Women in Contemporary Mexican Politics 9780292798571

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WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN POLITICS

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VICTORIA E. RODRÍGUEZ

WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN POLITICS

UNIVERSIT Y OF TEX AS PRESS, AUSTIN

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The publication of this book was assisted by a University Cooperative Society Subvention Grant awarded by the University of Texas at Austin.

copyright © 2003 by the university of texas press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2003 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, University of Texas Press, Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819.  The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of \8
ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).

library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Rodríguez, Victoria Elizabeth, 1954 – Women in contemporary Mexican politics / Victoria E. Rodríguez. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-292-77125-8 (cloth : alk. paper)— isbn 0-292-77127-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Women in politics—Mexico. 2. Mexico—Politics and government—1988 – . I. Title. hq1236.5.m6r63 2003 306
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o820972 — dc21 2002013122

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TO

THE MEMORY OF

MY TWO BELOVED

SANTIAGOS

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Contents

list of tables and figures ix acronyms xi preface xv acknowledgments xix INTRODUCTION 3 The Feminization of Mexican Public Life, and a Note on Methodology CHAPTER ONE 19 Participation, Representation, and Democracy: How the Personal Becomes the Political for Women in Contemporary Mexico CHAPTER T WO 47 The Social, Economic, and Political Identity of Mexican Women: Negotiating Private and Public Spaces

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CHAPTER THREE 89 The Women’s Movement in Mexico: From Suffrage to the Institutionalization of Gender

137 Women in Public Office: Building Alliances, Getting Things Done CHAPTER FOUR

197 Women and the Electoral Process: Shifting Gears in the Mexican Political Machine CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX 245 Reframing Mexican Democracy: What Does the Future Hold for Women?

notes 259 bibliography 279 index 311

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List of Tables and Figures

TABLE S

2.1 Female Workforce Participation Rates, by Age Cohort 56 4.1 Women’s Representation in the Mexican Legislature, 1952 –2003 142 4.2 Mexican Women Legislators, by Party Affiliation, Chamber and Legislature, 1988 –2003 144 4.3 Women in the Highest Positions of State, 1945 –2000 148 4.4 Municipalities Governed by Women, by Party and State, 1998 159 4.5 Municipalities Governed by Women, 1990 –1998 160 5.1 Women’s and Men’s Perceptions on the Importance of the Vote, 1994 209 5.2 Membership in Organizations, by Gender 210 5.3 Participation in Political Activities, by Gender 211

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5.4 Perceptions about Democracy and Its Tasks for Mexican and U.S. Populations, by Gender 212 FIGURES

2.1 Women’s Employment, by Sector of the Economy 61 2.2 Nature of Women’s Employment 62 4.1 Estimated Distribution of Women and Men in Positions of Political Influence Worldwide, 2000 139 4.2 Women’s Representation in Government Worldwide, 2000 140

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Acronyms

ANCIFEM Asociación Nacional Cívica Femenina (National Female Civic Association) ANFER Alianza Nacional Femenil Revolucionaria (National Female Revolutionary Alliance) APN Agrupación Política Nacional (National Political Organization) CD Convergencia por la Democracia (Convergence for Democracy) CDP Comité de Defensa Popular (Popular Defense Committee) CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDEMUN Centro de Desarrollo Municipal (Center for Municipal Development) CEN Comité Ejecutivo Nacional (National Executive Committee) CIM Consejo para la Integración de la Mujer (Council for the Integration of Women) CMC Congreso de Mujeres por el Cambio (Congress of Women for Change)

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CNC Confederación Nacional Campesina (National Peasant Confederation) CNOP Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares (National Confederation of Popular Organizations) COFIPE Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales (Federal Code for Electoral Procedures and Institutions) CONAMUP Coordinadora Nacional del Movimiento Urbano Popular (National Coordinator of the Urban Popular Movement) CONAPO Consejo Nacional de Población (National Population Council) CONMUJER Consejo Nacional de la Mujer (National Women’s Council) CTM Confederación de Trabajadores de México (Confederation of Mexican Workers) DIF Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (Integrated Family Development) EZLN Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista National Liberation Army) FLACSO Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (Latin American Faculty for the Social Sciences) FNALIDM Frente Nacional por la Libertad y los Derechos de las Mujeres (National Front for Women’s Rights and Liberty) FPTyL Frente Popular Tierra y Libertad (Land and Liberty Popular Front) FSLN Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation Front) FUPDM Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer (Sole Front for Women’s Rights) GEM Grupo de Educación Popular con Mujeres (Group for Women’s Popular Education) GIRE Grupo de Información sobre Reproducción Elegida (Group for Information on Reproductive Choice) IFE Instituto Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Institute) INEGI Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía, e Informática (National Institute for Statistics, Geography, and Data) INMUJER Instituto Nacional de la(s) Mujer(es) (National Women’s Institute) IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union ITAM Instituto Technológico Autónomo de México (Mexican Autonomous Institute of Technology) xii

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ACRONYMS

ITESM Instituto Technológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies) IVA Impuesto al Valor Agregado (Value Added Tax) LASA Latin American Studies Association MAS Mujeres en Acción Sindical (Women in Action in Labor Unions) MLD Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia (Women Struggling for Democracy) NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NGO Nongovernmental organization PAN Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party) PCM Partido Comunista Mexicano (Mexican Communist Party) PDS Partido Democracia Social (Social Democracy Party) PIEM Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios de la Mujer (Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies Program) PMT Partido Mexicano de los Trabajadores (Mexican Workers’ Party) PNR Partido Nacional Revolucionario (National Revolutionary Party) PPM Promoción Política de la Mujer (Political Promotion of Women) PR Proportional Representation PRD Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Democratic Revolution Party) PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party) PRONAM Programa Nacional de la Mujer (National Women’s Program) PRONASOL Programa Nacional de Solidaridad (National Solidarity Program) PRT Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (Workers’ Revolutionary Party) PSUM Partido Socialista Unificado de México (Unified Socialist Party of Mexico) PT Partido del Trabajo (Workers’ Party) PVEM Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano (Green Party) SEDESOL Secretaría de Desarollo Social (Ministry of Social Development) SERNAM Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (Women’s Ministry, Chile) xiii

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SNTE Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (National Union of Education Workers) UN United Nations UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico) UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNICEF United Nations International Culture and Education Fund UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women

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Preface

MEXIC AN WOMEN ARE KNOWN and celebrated all over the world: in the arts, Frida Kahlo; in religion, the Virgin of Guadalupe; in literature, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. These are some of the most outstanding and legendary women of the Americas and, indeed, of the Western world. Others, while perhaps not as widely known outside of Mexico, still have a powerful and transcendent presence, particularly in shaping the history of the nation: la Malinche, la Güera Rodríguez, la Corregidora. In contemporary Mexico, women make up slightly over half of the population; over one-third of the labor force; and almost one-half of the student body in institutions of higher education. Yet their presence in the political world is relatively small. My intention in this book is to trace the evolution of the feminization of Mexican public life and to assess what the future holds for women. At a broader level, my goal is to offer one particular (gendered) optic about the process of democratic change in Mexico. The research that led to this book began to take shape in early 1994. This was a particularly exciting time politically in Mexico, as the coun-

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try was riding high on the popularity of the Salinas administration, triggered in large part by aggressive political and economic liberalization. The president’s hand-picked successor, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was conducting a vigorous and innovative campaign; opposition parties were making substantial gains at the local level; a new and more credible electoral system was in place; a new civic and political culture was developing rapidly; there was economic stability; the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had just been implemented; and Mexico had become a darling of the international media. The only storm clouds threatening this sunshine were in the south, where the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas had been timed to coincide with NAFTA’s taking effect on 1 January 1994. There was excitement about the upcoming presidential election, as it was expected to be free of the fraud that had marred the 1988 presidential election. Although no one truly believed that the ruling PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Institutional Revolutionary Party) would lose the presidency, there were high expectations for a more plural arrangement in the new Congress as well as for possible “opposition” victories at the state and local levels. There was also considerable anticipation surrounding the new cast of characters: who they would be, what their policy agendas would look like, what groups they would support and promote. Altogether, there was an air of openness and anticipation, and I wondered at the time where women would fit into this picture. The United States was still in a celebratory mood after 1992 had been declared “The Year of the Woman” because an unprecedented number of women were elected to public office that year. In the broader tapestry of world affairs, the United Nations was preparing to have its Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and there was a buzz in the air. Women were everywhere. On a personal level, at that time I was working on two interrelated issues. One was a long-standing research project on “opposition” governments that Peter Ward and I began in 1989, which led to a considerable corpus of work that analyzed the experiences of several PAN (Partido Acción Nacional, National Action Party) and PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, Democratic Revolution Party) administrations at both the state and particularly the municipal levels (Rodríguez and Ward 1991, 1992, 1994a, 1994b, 1995, 1996). The second was my ongoing work on decentralization policies in Mexico, which formed another significant part of my scholarly work (Rodríguez 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998a, 1999a; Ward and Rodríguez 1999). Both strands of research were set

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within the context of the accelerated process of political change that was underway in Mexico, beginning with the problematic presidential election of 1988 and the first election ever in 1989 of a state governor from a party other than the PRI. As the process of political opening progressed, new political and administrative structures were put in place. New practices and new actors surfaced continuously as the country attempted to come to terms with a more democratic environment. Moreover, the political liberalization occurring in Mexico was situated within an international wave of democratic transitions. As the Berlin Wall fell at the end of 1989 and we witnessed country after country move from authoritarian rule to incipient democracy, new actors came to the fore. Among these actors were the women. My curiosity about women and politics in Mexico developed rapidly, and I headed to the library to do some research on the topic. I knew there was an abundant literature on women and politics in the United States, and I expected to find some good sources on Mexico. Of course, I thought that having at the University of Texas at Austin one of the largest and most important libraries on Latin America in the world— the Benson Collection—would make my search easy. Imagine my surprise when neither the librarian nor I could find anything; in a nutshell, there was no literature whatsoever analyzing how women were becoming engaged in the process of contemporary political change in Mexico. Only a handful of widely scattered analyses conducted by Mexican scholars had looked into women’s political participation. There existed a large body of scholarly literature pertaining to women and gender in Mexico, but surprisingly, politics was absent. Instantly, I knew this was a research project in the making, and I knew I wanted to do it. What I did not know was just how fascinating it would turn out to be. This book has been more than six years in the making. It has taken me to Mexico more times than I can recall for fieldwork ranging from conducting interviews to attending sessions in Congress, party rallies, and academic forums. In the process, it has also led to the forging of priceless friendships with many of the women represented in this project. These personal relationships made me privy to many confidential conversations that inform my analysis in ways that would not have been possible if these women had not spoken so openly and candidly. Because I owe them for their trust in more ways than I can express, I have chosen to not include direct references to them by name in this book. In particular, I wish to show my appreciation and consideration of privacy to a

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group of some twenty Mexican women who have met with me repeatedly during the years since I started the project, allowing me also to add a longitudinal dimension to my analysis. Given that I am concentrating my analysis on the period between the presidential elections of 1994 and 2000, this longitudinal view has been important to understanding how the political scene has evolved in regard to women. Having spent the last six years analyzing the participation of women in Mexico’s political life, I have now begun to extend the analysis to other Latin American countries, namely Argentina and Chile. I have selected these two countries because each offers a unique experience that builds solidly into my analysis of women’s political representation in Latin America. Specifically, Argentina has been the pioneer in increasing the political representation of women through a quota law, while Chile has been at the forefront in the institutionalization of women’s concerns through the creation of a women’s ministry. In the summer of 2000 I traveled to both countries to undertake some preliminary fieldwork, which has begun to draw together in comparative perspective the political experiences of women in Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Altogether, I do not hesitate to say that this project has been the most enriching and rewarding work of my career to date. When I talk about my research (and I do talk about it all the time), many people comment that “Mexican women are really changing,” and I could not agree more.

