbacks.”