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Acknowledgments

IN ADDITION TO FORG ING a number of very close personal friendships with some of the women who are portrayed in this book, I have also incurred a number of debts to people I wish to acknowledge here. Some provided information, others analytical insight; some provided stimulating conversation, and others served as sounding boards; some held my hand when I became impatient or exasperated, and yet others provided funding for the research and fieldwork. Among the latter I especially thank the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, both at the University of Texas at Austin, which have supported this project over the years through numerous research grants. I would like to thank individually each and every one of the Mexican women who gave so generously of their time and shared their stories with me for this project. They were all so welcoming and interested in the project. But that is not possible here, so I shall limit myself to rec-

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ognizing two women who have helped me and supported this research from the very beginning and kept me up-to-date on current developments: Laura Carrera and Alicia Martínez. The students who participated in the early stages of the project collected some of the backbone information on which the analysis presented here was built over the following six years. Among those in the 1994 – 1995 class were Olga Alvarez, Margo Clarke, Cecelia Coleman, Lesley Daigle, Albert Hannah, Ruth Hardy, Clifford Johnson, Vatsala Kapur, Corene Kendrick, Kathryn Mock, Elsa Beatriz Padilla, Melissa RendlerGarcía, Patricia Henna Rowe, Daniel Sepulveda, Lisa Stevak, Stephanie Upp, Shelley Wallace, and Lawrence Warshaw. At later stages, Beatriz Padilla and Vatsala Kapur also contributed as research assistants, as did Paula McDermott and Sharon Mastracci. To all of them, my thanks for making it easy to blend teaching and research. Among my colleagues, I wish to express a special recognition to Kathy Staudt, who made me think about women and gender in the first place. As a graduate student newly arrived from Mexico, I enrolled in her Women, Politics, and Policy seminar, and my thinking changed forever. Over the years she continued to stretch my boundaries and enabled me to feel confident enough to share my work with colleagues I hold in the highest regard, including Jane Jaquette, Lynn Stephen, and the late Elsa Chaney. All of them have influenced my work in different ways, and I thank them for it. A special acknowledgment also goes to Rod Camp, who sometimes sees in my work more than I do! A deep note of thanks goes to Theresa May, my editor at the University of Texas Press, for supporting me in more ways than I can acknowledge here. She is a terrific human being. Having thanked the people who have encouraged and supported my professional work, I now turn to thanking those who have supported me at a personal level. My first experience with women and politics in Mexico dates back to when I was a child and accompanied my father to a campaign event with the women’s sector of the PRI when he was running for office. I still recall, distinctively, that in his speech he referred to Valentina, a woman of great valor in the Revolution of 1910, and the ballads she inspired. He, in turn, inspired me. My mother and my sister Laura were both themselves political wives in Mexico, are feminists in their own way, and have a unique understanding of women and politics. Although my mother was sometimes not exactly sure what I was doing with this project, Laura always was, and I thank her for that. And lastly,

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

my most deeply felt appreciation goes to Peter, who makes my intellectual life stimulating and my personal life beautiful. For all that went into this research project, and into this book, here I will simply say, “Thank you, darling.” Victoria E. Rodríguez Austin, Texas

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Introduction THE FEMINIZATION OF MEXICAN PUBLIC LIFE, AND A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY

FE W WHO HAVE STUDIED Mexican politics have given much thought to the growing importance of women’s participation and representation, and few who have studied women’s activism in Mexico have looked into the relationship between women and the political system. This book is an effort to bridge that gap. Using data compiled during the six years I have been working on this project, I analyze the emerging role of women in contemporary Mexico and their increasingly important presence in the country’s political life. To date, the mainstream literature on politics in Mexico—abundant as it is—has said little about women, even though their participation as formal political actors has increased dramatically in the last fifteen years. The political participation of women, while well documented in other Latin American countries, has been neglected in the Mexican case, and only recently has it been identified as a field of study (see, for example, Fernández Poncela 1995b; Hierro, Parada, and Careaga 1995; Martínez 1995; Massolo 1994b; Rodríguez

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1998b; Tarrés 1992). This lack of scholarly attention can be explained in part by the fact that men continue to dramatically outnumber women in the Mexican political elite, but it remains puzzling that women’s gains have been relatively ignored. Although only one out of every fourteen members of the so-called political elite in Mexico is a woman (Camp 1998), it is imperative to look beyond the numbers. Despite the dramatic underrepresentation of women in high-level appointed and elected positions, the quickening political participation and increased visibility of women in other arenas has enabled them to play a critical role. Women have become increasingly influential in the policymaking process through their activism in nongovernmental organizations and social movements at both the local and the national levels. They have also become vital actors in the electoral process, and not only because they make up 52 percent of the electorate. Women monitor elections, orchestrate campaign events, run campaigns, join marches and demonstrations in record numbers, and of course, increasingly run for office and contend for the top positions within the political parties’ internal structures. As is true elsewhere in the world, Mexican women have come of political age. As Jane Jaquette (1997: 23) writes, “The growing participation and representation of woman in politics is one of the most remarkable developments of the late twentieth century. For the first time, women in all countries and social classes are becoming politically active, achieving dramatic gains in the number and kind of offices they hold.” My purpose in this book is to explore the different forms of women’s political participation and activism in Mexico in the period between the last two presidential elections—1994 and 2000 — documenting the rise of women as political actors and contributing to the growing literature on Mexico’s democratization process. In addition to documenting women’s involvement in all walks of political life, my analysis anticipates what the future holds for Mexican women as the country begins a new political era. THE FEMINIZ ATION OF MEXIC AN PUBLIC LIFE

The dramatic opening that has occurred the last fifteen years in Mexico’s political and electoral processes has brought to the fore a number of political actors who previously had little or no say in the political and policy-making processes, which were overwhelmingly dominated at all

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levels by the PRI. In addition to the major electoral gains of the opposition parties, led by the PAN and the PRD, the birth and growth of a new civic culture in Mexico has triggered new forms of activism and political participation. Previously repressed or ignored actors, such as women, independent agrarian organizations, and indigenous groups, have organized and mobilized to press their demands. In so doing, they have attracted national and international attention. The Chiapas uprising of 1994 and the continued visibility of Subcomandante Marcos, culminating in the rebels’ march into Mexico City in March 2001 and Comandanta Esther’s address to the Congress, is perhaps the most vivid illustration of this emergent political presence. As Comandanta Esther eloquently stated to the legislators, “Mi nombre es Esther, pero eso no importa ahora. Soy zapatista, pero eso tampoco importa en este momento. Soy indígena y soy mujer y eso es lo único que importa ahora” (My name is Esther, but that doesn’t matter now. I am Zapatista, but that doesn’t matter now either. I am Indian, and I am a woman, and now that is all that matters [Loaeza, Reforma/AM, 31 March 2001]).1 Women have also taken advantage of this opening and of the growing international attention to the country’s affairs. As documented in this book, Mexican women are organizationally and politically savvy, and they have devised a variety of strategies in pursuit of political rights and equality. Indeed, the political mobilization of women in Mexico is not new at all, dating as it does to the early part of this century. In the early 1900s women began to campaign vigorously for recognition as citizens, focusing their struggles on suffrage and equality. As we will see in chapter 3, women built coalitions wherever they could, continued those fights through the mid-1900s, and were finally successful in winning the right to vote in 1953. According to the 1990 national census (INEGI 1990), women constitute 51 percent of Mexico’s population. The majority live in urban areas and are under thirty years old. Of the female population, 37 percent are under the age of fifteen. Birth rates have fallen dramatically, with the average number of children now at 3.8, or half what it was in the early 1970s. Education levels have increased steadily, though women still tend to have higher illiteracy rates than men (25.2 percent compared to 16.7 percent among men [Inter-American Development Bank 1995: 201]). The most dramatic gains are in higher education, with women now representing over 40 percent of university students. Moreover, it is significant that these women no longer tend to concentrate in what are tra-

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ditionally considered to be “female” career areas, such as education, nursing, and social work. Now they study economics, law, accounting, and computer science. In the economic sphere, women have also become increasingly visible and active, mostly as a result of the economic crises of the 1980s and 1990s. As discussed in chapter 2, the crises placed unprecedented burdens on women to become providers as well as caretakers of the family and the home. Women now constitute almost one-third of the economically active population in Mexico, and in urban areas, where most women reside, this percentage is significantly higher. The stereotypical image of Mexican women was that they only tended to take on paid work while they were young and single, but the composition of the female workforce has changed drastically; it now includes large numbers of middle-aged wives and mothers, a growing percentage of whom are also heads of households. The increased presence of women in the economic sector has helped trigger their political activism. At the formal level, women have gradually gained access to elected office, appointed positions within the bureaucracy, and top party structures at the federal, state, and municipal levels. At the informal level (i.e., outside of government and political parties), women have invariably formed the backbone of social movements and other organized forms of protest aimed at articulating demands for basic services for their neighborhoods, for pay equity and better working conditions through labor unions, and in many cases for equality and fairness from the state in the delivery of goods and services. Altogether, this political activism, both formal and informal, has transformed the role of women in the political process during the last fifteen years. And yet only a handful of women have occupied prominent political positions. The first woman elected to Congress was Aurora Jiménez Palacios, from Baja California, in 1954; and the first woman elected as a state governor was Griselda Alvarez, from Colima, in 1979. Between 1954 and 1989, a miserly 229 women held high-level positions in the three branches of government (Silva 1989), and even to date only three states have ever had women governors (of thirty-two separate federal entities). In the early 1990s, in spite of their constitutionally recognized equality and their majority in the electorate, women found that the playing field remained far from level. Today, however, their presence is increasingly noticeable. Just prior to the 2000 election, the presidents of two of the three more important political parties were women: Dulce María Sauri of the PRI, and Amalia García of the PRD. At the same time, 6

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María de los Angeles Moreno presided over the Senate; Rosario Robles was mayor of Mexico City; and Rosario Green was minister of foreign relations. One would be hard pressed indeed to find another country in the Americas where so many top political and governmental positions were simultaneously occupied by women. As a result of the gains women had made by the year 2000 and because of the new and more open political climate in Mexico, Mexican women appeared to have positioned themselves to become much more important as political actors in the new millennium. Nevertheless, because strong sociocultural biases against women in politics still exist, their ongoing struggle to be recognized as political actors (in a gender-free sense) has effectively led Mexican women to vest their struggles within a larger concern for social justice and equality. Particularly in this era of transformation in the political system, and as a new civic and political culture develops, women have begun to articulate their concerns as part of the larger discourse that demands a democratic inclusion of previously neglected actors. Political parties, women, indigenous groups, and minorities alike are struggling to be included as players in Mexico’s democratic transition. The repeated claims for democracy, equality, and social justice are readily evident in the platforms of these three key new actors. Determining how—and if—these demands will be transformed into specific policies and programs is the task that lies ahead. A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY

There has been considerable scholarly work on women and gender in Mexico, if not on women in politics.2 For the past thirty-odd years, this research has focused on four areas: First, during the 1970s, within the framework of a general interest in demography, the Mexican state began to push an aggressive population policy aimed at bringing birth rates down. Much of the research on women during this time centered on such issues as fertility rates, population control measures, health and education as they pertained to number of children per family, and so on. At the same time, a different body of literature was beginning to emerge among feminist circles. In the so-called grupos de reflexión (reading and discussion groups) that formed in the 1970s, Mexican feminists began to question where Mexican women stood in the larger societal picture. The fact that the international conference launching the United Nations Decade for Women took place in Mexico City in 1975 was a shot in the arm for this emerging scholarship. 7

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Second, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, academic attention began to turn to border economies and migration patterns, particularly as maquiladoras (assembly twin-plants) proliferated dramatically along the U.S.–Mexico border. These analyses focused on the role women played in these new labor markets, as female employment in the maquiladoras surged. Third, from the mid-1980s onwards, and in the context of the economic crisis that hit Mexicans so severely in the early 1980s, gender research focused on labor markets and survival strategies for coping with economic hardship. These studies looked at female-headed households and employment and showed that women were contributing to household production in unprecedented ways, as well as entering both the formal and the informal economies of the labor force in record numbers. Fourth, from the late 1980s onwards, many scholars turned their attention to the grass roots and to the participation of women in social movements. Study after study demonstrated that women were at the forefront of mobilization and community organization and were the pillars of countless social movements. This literature showed the political efficacy of women outside of formal channels of politics. Yet, despite the richness of these studies, no systematic analyses of Mexican women’s political participation had yet been carried out. Research Design and Methodology

The research project was designed in a yearlong graduate seminar that I taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin in the form of a Policy Research Project (PRP) during the 1994 –1995 academic year. From January to April 1995 various teams of students traveled to Mexico for two- to three-week periods to interview women from all walks of political life throughout Mexico. Four teams of five to six students worked at different times in Mexico City, and additional teams went to other parts of the country, namely Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Nuevo León, and Chihuahua. Altogether we conducted semistructured interviews with over eighty women. The teams conducted multiple interviews with each respondent, each interview averaging four and one-half hours. In a small number of cases, fieldwork involved “shadowing” some of these Mexican women during their regular daily activities. “Shadow-

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ing” is a research technique drawn primarily from industrial relations (time-and-motion) research that involves the researcher following and monitoring respondents as they conduct their specific work routines. In the industrial sector, of course, tasks are carefully recorded and timed. Here that was not our concern; rather, we wanted to have an opportunity to monitor closely the female politician’s interactions with staff and with other officials, as well as to engage her immediate off-the-record reflections and opinions about those interactions as they occurred.3 Although it only constituted a minor part of the research, the shadowing proved rewarding and enriching. Indeed, it led to numerous very personal conversations and in more than a few cases to the forging of friendship and camaraderie. One of the women even insisted, graciously, that the person shadowing her stay at her home so that she could observe her personal family life as well. For analytical purposes we divided the women in our sample into two large groups: women in politics, which included women in elected and appointed office as well as in political parties; and women in political life, comprising women in NGOs and grassroots organizations. We then prepared several lengthy analytical papers organized around the data collected during fieldwork and looking across the different groups of women. These documents allowed us to draw some preliminary conclusions about the different ways in which women are politically active in Mexico. By May 1995 the research project had developed to such an extent that I felt it had become indispensable to extend the fieldwork further. By then word had spread in Mexico about the project, and to my surprise, I was even contacted by several women who wanted to be included. The research had generated great interest as it became tied closely to a series of international meetings of academics and politically active Mexican women, who gathered in Austin to discuss the growing presence of women in Mexican politics and to strategize about the future. Finally, I wished to further explore three general themes that had appeared repeatedly during the first round of interviews in early 1995: the economic crisis that had exploded at the end of 1994; the related expectations placed on the new president, Ernesto Zedillo, who had just been sworn in on 1 December 1994; and the upcoming Beijing World Conference on Women, for which Mexican women were working frantically to prepare documentation.4 As the research progressed and I began writing up the findings, I found

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myself traveling frequently to Mexico and taking advantage of these visits to meet with the women involved in the project, sometimes individually and sometimes as a group. At various times, too, I visited the Congress, the Senate, political parties’ headquarters, NGOs, private homes, and an indefinite number of government agencies. By then the project had gelled to such a level that I had developed personal friendships with several of the women. The dynamics of these gatherings, not to mention the spicy conversations, gave me a rare insight into Mexico’s female political world. In methodological terms—as participant-observer—this has been the most fascinating research experience of my career. A penultimate round of formal interviews took place in the summer of 1999, mostly in Mexico City. Finally, in the early part of 2001, I made a series of visits primarily to explore where the Fox administration stood vis-à-vis women. Specifically, I investigated the progress made in two areas that had dominated much of the 2000 presidential campaign: instituting a formal system of quotas for women in public office, and creating a government agency (the Instituto Nacional de la Mujer, or National Women’s Institute) devoted to women and gender issues. Sample Selection

For my analysis, I look at the different political arenas in which Mexican women are politically involved: in governmental elected and appointed positions, in political parties, in nongovernmental organizations, in grassroots organizations, in feminist groups, and as wives of politicians. The analysis includes women from various political parties in order to provide a multipartisan perspective and also to examine party and gender loyalties. Also, the group of women analyzed in this project was selected from throughout the country, covering the principal regional areas in addition to Mexico City. Because Mexico is so heavily centralized and political life in the provinces is so different, I made a concerted effort to include women from the north, the center, and the south. We also covered women from the different levels of government (federal, state, local) and from the different branches (executive, legislative, judicial). Thus the group of women that informs this analysis is balanced along lines of region, party affiliation, level of position, and area of political activity. The aim was to include a broad sample of Mexican women from which generalizations pertaining to the role of women in Mexican politics and political life could be drawn. 10

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In the next chapter I describe the sample of women analyzed in this study in greater detail and offer some insight into their background. Who are they? Where do they come from? What are they like? The analysis is divided into several areas that include family background, education, motivation for becoming politically active, principal obstacles faced in the development of careers, and so on. The political histories of these women, and in particular the narratives of the formative stages of their political careers, are crucial for assessing their participation at later stages. Research Questions

The principal questions I address in this book are: How and why do women become involved and active politically? Why are there so few women in formal political office? In what ways does the number of women in office make a difference? What can be done to improve women’s representation in government? What can women expect from a state as it becomes more democratic? In searching for ways to address these very broad issues, I developed a set of thematic questions around which the research was conducted, and from which several subsidiary questions and issues derived. These main questions are as follows: • What is the education, family, and political background of female politicians in Mexico? In what ways is this background different, if at all, from that of other politically active women such as grassroots leaders or NGO activists? • What are the principal obstacles these women have faced in their careers? How did they reach their top positions? What influenced their advancement? • What political alliances have been built along gender lines? How do these alliances function? What have they accomplished? What formal organizations have resulted from these alliances? • How involved are women in the decision-making process? Do they occupy senior-level positions that have real political weight? In what ways are women set up to occupy token positions? • What is the public policy agenda for female politicians in Mexico? What are the policy arenas that interest them? Have certain policy issues, such as human rights or cultural affairs, been “set aside” for them? 11

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• What is the gender agenda of women politicians in Mexico? Do they promote a feminist agenda? • What is the discourse on women and gender in official institutions? In political parties? • In what ways are women involved in the electoral process? How do they participate as voters? As candidates? • How are women who are politically active portrayed in the media? What is the public’s response to these women? • What does the future hold for women in Mexican politics? What strategies will they have to pursue to maintain their political presence? For the purposes of managing and analyzing the large amounts of information collected over a six-year period, the set of thematic questions was grouped into four separate themes, corresponding roughly to the chapter divisions of this book: background and political history (chapter 1); public policy (chapter 4); electoral process (chapter 5); and looking into the future (chapter 6). In addition, for some chapters the data collected from interviews structured around these thematic questions was supplemented with substantial archival research, most notably in the chapter discussing the four strands of literature mentioned earlier (chapter 2) and in the chapter in which I provide a historical overview of the women’s movement in Mexico (chapter 3). The International Meetings

The excitement generated by the first rounds of interviews culminated in a series of meetings held at the University of Texas at Austin in April 1995 and April 1996 at which almost all the women of the project met. For the first time in an international academic setting, these meetings brought together a distinguished group of scholars from Mexico, the United States, and Europe, with a group of over fifty women who have occupied leadership positions in various arenas of Mexican political life during the last fifteen years. In a friendly and mutually supportive environment, created by the openness of the political participants and the intellectual stimulation of the academic presentations, women from all walks of political life in Mexico talked candidly about their entrances into the political scenario, the obstacles they had encountered at every turn, and their expectations for the future. The “neutral” setting provided by the location, away from journal-

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ists, conflicting schedules, telephone calls, and other interruptions, allowed in each of the two meetings for a vigorous and frank exchange of ideas among academics, politicians, and activists. It was particularly enlightening to observe and listen to the exchange among the political women, as they agreed on common-ground gender issues yet continued to disagree on other issues more directly related to party alliances or ideological positions. Indeed, many of the participants in both conferences pointed out that the neutral forum created by meeting in Austin was the only opportunity for them to meet at all, given that they were not likely to do so in their own country. For three days at least, in each of these two meetings, Mexican women could put aside their institutional rivalries and ideological disagreements and concentrate on the ways in which they could exercise their leadership to meet the challenges they faced and advance the position of women in Mexico’s political life. The first meeting, “Women in Contemporary Mexican Politics” in April 1995, served as an open forum to discuss a wide range of issues affecting Mexican women’s political participation in a global perspective. After a stimulating opening address by former Texas Governor Ann Richards—a formidable example herself of the political presence women can have—the participants and attending public concentrated for two days on analyzing gender and politics in Mexico (see Rodríguez et al. 1995 for a complete transcript of Governor Richards’s address and for a synopsis of the presentations and discussion sessions).5 In order to cover the breadth of women’s political participation, the sessions analyzed women’s roles in formal politics (parties, government) and informal politics (social movements, NGOs). Sessions generally began with academic presentations followed by commentaries from the politicians and activists.6 A final roundtable led to a consensus that a second meeting was imperative (preferably in Mexico, but if not, then again in Austin) in order to continue the unfinished discussions, particularly those surrounding the issue of quotas and affirmative action for women in politics. The second meeting, “Women in Contemporary Mexican Politics II: Participation and Affirmative Action,” took place in Austin the following year, in April 1996. This round focused the discussion on women’s increasing political participation, especially in local and regional politics, and on the debate surrounding the issue of quotas for affirmative action initiatives. The format was similar to that of the first meeting: formal presentations by the academics, followed by extended commentary from the women politicians.7 The most telling insights, once

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again, came from the roundtable discussions in which the political women openly and constructively agreed and disagreed on a number of issues. On this occasion, the keynote opening address was given by María de los Angeles Moreno and the closing remarks by Beatriz Paredes, two leaders who have risen to occupy positions of great prominence in Mexico’s political landscape (see Rodríguez at al. 1996 for a complete transcript of their remarks). In addition to many returning participants, some new outstanding women joined the group.8 Once again, the meeting ended with a proposal to meet the following year. The third meeting took place in Guadalajara, Mexico, in April 1997, in the broader context of the XX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). For the first time since 1983 a LASA congress was held outside the United States (I also happened to be serving as program co-chair for that congress), presenting the opportunity for the women’s group to meet in Mexico, in the prelude to the 1997 midterm elections. Yet again the meeting brought together an impressive array of women in Mexican political life and of academics from Mexico, the United States, and Europe, many of whom had attended the Austin meetings. Jane Jaquette, then president of LASA, joined the group and participated actively in the Guadalajara meeting. Several of the politicians present were also at the time candidates for office. Although the electoral competition among the three main political parties was heating up, the women who participated in the roundtable discussion (Amalia García, PRD; Cecilia Loría, independent; María de los Angeles Moreno, PRI; Luisa María Calderón, PAN), speaking for their parties’ positions, were refreshingly measured and respectful, even though they continued to make strong ideological pronouncements. While the participants did not come to a consensus on either political or gender issues, it was clear from this meeting that women in Mexican politics had come of age and reached a level of healthy political rivalry. Their male counterparts could learn much from the poise and political maturity these women exuded in their political personas. While the temptation to continue these yearly meetings persisted— the interest and the energy were definitely there—the pressures of time and the complicated schedules of all the women involved made it increasingly difficult. As hard as we tried to organize a meeting prior to the 2000 election, it proved impossible to do so, in spite of strong interest and many efforts from a key group of Mexican women (especially those in the political parties, who had so much at stake in the election).

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Now that the new Fox administration is in power, perhaps it is time to make another attempt for a gathering. There certainly is no shortage of matters to discuss pertaining to both the present and the future of women in Mexican politics. OVE RVIE W OF THE BOOK

In the first chapter I provide the theoretical framework for the empirical analysis that makes up this book. Because the focus of my work is on how women participate politically and on their contributions to the dynamics of Mexico’s political transformation, this framework derives from the growing scholarly literature on democratic transitions and consolidations that investigates the process of political change occurring throughout the globe since the fall of the iron curtain in 1989. While this shift has been a worldwide phenomenon, it has affected Latin American nations in particular ways, not least of which was the end of the seventy-year one-party rule in Mexico. Although the world’s attention has focused on the election of Vicente Fox to the presidency in July 2000 and the defeat of the ruling party, the process of political change in Mexico has been underway for at least a decade—and women have made an important space for themselves in this process. Two key theoretical concepts for the democratization process are those of participation and representation, and they are particularly applicable to women because although women have made important strides in raising their levels of participation, their representation in formal political structures still leaves much to be desired. In this first chapter, after reviewing the scholarly literature and setting up the framework for analysis, I offer a composite picture of the women in Mexican political life, based on descriptions of their political histories and backgrounds. In the second chapter I present a broader picture of Mexican women, assessing their socioeconomic conditions over the last thirty years. In particular, I analyze how these conditions have changed as a result of events occurring in Mexico at a national level, including economic crises and social unrest. I begin by tracing women’s growing involvement in the labor force and the corollary changes in the dynamics of the Mexican family household. Next I give an overview of women’s involvement in social movements and community organizations—and the key role such organizations have played in women’s success. One interesting conclusion that emerges from this analysis of grassroots ac-

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tivism is that it is in this arena that women have been most efficacious in having their demands met, especially when compared with formal channels of policymaking. Chapter 3 documents the fascinating history of the women’s movement in Mexico. Going back to their involvement in the Revolution of 1910, I trace how Mexican women became increasingly organized and politically active, especially through their struggle to obtain suffrage— which they finally won in 1953. In particular, I emphasize how women’s political activism has had both a national and an international dimension as Mexican women have become engaged with women’s movements from other nations at different points in time. Here it is especially interesting to analyze the very distinctive brand of feminism that developed in Mexico and that marks the character of contemporary feminist activism there. With this historical background, I then look at how public discussions of women and gender have become official discourse in political institutions, such as political parties and government agencies, showing how the three major political parties have adopted their own rhetoric regarding women and gender, and how the government has incorporated gender into its official discourse through the creation of specific institutions, like the DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, Integrated Family Development) and the Programa Nacional de la Mujer (National Women’s Program, PRONAM). In Chapter 4 I present some statistical data about women in public office, both in Mexico and in other parts of the world, in order to put the situation of Mexican women in comparative perspective. Moreover, because an important focus of this research is women’s participation and representation in positions of decision-making authority, it is useful to analyze the attempts that international organizations—such as the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union—have made to increase these numbers at a global level, and to explore the strategies (such as quota systems) that they have designed for this purpose. I analyze the impact of and controversies surrounding positive discrimination and the adoption of a quota system in Mexico, especially in terms of how they effected a steady increase in the number of women in public office. Finally, in this chapter I assess the involvement of women in the policy-making process, specifically their behavior in office, their policy agendas, and how and when they forge alliances to promote policies directed at women. An exploration of women’s involvement in the electoral process,

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both as voters and as candidates, is the focus of chapter 5. Because the nature of elections and the electoral system in Mexico has changed so drastically in the last decade, and because women constitute slightly over half of the electorate, this has become a critical arena for women’s involvement. All political parties now go out of their way to court the female vote, and women have become much savvier and more actively involved at election time. They now press their demands in more effective ways and have become better organized. One interesting outcome has been the creation of a distinctive type of civil political organization that played an especially important role in the 2000 election—the Agrupación Política Nacional (national political organization, APN)—and in particular three of these that were women-focused. Women are also contributing to the development of a civic and political culture with a distinctive gendered tint, since their interests and values often are at odds with those of men. In this chapter I also analyze the issues that women must confront when running for office: how they fare in the grueling campaign process, what their campaign strategies and issues are, and how they are treated in the media. In the final chapter I revisit the theoretical issues raised at the beginning of the book and speculate about what the future holds for Mexican women. Since President Vicente Fox took office, there are clear forebodings of policies that could affect women adversely. Because the conservative overtones of the current administration seem to be part of a broader international trend, this final chapter also compares policy directions in Mexico with those occurring elsewhere. I conclude that although the prognoses for the future of democracy in Mexico are quite positive, the same may not be true for women. Overall, my concern in this book is to analyze—and celebrate—the many accomplishments of women in Mexican political life, although I recognize that women may have to work harder to sustain their gains and to continue to push for progress.

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CHAPTER ONE

Participation, Representation, and Democracy HOW THE PERSONAL BECOMES THE POLITICAL FOR WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY MEXICO

election turned a new page in Mexican history. Around the world people and governments alike watched in awe as Vicente Fox, an opposition candidate, defeated the almighty ruling party and won the presidency. A peaceful transfer of power occurred when Fox was sworn in on 1 December 2000 and received the presidential sash, beginning a new era in Mexico. After more than seventy years of singleparty rule, the Mexican governing elite had become genuinely plural. In 2001, the erstwhile dominant Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) retained a razor-thin majority in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Congress), with 210 seats. It was followed very closely by Fox’s party, the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party, PAN) on the right of the political spectrum, with 207 seats. The third major party, the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Democratic Revolution Party, PRD) on the left of the spectrum, held 52 seats (much reduced from its 1997 level).1 Because a two-thirds THE JULY 2000 PRESIDENTIAL

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majority is needed to pass constitutional changes, and because no single party had an absolute majority of 251 seats, no party had a clear hold on the Chamber of Deputies, and therefore all parties needed to forge alliances with other parties. In the Senate, too, the PRI managed to retain a majority, with 60 seats out of the total 128. The PAN had 46 seats; the PRD, 16; and other parties occupied the remaining six.2 There have also been important “opposition” gains at the city and regional levels. Well over 50 percent of the country’s population is now governed by parties other than the PRI at the state and local levels, and more significant, since 1997 the three largest and most important metropolitan areas have no longer been in the hands of the PRI: Guadalajara and Monterrey went to the PAN in 1994 –1995, and the Federal District (Mexico City proper) went to the PRD for the second time in July 2000 (the first was in July 1997, when Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas became the first opposition mayor ever to govern Mexico City and the PRD swept the board in all Federal District elections). In a country that until relatively recently was referred to as “A Perfect Dictatorship,” a dizzying political transformation is underway. How have the women fared in this dramatic process of political change? Official data look encouraging: women comprised 16 percent of the 2000 –2003 Congress; that is, they held 79 seats out of 500. By way of contrast, in the United States in mid-2001, women occupied 59 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, or 13.6 percent. In the Mexican Senate, women held 22 of the 128 seats; in the United States, women made history in the 2000 election when 13 women, an unprecedented number, were elected to the Senate. And according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in 2001 women held 13.1 percent of legislative seats in Latin America and the Caribbean, trailing slightly behind the world average of 13.8 percent. Also in mid-2001, the six countries in the world with the highest representations of women in their legislatures were Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden, with levels ranging between 22 and 40 percent. The seventh highest was a Latin American nation—Argentina—which boosted its female representation with the passage of a gender quota law in 1993. Thus Mexico’s 16 percent, while relatively impressive, still lags far behind the rate in many other countries. But if the numbers themselves are significant, more significant still is the trajectory Mexican women have followed to arrive at this level of formal representation and to position themselves as key actors in the country’s transition to democracy. 20

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PARTICIPATION, REPRESENTATION, AND DEMOCR ACY: A FR AME WORK FOR ANALYZING WOMEN AND GENDER?

Women have become recognized political actors in Latin America, transforming through their activism political systems throughout the region. Latin American women’s organizations and women’s political activities have been central to the region’s process of democratic transition. Several studies have shown that the process of transition from authoritarian rule to democracy would not have been possible without women’s involvement.3 Indeed, the period of transitions to democracy in Latin America coincided with a worldwide wave of political mobilization among women, sparked in no small measure by the United Nations Decade for Women, launched in Mexico City in 1975.4 The political mobilization of Latin American women had its own special character, inspiring both men and women the world over in their fight for human rights, their opposition to state repression, and their efforts to strengthen civil society. The Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were emulated everywhere, and the rallying cry of women in Chile against the Pinochet dictatorship, “Democracy in the country and in the home,” echoed around the world. But in spite of the literature documenting women’s activism in the region, and in spite of the significant contributions to theory that this empirical work has made, women continue to be invisible in the theory and discussions of democratization (see Waylen 1994; Schmitter 1998). As Jaquette concludes, in the current scholarship on democratic transitions and consolidations, “gender is simply absent from the researchers’ minds” (1998: 226). Why is that so? Representative Democracy, Participatory Democracy, Civil Society, and Women

Scholars claim that participation in civil society leads to more participation in formal politics and to deepening democracy, but that does not seem to apply to women. A paradox in Mexico—and in the rest of Latin America, for that matter—is that while women have been prominently active in civil society, they remain marginal players in formal politics. In emerging democracies such as Mexico, this is significant because a lack of fair representation of all social groups could undermine the legitimacy of the new democratic system. Time and again we see references to the fact that it is difficult to label a country as democratic 21

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if half the population—i.e., women—is in effect excluded from formal political participation. The exclusion of marginalized groups makes the state less responsive to the needs of its citizens, especially if a group— such as women—has special interests and needs. If the state structure remains largely monopolized by men, it is unlikely that state policies will emerge that are gender-fair or favorable to women. Women need to have other women in decision-making positions to voice their interests. The key questions to ask thus revolve around women’s participation and representation. Do women participate in formal politics in numbers that represent them fairly? The clear-cut answer, worldwide, is a resounding “no.” But even if we already know the answer, it is a question worth asking in an attempt to change the answer, recognizing the larger implications the question has for ideals of participation and representation in democratic societies. In effect, classical political theory has grappled with these concepts for centuries, yet one would be hard pressed to find a theorist in the camp of either representative democracy or participatory democracy who fully explores the role of women. Indeed, scholars concerned with analyzing women’s political participation and representation are forced to extrapolate from numerous theorists, or to make a special effort to squeeze women into analyses that were meant to include only men.5 In her pivotal theoretical work on representation, Hanna Pitkin (1967, 1969) traces the evolution of the concept from ancient Greece to the modern period and concludes that “there does not even seem to be any remotely satisfactory agreement on what representation is or means” (1969: 7). The theoretical literature is burdened with persistent and unresolved controversies: some scholars distinguish between representative government and alternative forms of government; others argue that every government is representative of the people; and yet others argue that no government can ever be truly representative. A further strand of controversy in the literature concerns the role and behavior of the representative: should the representative follow his or her own judgment when making a decision, or should he or she blindly follow the wishes of his or her constituency? These “seemingly irresoluble conflicts and controversies” (Pitkin 1967: 7) remain ever present in contemporary discussions of representation, and thus one of the more fundamental questions for political theorists continues to be how governmental institutions represent the interests of citizens. To explore the

REPRESENTATION

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issue, it is necessary to look at two broad lines of inquiry: what a representative does, that is, what constitutes the activity of representing; and what a representative is, that is, what he or she must be like in order to represent. Contemporary analyses of representation and the relationships between state and society are guided by notions of accountability and responsiveness, but the questions of how to establish representative institutions and what functions representatives should have go back to Plato and ancient Greece. It was the seventeenth-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, however, who set the markers for our modern understanding of representation when he proposed in his Leviathan (1651) that a representative is someone who acts in the name of another and who has been given authority to act by that other, so that whatever the representative does is considered the act of the represented; thus, within the limits of his authority, the representative is totally free to do as he chooses. This widely used and accepted definition is not without problems, the most important being that in Hobbes’s conception the constituency being represented is ignored, in the sense that the representative does not consult the people’s wishes, does not seem to make protecting their interests a priority, and does not seem to be responsible to them. This has inevitably led many theorists to question Hobbes. In their view, Hobbes completely misses what a representative should be, that is, someone who can and should be held accountable to the constituency. Jeremy Bentham and James Mill later argued for elite representation, in which representatives would govern on behalf of their constituents because ordinary people did not have the time, knowledge, or wisdom to make the best decisions. In short, consultation with the public was not required. Interestingly, it was within this concept of elite representation that Mill’s son, John Stuart Mill, wrote one of the more radical pieces of his time on the desirability of women’s participation. In The Subjection of Women (1869; see Mill 1962) he boldly argues that if women were free, they would double the number of minds available for higher service to humanity; women in public office would then double the talents and wisdom of public officials. Perhaps even more radical for his time (and even for ours) is Mill’s argument in Considerations on Representative Government (1861; see Mill 1962) that every section of the population, including minorities, should be proportionally represented in government. Theorists concerned with “mirror” representation argue that representatives should reflect the society they govern. In the founding era of

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the United States, for example, John Adams believed that in the young nation the newly created legislature “should be an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large, as it should think, feel, reason, and act like them” (“Letter to John Penn” in Adams 2000: 493). Yet we know that this portrait did not include women. We also know that Adams’s wife, Abigail Adams, wrote him a letter in which she made this point clear: I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way, in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. (rossi 1973: 10 –11) The compromise reached in this country in 1776 between those arguing for “mirror” representation and those arguing for “delegate” representation involved the creation of a bicameral legislature in which both interests could be served. The Senate represented the interests of the elite; the House came closer to reflecting the general population. But women were left out of the compromise. Indeed, they were not granted the right to vote until 1920,6 almost 150 years later. It was the demand for representativeness that led women to fight for suffrage in the first place. In virtually every country, women demanded the right to vote because they wished to have a voice in the process of governing. But earning the vote did not always guarantee them the right to run for office. Thus, the demand for suffrage evolved into a demand for also having women representatives. That demand remains unfulfilled after decades of struggle. Indeed, this was one of the principal areas of concern identified in the Platform for Action resulting from the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995: Despite the widespread movement towards democratization in most countries, women are largely underrepresented at most levels of government, especially in ministerial and other executive bodies, and have made little progress in attaining political power in legislative bodies. . . . Globally, only 10 percent of the members of legislative bodies and a lower percentage of ministerial positions are now held 24

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by women. Indeed, some countries, including those that are undergoing fundamental political, economic and social changes, have seen a significant decrease in the number of women represented in legislative bodies. Although women make up at least half of the electorate in almost all countries and have attained the right to vote and hold office in almost all State Members of the United Nations, women continue to be seriously underrepresented as candidates for public office. (united nations 1995; doc. 127, sec. g, p. 182) This bleak picture is echoed in the theoretical literature and debates concerning the concept of representation. As Hanna Pitkin puts it, we are almost tempted to conclude that “representation has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, self-government, or the public interest. In short, one might conclude that our conventional democratic ideal of representation is a myth, a delusion, impossible of realization in practice. In practice, representation is tyranny” (1969: 9). However, the controversies and debates about the different types of representation (the independent representative versus the representative who has a mandate from the constituency) and what representatives should look like (representatives who “mirror” their constituencies versus “superior men and women” who are chosen for their “talent and wisdom”) not only continue but have paved the way for more contemporary views of democracy and representation. Among these views, the ones that concern us here specifically are those that point out the lack of a woman’s presence and perspective in government. Although feminist scholars do not agree on a particular form of representation, they do argue that legitimacy and justice require that women should not be excluded from representation nor have to face institutional discrimination if they choose to enter the world of politics. Participatory democracy theorists argue that participation is the key to effective governance. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view is that non-participatory systems make freedom impossible. In his discussion of the general will and the social contract, where “laws, not men, should rule,” Rousseau makes two fundamental points: first, that participation is necessary for making good decisions and ensures good government; and second, that representative government protects private interests. John Stuart Mill expanded on the importance of representation and, like Rousseau, stressed the educative function of participation. One learns democracy through participation (especially at the local PARTICIPATION

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level), as he tells us: “We do not learn to read or write, to ride or swim, by being merely told how to do it, but by doing it, so it is only done by practicing popular government on a limited scale, that the people will ever learn how to exercise it on a larger” (1962: 168). In addition to stressing the importance of citizen participation for effective government, Mill’s father, James Mill, emphasized the importance of educating the electorate into socially responsible voting. Participation is often considered almost synonymous with voting, although the concept evokes different things for different people, from marching in a protest demonstration to writing a letter to a public official. Parry and Moyser (1994), for example, identify five principal modes of participation—voting, contacting, campaigning, group action, and protest—but the overall focus seems to be on elections and voting. In the wider literature on democracy, this form of participation occupies a prominent place. For example, Robert Dahl’s modern form of democracy—polyarchy, or the rule of multiple minorities—is a political order with high levels of civic-mindedness in which citizens have the ability to oppose and remove the leaders of government. Of the seven characteristics Dahl sees as conditions for a polyarchy— elected officials, free and fair elections, inclusive suffrage, the right to run for office, freedom of expression, alternative information, and associational autonomy—four are directly related to elections and voting (see Dahl 1989: 221). Dahl proposes his polyarchy as an alternative to both “the mischiefs of faction” that plague Madisonian (minority rule) democracies and “the tyranny of the majority” associated with populist (majority rule) democracies. In the polyarchy, elections are central because they provide the mechanism through which citizens can exert control over their leaders. While minorities still rule, the competition among them for the votes of the people makes them responsive and accountable to the electorate. Indeed, the bulk of thinking on participation as a key element in a democracy is overly concerned with equating participation with the selection of rulers and the ability to vote them out of office. Following this line of reasoning, Carole Pateman succinctly summarizes what a democratic system entails: In the theory, ‘democracy’ refers to a political method or set of institutional arrangements at national level. The characteristically democratic element in the method is the competition of leaders (élites) for the votes of the people at periodic, free elections. Elections are cru-

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cial to the democratic method for it is primarily through elections that the majority can exercise control over their leaders. Responsiveness of leaders to non-élite demands, or ‘control’ over leaders, is ensured primarily through the sanction of loss of office at elections; the decisions of leaders can also be influenced by active groups bringing pressure to bear during inter-election periods. ‘Political equality’ in the theory refers to universal suffrage and to the existence of equality of opportunity of access to channels of influence over leaders. Finally, ‘participation’, so far as the majority is concerned, is participation in the choice of decision makers. Therefore, the function of participation in the theory is solely a protective one; the protection of the individual from arbitrary decisions by elected leaders and the protection of his private interests. (1970: 14)

The protective feature of participation in a democracy from the individual citizen’s perspective is seen in an entirely different light by those theorists concerned with protecting the stability of the system. In essence, their fear is that too much participation is dangerous to the state, and therefore mechanisms must be put in place to protect the state. This concern was particularly prevalent in the mid-twentieth century, as mass participation was manipulated into fascism and then into totalitarian regimes in the post–World War II period. In the view of the theorists of the 1940s and 1950s, the only means of participation available to the citizenry is voting. Joseph Schumpeter, for example, in his very influential Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1943) anchors his theory of democracy on the minority of leaders. The distinctive feature of his notion of democracy is the competition for leadership among the elite. The role assigned to the people is simply that enough of them vote to keep the political machinery running, but all governing decisions are made exclusively by the elite. After all, “the electoral mass,” Schumpeter tells us, “is incapable of action other than a stampede” (1943: 283). In Democratic Theory (1962), Giovanni Sartori advances Schumpeter’s theory by positing that not only must elites rule in a democracy, but there must be competition among them. Citizens must limit their participation to voting; indeed, he considers a high degree of political apathy among the people to be healthy for the system. The fear that active participation of the people in the political process leads straight to totalitarianism is almost palpable in Sartori’s arguments.

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He openly states that once a democratic system has been established, the participatory ideal must be minimized (incidentally, Sartori’s works were widely read and discussed in Mexico among PRI leaders in very recent years). Harry Eckstein further argues in “A Theory of Stable Democracy” (1966) that for a democracy to remain stable, it must count with a healthy dose of authoritarianism. Dahl, too, perceives the dangers inherent in the participation of the average man. He argues in A Preface to Democratic Theory (1956) that apathy is not necessarily bad because it is the lower socioeconomic groups that tend to be less active politically, and it is among these groups that authoritarian personalities tend to develop. Thus, increased levels of participation could threaten the stability of the system. The classical theories of democracy tend to be overly normative, but contemporary theories are much more empirical. Indeed, while voting and elections are clearly an integral component of any type of democratic system and continue to play a critical role, more contemporary analyses have moved on to argue, based on empirical research, that democracy entails much more than elections (see, for example, Linz and Stepan 1996; Schmitter and Karl 1996; Huntington 1996). A whole corpus of literature has developed in the 1990s that deals with the issue of mass mobilization and its impact and value for a system moving from authoritarianism to democracy. This literature recognizes that organized participation is good; the danger is in nonorganized participation. It also supports the view that more participation is conducive to better public policies: quite simply, “the higher the level of participation, the greater the potential for generating policy choices that reflect the needs and interests of ordinary citizens” (Robinson 1998: 156 –157). But, apart from literature by feminist scholars and token recognition in the studies of democratic transitions, women are invisible in the participatory democracy literature, both theoretical and empirical. Although women’s political participation and its impact on politics and society the world over are abundantly clear, it continues to be ignored. This participation, however, has been limited to alternative avenues to the formal channels of political power, such as grassroots mobilization and nongovernmental organizations. Only in very exceptional cases have women been able to open the doors of the overwhelmingly male elite decision-making world, and consequently they are left out of the dominant analyses of elite rule discussed above. The only role women play in these schemata is as citizen voters.

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CIVIL SOCIET Y The theoretical pedigree of civil society can be traced back to Alexis de Tocqueville, who was struck by the propensity of Americans to participate voluntarily in all forms of associations, and to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who romanticized “the people.” The strong images evoked in their works of a collective people actively participating in government has colored much of both the theoretical and the empirical work on the relationship between the state and civil society. As Larry Diamond (1996: 227) comments, “What could be more moving than the stories of brave bands of students, writers, artists, pastors, teachers, laborers, and mothers challenging the duplicity, corruption, and brutal domination of authoritarian states?” Much of the classic democracy literature has not been terribly encouraging of an engaged civil society—as witnessed in the work of Schumpeter, Sartori, and Dahl discussed above—but the contemporary discussion on participatory democracy has redefined democracies to include a much stronger and more active civil society. In their much-cited work, Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan (1996), and others like Robert Putnam (1993, 2000), have led the charge in this discussion and the large body of literature that has followed. In Putnam’s study of Italy, for example, he found that civic participation leads to stronger institutions and more effective governance; this, in turn, strengthens democracy. Without doubt, scholarly and popular discussions and debates have made “civil society” a fashionable term.7 Yet even with this development, the women remain absent from the literature.8 The analysis of civil society and governance is gender-free, as is the notion of civic participation. Women are mentioned only as part of a long list of other participants in civil society. Linz and Stepan (1996: 7) state that “civil society can include manifold social movements (women’s groups, neighborhood associations, religious groupings, and intellectual organizations) and civic associations from all social strata (such as trade unions, entrepreneurial groups, journalists, or lawyers)”; and Diamond (1996: 228) points out that citizens have pressed and challenged the state “not merely as individuals, but as members of student movements, churches, professional associations, women’s groups, trade unions, human rights organizations, producer groups, the press, civic associations, and the like” (my emphasis in both cases). While clearly it is important that women are recognized as active members of civil society along with other groups, one has to question whether women’s engagement in civil society is different. Do women participate differently? The

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empirical literature shows us conclusively that they do, but the theoretical literature chooses not to acknowledge this. A survey of recent literature shows a shift in the interpretation of the role played by civil society, from a destructive force to a constructive force. During the Cold War, civil society was seen strictly as opposition to authoritarian or totalitarian regimes. It functioned as a destructive force in the sense that it sought to overthrow these regimes. A large body of literature developed around the concept of civil society as the nemesis of the state—and it is somewhat ironic that this is the only branch of democracy literature in which women are included, with a focus on women’s roles in opposition and revolutionary movements. As Jaquette points out, “it is striking to recall how narrow the empirical base was to study women’s democratic participation in the mid 1970s. . . . The global standard for women’s participation was set by the highly visible leadership roles and radical agendas by and for women in revolutionary regimes and guerrilla movements” (1998: 225). The second interpretation, civil society as a constructive force, centers on the function of civil society in monitoring and restraining the exercise of power by the state, and in democratizing authoritarian states (Diamond 1996: 230). Civil society plays a direct role in the process of governing, and therefore citizens can monitor and limit the exercise of power by the state through participation in civil organizations and in formal politics. The theoretical literature on this second focus completely ignores issues of gender; it claims to be gender-free because it refers to participants in the political process as citizens, ignoring their sex, as evidenced in the passages by Linz and Stepan and Diamond cited above. Moreover, it seems to disregard the abundant empirical literature that has demonstrated the centrality of woman as auditor and watchdog of the state. Democratization

In the last decade, the fraction of the world’s population living in democracies has risen from one-third to two-thirds ( Jaquette and Wolchik 1998: 1), generating an ever growing literature on democratic transitions and consolidations. Yet there is no question that women have been systematically excluded from these studies, and the literature focusing on Latin America is no exception. As Georgina Waylen notes, the participation of women is rarely, if ever, examined:

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Gender relations are rendered invisible and indeed, marginal and irrelevant in the democratization literature. . . . The narrow definitions of democracy, politics, and citizenship, the concentration on the public sphere and the use of simplistic notions of civil society mean that these works are of little use for understanding the place of gender in the processes and outcomes of democratization. . . . A new approach is therefore needed to address the questions of the role of women in the transition and the way gender relations have changed as a result of the process. This would illuminate notions of citizenship, democracy, and civil society and the interaction of gender relations and the state. (waylen 1994: 334 –335) Waylen insists on the need to create “a framework for analyzing the interplay between gender relations and democratization” (1994: 327). She is criticizing those who argue that women are incorporated in the larger discussions of civil society where there are few if any gender distinctions, or that gender should be subsumed under larger considerations of race and class. A good example is provided by Linz and Stepan, who are fundamentally concerned with analyzing what is necessary for a country to move from transition to consolidation. They posit five critical elements: a free and lively civil society; a relatively autonomous and valued political society; a rule of law to guarantee citizens’ freedom and associations; a state bureaucracy; and an institutionalized economic society (1996: 7). While Linz and Stepan would surely acknowledge that women play important roles in and make important contributions to each of these arenas—they do mention women’s social movements in Brazil—they still do not engender their analysis.9 The exclusion of women from this literature is worrying because the comparative literature on democratization has grown rapidly and shifted its attention from issues of democratic transition to the challenges of democratic consolidation, even developing a full typology of consolidation.10 Indeed, the literature is expanding so quickly that Andreas Schedler, somewhat facetiously, refers to it as “the aspiring subdiscipline of ‘consolidology’” (1998: 92). As the literature has grown, however, it has failed to incorporate women, ignoring therefore that the challenges women face in those countries where democracies are closer to consolidation are different than those encountered during the process of transition.11 These are the challenges faced by women in contemporary Mexico.

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Analysts of the Mexican political system continue to debate whether Mexico has reached the phase of consolidation or remains in the transition period—the minimal criteria for consolidation are two sets of elections, power changing hands, and lack of any threat of a democratic breakdown (Schedler 1998). Until the July 2000 election, Mexico’s case was ambiguous, but now many see a decisive change. Still, in my view the transition in Mexico is not yet complete. Far from it. While some scholars have been quick to point out that the PRI’s loss of the presidency provides conclusive evidence that the country has become a democracy, I feel this is too superficial a basis on which to make such an assertion. One important point in Linz and Stepan’s analysis is that a transition to democracy and the shape this new democracy will take are heavily conditioned by existing political structures. That is, what a regime transitions to will be determined to a large extent by what the regime is transitioning from. In the Mexican case, after more than seventy years of one-party rule, one can hardly expect that the rules and customs of the political game will change overnight as a result of one presidential election. All the traditions of presidencialismo and clientelism cannot vanish at the snap of a finger, despite a widespread desire to see them disappear. I believe that it will take a full generation before anyone will be able to state with certainty that Mexico has a consolidated democracy.12 Yet what constitutes consolidation in Mexico is very relevant to my analysis. Linz and Stepan suggest that A democratic transition is complete when sufficient agreement has been reached about political procedures to produce an elected government, when a government comes to power that is the direct result of a free and popular vote, when this government de facto has the authority to generate new policies, and when the executive, legislative, and judicial power generated by the new democracy does not have to share power with other bodies de jure. (1996: 3) On the face of it, this definition fits post-2000 Mexico like a glove. Anyone can see that rapid and dramatic change is occurring in Mexico. However, as Linz and Stepan remind us, there is a difference between liberalization and consolidation. Some transitions just plateau at the transition stage and never reach consolidation. In Mexico, the challenges for achieving consolidation are simply too great to be quickly overcome. People voted Vicente Fox into the presi-

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dency in part because they were tired of the PRI and wanted something different. But will he deliver? At times it seems unlikely, mostly for two reasons: one, expectations are so high that no matter what he does, it seems insufficient; and two, he simply promised too much during his campaign (such as solving the Chiapas problem in fifteen minutes).13 Additionally, his party, the PAN, does not have a majority in Congress, which makes it difficult for Fox to pass any legislation. To complicate matters further, an important group within the PAN is not in the Fox camp. Moreover, the legislative branch has become genuinely autonomous, a far cry from the rubber-stamping body of yesteryear that blindly supported all presidential initiatives. Now Fox must deal with arguing, bargaining, and alliance building. This leads us to the question of where women fit in. What do women expect from the state, and what is the state willing to offer? As Philippe Schmitter eloquently asks: What can be done, once a process of democratization is under way, to ensure that its outcome will not systematically discriminate against the interests of women—and maybe even provide them with benefits that had previously been denied them? What specific rules, arrangements, or practices are most likely to provide women with access to significant positions of authority in the emerging polity? What type of democracy is best suited for dealing with the issues about which women collectively are concerned? In other words, what can be done to make neodemocracies “female-friendly”? (1998: 223) These questions have been asked many times before in other contexts, but not in contemporary Mexico. Indeed, it was the search for answers to these questions that led me to this research project in the first place. Women in Mexico are now faced with challenges that are very different from those they faced in the period of transition. Whereas during a transition period women and other social movements operate outside the conventional political arena, once the transition is complete, they must learn to operate in the formal political arena, where demands are met in a democracy.14 As Mexico moves closer to the consolidation phase, these questions become particularly salient. In this volume I argue that women have made a place for themselves in the contemporary Mexican state as it has embarked on its road to democracy. However, it

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seems uncertain whether women can forge and maintain the alliances necessary to take full advantage of the political space they gained during the transition. That will be the acid test for women in contemporary Mexico. THE WOMEN IN THIS STUDY

Although the personal stories of a handful of women in Mexican politics have appeared over the years in popular publications and the news media, there are no systematic scholarly studies of who these women are—their backgrounds, their frustrations and aspirations, their plans for the future. In this section I look into the personal and public lives of the women who inform the analysis presented in this book, and I offer a composite portrait. Place of Origin

The vast majority of the women in this study were born in Mexican urban centers. This may reflect a bias in the sample, which was primarily derived from urban areas including Mexico City, Monterrey, Guanajuato, Oaxaca, and Chihuahua. The largest percentage of the women interviewed were born in Mexico City; other birthplaces included Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Guadalajara, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Sonora, Tlaxcala, Toluca, and Veracruz. Half of the wives of politicians did not live in the geographic region in which they were born because of the mobility associated with their husbands’ political careers. Women in political parties and government were least geographically mobile, while NGO women had the highest degree of geographic mobility. A variety of factors explain the lack of mobility among the government and political-party groups. These women were predominantly from Mexico City and therefore did not need to move to access political power. For example, Cecilia Romero was born and spent her entire life in Mexico City and climbed through the ranks of the PAN in the capital city. Ifigenia Martínez, a perredista (member of the PRD), was also born and raised in Mexico City; she first established her political career in the PRI and governmental bureaucracy and later founded the PRD with Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. María de los Angeles Moreno, who has one of the most distinguished female careers within the PRI, was also born in Mexico City

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and became involved with the PRI at an early age, during her years at the National Autonomous University (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM). The pattern of women in government shows a mixed trend. While some were also born and raised in Mexico City, several of them were born, spent their youths, and began their careers in other places throughout provincial Mexico. Amalia García remains very close to her native Zacatecas, as does Beatriz Paredes to Tlaxcala, her home state. The women interviewed in provincial Mexico showed considerably less mobility. Emilia Guzmán from Oaxaca, for example, was a CNC (Confederación Nacional Campesina, the PRI’s peasant sector) representative and head of the PRI in her region who specifically became involved in politics to represent the interests of her region in the state congress. One reason women from the provinces were less likely to move or to commute was family obligations, particularly child-rearing. Although in the past it has been considered a career weakness to be away from Mexico City, things may change somewhat in the future, as local and regional politics become more relevant in the post-Fox era. My expectation is that this will affect women positively. Age and Generational Differences

The women in our sample were overwhelmingly between the ages of 35 and 50. Even though this age range is not very broad, there appears to be a generational difference between political women around fifty years of age, those aged thirty to fifty, and those aged thirty and younger. In Mexico, as elsewhere, the initial entry of pioneering women into the realm of politics has been successful in encouraging increasing numbers from the next generation to follow their lead. Whereas in the 1950s a woman in high political office was a rare occurrence, women in the 1990s were much better represented in the same positions. Most of the women interviewed began their political careers in the late 1960s and 1970s, and by the 1980s they had reached leadership positions. Once the ground was broken, more and more young women have come to realize that this occupation is also open to them. Both the older and the younger generations of political women recognize this difference in their situations. In the 1995 Austin conference, for example, Patricia Ruiz Anchondo, who is in the younger cohort, commented on the extreme differences

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she saw between herself and her mother, while her brothers, for the most part, still thought and acted like their father. Others noted that the younger generation of Mexican men seem to be more accepting of women in power, and that this is important because changing society’s perception of women in power will be a key element of their success in the political arena. In chapter 4 we will see that Mexican women do not always seem prepared to eagerly cooperate across generations while they are in office, although some of the women do take their responsibilities as mentors and role models very seriously. The point to underscore, however, is that their mere presence in the public arena is clearly setting an example for future generations. Socioeconomic Status

Most of the women in this study came from middle- to upper-class backgrounds, and from families with high status in their communities. Many of the women in political parties and in government came from prominent Mexican political families. This tended to be especially the case with women of the PAN, many of whom—such as Blanca Alvarez, María Elena Alvarez, and María Teresa Gómez Mont, to name a few— came from families with impressive political pedigrees. As far as women in NGOs are concerned, our findings coincided closely with those of María Luisa Tarrés (1996, 1998). In her work, Tarrés suggests that NGOs are better understood through an examination of the composition of the groups’ leaders, who often come from the middle and upper classes and have high levels of education. These women also have a history of political activism and overwhelmingly tend to be critical of the Mexican political system and the socioeconomic disparities present in society. For example, Patricia Mercado and Cecilia Loría, two prominent NGO leaders, were at one time members of leftist parties and admired the ideals of liberation theology as young women. As a result of such interests, many NGO women identify strongly with the less privileged sectors of society; most of the NGO women in the sample focused their efforts on issues affecting the lower-income groups. Spouses and Children

A few of the women in this study were married, but the majority either were divorced or had never married. The incidence of divorce has grown

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since the mid-1950s in Mexico, but women in the sample showed a higher divorce rate than the general population; indeed, of the women who spoke about their marital status, approximately half were divorced.15 In our interviews, several of the women spoke candidly about how their careers imposed strains on their marriages, leading often to separation or divorce. Many women chose not to wed because they entered their political careers at early ages and soon became aware of the constraints on their time. Beatriz Paredes and María de los Angeles Moreno, for example, have never been married. Among those who were married, some women explicitly mentioned in the course of the interviews that their husbands were very supportive of their careers. For instance, Dulce María Sauri related that her husband had taken over as a “househusband” and had been a constant source of support. An interesting (albeit not entirely surprising) finding that emerged among the wives of politicians was that although they supported their husbands’ political endeavors, their husbands were not always supportive of their own professional goals. The majority of the women in the study had children. The number of children varied from one to six, although most tended to have two children.16 Most stated that their children were supportive of their endeavors, but the women invariably felt that they had sacrificed time with their families and children in order to pursue their political careers. The guilt often found among working mothers the world over came across very strongly from these Mexican women, showing that it is not only culturally specific. Education and Career Paths

Without exception, all the women in the study had post-secondary educations, separating them rather dramatically from the majority of Mexican women. In 1970, 233,000 students, or about 5 percent of the eligible population, were enrolled in preparatory programs (Camp 1978). Given that the majority of the women in this study had finished or were enrolled in preparatory programs by 1970, we can assume that they belonged to this privileged group. In 1978, 80 percent of Mexican government officials had received a university or professional degree, primarily in the field of law. Most received their university training at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and those without formal education achieved success as political leaders through

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work in unions or the bureaucracy (Camp 1978). The data of this time period are important because it was at this time that women were beginning to enter political life in greater numbers, following patterns similar to those followed by men. The university educations that the women in this study pursued were primarily in the social sciences, with sociology and economics ranking among the most common areas of study, followed by law.17 However, the number who chose law was smaller among these women than among the male politicians of an earlier era. As has been well documented in the scholarly literature analyzing career paths and patterns among Mexico’s political elite, studying law at UNAM was for many years the first step toward a political career (see Smith 1979; Camp 1978, 1995; Centeno 1994). In the 1990s, that pattern changed. The preferred discipline is now economics, and it is now much more common for top politicians to have obtained their degrees at private universities. Presidents Salinas and Zedillo both had degrees in economics, and both their cabinets included as many economists as lawyers (Camp 1999: 120). Thus, our women fit in well with the general trend followed since the 1980s among the Mexican political elite, male or female, toward economics and the social sciences. As Centeno (1994) writes, law has lost ground in importance, with only a quarter of the elite in his sample (consisting of younger, lower-level technocrats) having studied law. Among the women in the current study, law comes in well under the 25 percent mark. Perhaps the emphasis these women place on social policy issues such as health, family, and the economy is a reflection of their areas of expertise. The institutions chosen for higher education are also important in the formation of women as political actors. UNAM has been the center of political recruitment in Mexico since the early 1900s, when professors began to steer their best students toward public life and had a major impact on their ideologies (Smith 1979; Camp 1978, 1995; Centeno 1994). That pattern is now beginning to change, as private institutions grow in favor with Mexico’s elite. Currently, the more influential institutions in Mexico are ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Mexican Autonomous Institute of Technology) and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and the ITESM (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies) in Monterrey. At a national level, 20 percent of the women in higher education attend private universities, compared with 16 percent of men (Camp 1998: 171). 38

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The influence of UNAM is not universal among the women of this study, since only 46 percent attended UNAM—about half the percentage for the previous generation of female politicians. Silva (1989), for example, found that 81 percent of her sample (dated from 1954 to 1984) had studied at UNAM. By contrast, many of the women politicians in this study went to private universities, and some attended provincial public or private universities located in their regions of origin. In general, the study shows that the women in the sample preferred to study near their homes. Yet another trend that has become common among Mexico’s political elite is having a graduate degree from abroad. The country of preference is the United States, and the most sought-after universities are Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. A large number of politicians now hold graduate degrees from prestigious U.S. institutions: former president Salinas has a Ph.D. from Harvard, and Zedillo has a Ph.D. from Yale. Although women in politics also tend to follow the trend of studying abroad, they choose the United States less often. Many women in the sample studied abroad but preferred countries such as the Netherlands, Great Britain, and France. Not surprisingly, our data confirm that a strong educational background is a prerequisite for success in political life for both men and women in contemporary Mexico. The general population, also, is gaining greater access to higher education, with a 15 percent matriculation rate compared to only 2 percent in 1960. Nationally, women accounted for 42 percent of the students enrolled in and graduating from college in 1990. Ten years later, that figure has climbed to 48 percent. In the same decade, the percentage of women in the prestigious Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (National System of Researchers, SNI) grew from 21 to 28 (Reforma, 27 October 2000). The high level of education among the women included in this study—the quality of the universities they attended and the disciplines they pursued—suggests that as women gain increased access to higher education, they should also experience better recruitment opportunities and increased participation in the political system. In addition to their educational credentials, it is important to note the wide variety of paths women have taken toward political success. Not unlike their male counterparts, women develop their careers by moving around in various positions within the bureaucracy; climbing their party’s hierarchy; occupying numerous elected positions; and, altogether, alternating between elected and appointed positions. Many of the women in 39

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this study had at different times been members of Congress, senators, and members of the executive committees of their political parties. This was the case with Beatriz Paredes, María de los Angeles Moreno, and Dulce María Sauri in the PRI; Amalia García, Rosalbina Garavito, and Ifigenia Martínez in the PRD; and María Elena Alvarez, Cecilia Romero, and Ana Rosa Payán in the PAN, just to name a few examples. Parental Influence and Political Involvement

The majority of the women interviewed had parents with the financial or educational means to provide an environment conducive to the pursuit of professional success, and most respondents noted that their parents supported their educations. Unlike the women active in NGOs, women in political parties, government, and feminist groups came from politically active families. Some of the women had forefathers who had held prominent political positions. Amalia García’s grandfather was active in the Mexican Revolution, and her father, a priísta (member of the PRI), served as a governor and an ambassador. Griselda Alvarez, the first female governor in Mexico, came from a long line of politicians. Her great-grandfather was the first governor of Colima; her father, also governor of the state from 1919 to 1923, was active in the Revolution and was a friend of Venustiano Carranza. During her interview, showing the palm of her hand and the veins running up her arm, Alvarez described how politics was in her blood and in her lifeline, and how she had known even as a child that either she or her sister would one day become governor of the state of Colima. Most of the women interviewed for the project came from politically engaged families, echoing political socialization studies that have repeatedly shown a direct correlation between a young person’s interest in politics and a family environment where politics is a frequent topic of conversation. In Mexico, Camp’s research has demonstrated that among the Mexican political elite, initial interest in politics is often stimulated by a family member (Camp 1984, 1998, 1999). As far as women are concerned, Camp reports that “when the father or mother of successful female politicians is compared to those of men, women compare favorably in the percentages whose parent or parents were themselves active in political life, typically one out of ten” (1998: 173). The women in this study are similar to Camp’s sample in this regard. In speaking about their parents, many of the women interviewed

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mentioned their fathers more often than their mothers, primarily because they saw their fathers as politically active figures as well as the primary breadwinners, while the mothers were homemakers—valid work, but not politically relevant. Other studies have found different trends. For example, Silva (1989) mentions that the mothers of the women politicians in her study tended to work outside the home. She attributes this to their middle- and upper-middle-class backgrounds, which gave them more freedom to work. Patricia Galeana, former director of the Archivo General de la Nación (National Archive) and president of the Federación Mexicana de Mujeres Universitarias (Mexican Federation of University Women), commented when interviewed that several studies have stressed the importance of the mother’s influence in women’s political success. Among our group, María de los Angeles Moreno was one of the few women who mentioned that her mother’s professional life had had a profound influence on her.18 In one of his studies of Mexican political elites, Camp (1984) also found that fathers were very influential in the political formation of their sons because the fathers were the ones who participated in politics. Interestingly, however, even when this was the case, one out of four elites in his sample who said that family was the most important influence in their formation chose their mothers, not their fathers as the more influential figure. In part, Camp explains, this is so because many of the fathers of the political generation he studied died at a young age, and many of his respondents had politically and intellectually engaging mothers.19 Even for those whose fathers were important influences, it was the mother who played a key intellectual role. One of Camp’s respondents says: My mother had a much greater role in the development of my ideas in spite of the fact that my father was a federal deputy under Díaz and was the first Federal Inspector of Petroleum. But he did not have the political complexion of my mother. She was part of the oligarchy, but she understood the problems of the Mexican people and was a Maderista. When I became a Marxist in the 1930s, she began to read many of the classic Marxist works. (camp 1984: 31) Almost all the women in this study in political parties and government had a family member who had been involved in politics previously, making their own involvement a natural progression. Because connections

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were readily available to them, they often used the same channels as their predecessors. In some cases, they switched to different political parties from those of their families. By contrast, women in NGOs and feminists expressed that their families were generally not close to the political environment. Indeed, women in NGOs, who often came from traditional families, sometimes reacted against family traditions and their upbringings; in one case, at least, an activist ran away from home to escape conservative constraints. Part of our sample consisted of wives who became involved in politics through their husbands’ careers; in these cases the formative role of the natal family was far less pronounced. We asked the women if there had been some “critical event” in their lives that had triggered their interest in politics. The events that brought the women into politics varied, but one that stood out was the student movement of 1968. In the PRI, Dulce María Sauri participated in the student movement (her husband was imprisoned because of his involvement with the teachers’ union), and both María de los Angeles Moreno and Beatriz Paredes mentioned the influence of the 1968 student movement in defining their political engagement. For them, as for others, the desire to work for the underrepresented had its roots in the student movement. Some PRD women also mentioned the student movement as the principal critical event, coupled with the influence of a family member. Although Amalia García’s father and grandfather were active priístas and senior public officials, she moved to the left at a very early age and has been active in her opposition to the PRI since her involvement in the student movement during the 1960s. Rosario Robles also initiated her participation through the student movement as a member of the university’s union and has been a principal member of the opposition ever since. Marta Lamas, as well as a score of other feminists, also became active through the student movement. In addition to the student movement, priístas and perredistas alike mentioned other events that led to their participation in their respective parties, ranging from involvement in popular sector organizations, to holding appointed positions in the bureaucracy, to involvement in academia. In her native Aguascalientes and in Mexico City, Lorena Martínez worked her way up the party ranks through the popular sector of the PRI to become a federal deputy. Before taking a position in the PRD administration of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in the Federal District, Clara Jusidman, a former priísta, held a variety of positions in the bureaucracy for many years. She is also a distinguished academic. Both Rosario Robles

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and Marta Lamas have combined their academic work with political activism. The panistas (PAN members) tended to become involved through volunteer work for the party, by holding internal party positions, or by being simpatizantes and actively working in support of the PAN’s platform. Cecilia Romero and Teresa Gómez Mont came from panista families and began volunteering for the party at very early ages. Blanca Alvarez developed a career of her own parallel to that of her husband, holding a variety of positions within the party and serving as a recognized force during elections. Regardless of their party affiliations, most of the women mentioned their social concern and a desire to help others as the principal incentive for their involvement. Women in NGOs and feminists provide another perspective, citing different catalysts for their political involvement. Some of them were shocked by a traumatic event: the 1968 student massacre, in which friends were killed or arrested, in some cases before their very eyes; the 1985 earthquake and its aftermath in Mexico City; or the disappearance of a loved one. Rosario Ibarra de Piedra’s political involvement, for example, was spurred by the disappearance of her son, which prompted her to found an NGO to locate the disappeared. A few were involved in the fight for the freedom of political prisoners, a seemingly natural consequence of arrests during the student protests. Others referred to their participation in grassroots and popular organizations, student government, leftist groups, or Catholic youth organizations as the principal catalysts. Berta Luján and Patricia Mercado, for example, were active in Catholic youth organizations as young women, and although they no longer consider themselves Catholic, they agree with the philosophy of liberation theology because of its emphasis on helping the disadvantaged. Most of the wives of politicians we interviewed have participated in politics because of their interest in helping their husbands’ careers. In addition to the traditional (and expected) functions they have performed at the DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, Integrated Family Development), either as volunteers or, more likely, as presidents and in executive positions, the wives interviewed participated actively in a variety of other ways—but as extensions of their husbands’ political duties. These women think of themselves as the social arm of the husband’s policies: they represent the husband’s home district when he is in Congress, entertain visiting dignitaries, and campaign for female votes to support the husband. These activities, as well as the career paths that

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some rather unusual first ladies have followed, are discussed in more detail in chapter 5. Heroes and Mentors

When the women in the study were asked who they considered their heroes, sharp differences emerged among the groups of women that revealed their ideological orientations. Priístas mentioned prominent historical figures like Morelos, Benito Juárez, Francisco I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Plutarco Elías Calles, and some recent ex-presidents such as Luis Echeverría and Miguel de la Madrid. Some mentioned Althusser and other European philosophers, which is suggestive of their academic training in the 1960s and 1970s. The older PRD women cited Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Emiliano Zapata, Lázaro Cárdenas, and Che Guevara, while younger perredistas mentioned Ifigenia Martínez, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, and Amalia García as exemplary politicians. The panistas mentioned the founders of the PAN as their heroes. Some women in the political group named international leaders such as Mother Theresa, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi. Feminists and the women in NGOs showed a preference for figures of the left or Mexican historical figures. Feminists often chose other feminists as their heroes, citing Rossana Rosanda, an Italian feminist; American feminists Michelle Rosaldo and bell hooks; and Marta Cepeda, an early Mexican feminist. NGO women mentioned mainly male revolutionaries or leaders, such as Emiliano Zapata, Lázaro Cárdenas, Leon Trotsky, and Fidel Castro, among others. They also mentioned the women who fought in the Revolution (Adelitas) and Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez. Father David Fernández, a human rights activist, and leading proponents of liberation theology were named as important influences for many NGO women. Mentors were less commonly mentioned, possibly either because the women did not recognize the help of outsiders at the beginnings of their careers, or simply because they did not have them. Those with mentors often cited their professors. None of the women interviewed made direct reference to having a political mentor. Although the question was not asked directly, the fact that women did not mention political mentors contrasts dramatically with what Camp has found in his studies of mentoring and elites. His 1970 –2000 study suggests that 90 percent of all elites had mentors, and that nearly two-thirds of the mentors were themselves elites. This is a critical point that may explain why women are not 44

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well represented in the Mexican political elite. As Camp argues, it is difficult if not impossible to rise to the top of the Mexican political system without a mentor, and that mentor would typically be an elite male. Obstacles

We asked the women what obstacles they had faced during their professional careers, and the problems they mentioned were very similar to the structural and personal barriers experienced by women worldwide. According to Nelson and Chowdhury (1994), women everywhere focus their political efforts on breaking down the barriers they themselves have encountered by improving access to education, employment, healthcare, credit, and other resource opportunities, and by making these resources more responsive to women’s needs. The main obstacles faced by women in the sample fall into two different categories: the personal and the societal. In the view of the women interviewed, the means for overcoming gender-related obstacles are family support and professional success. Sexism, family opposition, and the “double work shift” (doble jornada) were some of the personal obstacles named. Among these women, like women elsewhere, the double shift remains an issue not only for single mothers, but also for many married women who still view themselves as the primary careproviders in their homes. Also, like women elsewhere, Mexican women said that it was difficult to be a mother and a professional at the same time and that they had to work twice as hard as any man to attain recognition. A handful of the women, however, did mention as crucial the help they received from their husbands in sharing household chores and child-rearing responsibilities. But some noted that their families were often opposed to their political participation because of the corruption entrenched in the system and the dangers involved in speaking out. In regard to sexism and gender issues, the women often mentioned various instances when they had been passed over for political nominations or positions strictly because of their gender (although, naturally, this was not the reason officially provided to the public or to them).20 The women interviewed suggested that attitudes towards women in the workplace were societal obstacles because men were viewed as better professionals and workers, reinforcing wage differentials. They felt that men were often chosen for positions simply because they were men. Conversely, as I will discuss in more detail in chapter 5, some stated that from the electoral perspective, being a woman had its advantages be45

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cause people perceived women as more honest and responsible candidates. Like men, women must deal with the negative views of politicians common among the Mexican public. Low self-esteem also surfaced as an obstacle. Some felt that low selfesteem marginalized women further, and thus, improving self-esteem was perceived as central to women’s increased participation in public life. Interestingly, however, the women we spoke with stated categorically that they personally did not suffer from low self-esteem. It is also interesting that sexual harassment was not mentioned as an obstacle. In general, the women we interviewed mentioned the difficulties associated with being a woman, but noted that they, personally, had been very lucky. Indeed, in talking about obstacles both in terms of self-esteem and sexual harassment, they often referred to the experiences of other women, not their own. Finally, some women mentioned the lack of support from the educational system as another societal obstacle, feeling that women’s ambitions were not encouraged in the educational structure and that this in turn led to low self-esteem among women in general. Clearly this pattern is not unique to Mexico but occurs in many other countries where evidence and statistical data show that boys have greater access to education than girls. CONCLUSION

Having outlined in this chapter the theoretical and methodological context for the analysis of women in contemporary Mexican politics, and having provided a snapshot of who these women are, I will now delve into the substantive analysis of the findings of this study. As a starting point, I make three fundamental assumptions: that the number of women in public office matters; that the representatives of a democratic government should be reflective of the population; and that gender equity in political and policy decision-making processes contributes to strengthened democratic values. A critical issue to analyze in the following chapters is why, if women participate to the same degree as men in civil society organizations, and therefore may be assumed to be politically inclined, they do not participate in larger numbers in formal politics. Although a number of explanations have been put forward—structural barriers, family responsibilities, lack of funding and training, and so on—this study allows a closer empirical look. 46

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CHAPTER TWO

The Social, Economic, and Political Identity of Mexican Women NEGOTIATING PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SPACES

are political actors and workers as much as they are wives, mothers, and daughters. Participating in community organizations and local protests is no more foreign to many of them than ensuring that their families have adequate meals, housing, health services, and education. In fact, it is these localized, practical concerns that have propelled Mexican women out of the private household sphere and into the public world of social and political activism. By entering the public sphere because of personal family needs, women are “redefining and transforming their domestic role from one of private nurturance to one of collective, public protest, and in this way challenging the traditional seclusion of women into the private sphere of the family” (Safa 1990: 355). Mexican women are reshaping their roles as citizens and redefining their struggle against the state and society. For them, as for women elsewhere, the feminist mantra “the personal is political” is becoming a reality.

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The principal argument I wish to develop in this chapter is that during the last quarter century Mexican women have become a force to be reckoned with—socially, economically, and politically. This growing presence, however, has come at a considerable cost. Women have had to make remarkable sacrifices to fulfill the obligations of the infamous doble jornada—i.e., the double work load they carry for their paid work outside the house and their household and family work. But this burden has not broken their spirits. Indeed, it has invigorated them. As I will show in this chapter, women have coped imaginatively and forcibly with hardship. In particular, they have developed strategies to meet both their “practical” and their “strategic” gender interests, to use the terms coined by Maxine Molyneux. In a now classic piece, Molyneux (1985) paved the way for understanding the different goals of women’s social activism by demonstrating how women’s mobilization is conditioned by their attempts to meet two distinct types of interests. “Practical” interests include economic survival and protecting the family; “strategic” interests are the political struggle for women’s liberation from multiple forms of gendered oppression. Although many Mexican women have become mobilized for practical gender interests, their participation has led to a growing awareness of their strategic interests. Their activism has also led them to recast their role as citizens and to demand attention to their rights as such, including their rights to basic services, housing, health, and education. In this chapter I present an overview of the social, economic, and political conditions surrounding women in Mexican society between 1970 and the late 1990s. After providing a contextual analysis of the economic crises that triggered dramatic changes for women, I examine their lives in the personal spaces of the household and in the public spheres of work, political activism, and community involvement. Like women around the world, Mexican women possess multiple identities that individually and collectively inform their actions, decisions, and participation, and they are creating a social and political space within which they can bring about personal, local, and national change. CRISIS AND SURVIVAL

The economic crisis of the 1980s altered Mexico’s course of development and ended the longest period of sustainable economic growth in Mexico’s history. In hindsight, even though it had been evident since

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the mid-1970s that the growth pattern would soon end, the oil boom gave Mexico hope that it could sustain the prosperity of the previous decades. But when oil prices dropped in 1980 –1981 and the rise in international interest rates brought growth to an abrupt halt in 1982, new economic strategies became necessary (Escobar Latapí and Roberts 1991). During the 1980s, as a response to the crisis, Mexico decisively abandoned policies of import substitution industrialization (ISI), lowered protection for domestic industry, reduced food subsidies, privatized state and parastatal enterprises, liberalized trade, and cut back wages and employment expansion in the state sector. Many of these measures resulted not only from internal decisions to deal with the crisis, but also from international pressure for stabilization and structural adjustment of the Mexican economy. What events precipitated the crisis of the 1980s? What happened to the Mexican political system, which had always been recognized as the most stable regime in Latin America? What happened to the “Mexican miracle,” which had been expected to continue indefinitely? 1 The crisis began to unfold in the 1970s, when Mexico became one of the largest suppliers of oil to the world market. As the price of oil quadrupled in 1973 –1974 and then tripled again in 1980 –1981, the international community promptly took notice of Mexico, particularly because it was the world’s tenth largest nation in terms of GDP. At the same time, U.S. bankers found themselves with billions of petrodollars, and Mexico appeared to be an almost risk-free borrower: it had enormous amounts of oil and ambitious modernization plans. It seemed logical for international bankers to make loans at attractive interest rates and for Mexicans happily to accept them. No one seemed to pay much attention to the fact that as interest rates were rising, so was the debt. For a short period everything went well, but all of a sudden the bubble burst—the world oil market collapsed, and so did Mexico’s economy. In September 1982, President José López Portillo nationalized Mexico’s privately owned banks, and Mexico found itself on the verge of default. The two main causes of Mexico’s debt were the huge increases in public spending undertaken by the López Portillo administration after 1978 and the decision to keep the Mexican peso overvalued in order to dampen the inflationary effect of all that spending. The money went for construction, mining, electricity generation, and manufacturing. Also, corruption was especially rampant at that time.2 By the mid-1980s, inflation raged at over 100 percent, capital flight

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seemed unstoppable, high interest rates pushed up the amount of the debt, and the world recession made it increasingly difficult for Mexico to repay these debts. Interest payments on Mexico’s debt amounted to about ten billion dollars annually and devoured almost three of every four dollars that the country earned from exports and the tourist trade. Sometimes money borrowed in the United States did not even leave the country because Mexico had to pay it right back as interest on previous debts. On top of the financial morass, Mexico was also beset with other disasters. The devastating earthquakes of September 1985 killed almost twenty thousand people and left tens of thousands living in tents and temporary shacks. In May 1986, American officials appearing before a U.S. Senate subcommittee publicly condemned Mexican officials for corruption and complicity in drug smuggling. A further decline in the price of oil stripped the already weak economy of a substantial amount of projected foreign exchange. The peso, which was valued at twentysix to the dollar in 1982, fell to over one thousand to the dollar by the end of de la Madrid’s sexenio (six-year presidential term). Inflation continued at over 100 percent, and purchasing power dropped to the levels of twenty-five years earlier. Unemployment and underemployment reached the highest levels ever. In Mexico City one could see signs posted everywhere that read “No a la deuda” (No to the debt), which really meant “Let’s default.” The Mexican people—and women in particular—were tired of hardship. But even so, Mexico did not want to become a pariah among Western countries, and it steadfastly refused to default on its U.S. $100 billion debt. The country’s policy decisions, as well as the outcome of its economic and political strategies, depended on external factors that were beyond Mexico’s control: the price of oil in the world market and the interest rates of U.S. and world money markets. Time and again it was pointed out that for every dollar per barrel that the price of oil dropped, Mexico lost U.S. $500 million in revenues, and every time interest rates went up or down one percent elsewhere, Mexico lost or saved approximately U.S. $700 million in interest payments on its foreign debt. With Carlos Salinas de Gortari as his secretary of programming and budget, President de la Madrid set out to pull the country together by rebuilding the economy.3 He took a series of important economic measures, starting with an austerity package called the Programa Inmediato de Recuperación Económica (Program for Immediate Economic Recovery, PIRE), which included adjusting the exchange rate, increasing 50

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non-oil exports, and closing down inefficient parastatals. However, continued decreases in income, worsening international economic conditions, real decreases in the price of oil, and increases in interest rates destroyed domestic demand. To provide just one example, the real monetary base in 1988 was less than one-third that of 1977, and onesixth that of 1982 ( Jones, Jiménez, and Ward 1993). But rather than relax the austerity measures at the end of his term, as had been the custom in the final year of a sexenio, de la Madrid toughened the state’s economic policy. In December 1987, the controlled exchange rate, on which all business and debt interest is calculated, was devalued by 22 percent to bring it into line with the floating rate. The price of government goods, especially those aimed at the middle class, was increased: gasoline rose by 85 percent; electricity by 84 percent; air travel by 20 percent; and fertilizer by 82.9 percent (Banco de México 1988). All these increases compounded a phenomenal rise in the price of certain foodstuffs that are primary elements in the Mexican diet: from 1984 to 1987, the price of beans rose 757 percent; eggs, 480 percent; milk, 340 percent; and so on (Davis 1994: 277). These conditions paved the way for de la Madrid’s Pacto de Solidaridad Económica (Economic Solidarity Pact, PSE) between the government, the employers’ federation, the Congreso del Trabajo (Labor Congress), and the Confederación Nacional Campesina (National Peasant Confederation, CNC). With less than a year until an election and inflation at 150 percent, the PSE had concrete aims: to reduce inflation; to bring public finances into current account surplus; to limit demand through credit control; and to open the economy to international competition. For three months, therefore, prices, wages, and foreign exchange were frozen. Monthly inflation, which had been 15.5 percent in January 1988, fell to just over one percent by August. In the midst of these efforts, in December 1988, Carlos Salinas de Gortari became president. One of the major successes of President Salinas’s administration was further consolidating control over inflation and reducing it to single digits. He extended the PSE by recasting it in his Pacto para la Estabilidad y el Crecimiento Económico (Economic Stability and Growth Pact, PECE). This was a clear signal to the business community and to the middle classes that this particular changeover of political power (unlike the previous two transitions) would see a continuity of policy and personality. The reward for the efforts made during the 1980s, therefore, was not economic growth but economic and financial stability. The Salinas project had three aims: first, to reform the Mexican 51

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economy; second, to attain a high level of economic growth and regain the standard of living attained during the 1970s; and third, to restructure the political system in order to maintain the legitimacy of the PRI. It was, in short, fast-track economic restructuring but slow-track political reform. As Lorenzo Meyer put it, “Aquí en México, Perestroika sin Glasnost” (Here in Mexico, perestroika without glasnost). The creation of international confidence in an invigorated Mexican economy was central to Salinas’s restructuring strategy. To achieve this goal, he removed most restrictions on foreign ownership, attacked and destroyed the power base of several entrenched leaders in key unions, and put some of the major parastatals up for sale in order to attract foreign investment and to generate major “windfall” government revenues. In conjunction with the United States, Mexico participated in the Brady Plan debt renegotiations, which freed up a further U.S. $20 billion for public expenditure in Mexico. On the financial services front, Salinas’s aim was to make Mexico a major financial center for the rest of Latin America. The share flotation of several profitable public companies as part of the privatization project gave the Mexican Bolsa (stock exchange) several “star” performers, such as TELMEX (Teléfonos de México, the telephone company). Subsequent flotations of steel plants, airlines, insurance companies, telecommunications companies, and trucking concessions are estimated to have brought in a further U.S. $20 –25 billion (Guardian, 25 June 1991). Foreign investment was also attracted to Mexico through the issuing of treasury bonds, which offered a high rate of return, guaranteed liquidation in dollars rather than pesos, and short rollover periods. As we now know, although this strategy was very successful in attracting foreign capital, it exacerbated the “dollarization” of the Mexican economy and made it highly vulnerable to sudden withdrawals of investments brought on by any significant loss of confidence. As long as Salinas was in office, however, that confidence did not seem likely to ebb. Quite the contrary; Mexico’s very willingness to negotiate a free trade agreement with Canada and the United States demonstrated the country’s clear intention to intensify the dismantling of protective tariff barriers initiated under de la Madrid, when Mexico entered the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1986. Once the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was secured on 1 January 1994, there was no stepping back from free trade, even if the sexenio ended or ideology changed—prospects that usually frightened would-be foreign investors. 52

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Economic prospects were “bullish” during the Salinas period: financial services became a leading economic sector (with 28 percent of the total share in 1991 versus 22.6 percent for manufacturing); and manufacturing intensified the positive trend after 1985 as the leading export earner (with 55 percent of export earnings versus 30 percent for petroleum). Not everything went smoothly for Salinas, however. Both the trade and current account balances moved sharply into deficit after 1988. As Lustig (1992: 59) points out, the economic recovery was in part predicated on an upsurge in imports, which increased 17 percent in 1991. Although exports were increasing 5.5 percent per annum (with nonoil exports increasing at more than double that rate), a growing trade deficit was emerging. While this deficit was partly covered by large inflows from the IMF and the World Bank, which strengthened Mexico’s foreign reserves, the signals of doom were clear. Politically, of course, 1994 was in a number of respects a very bad year for President Salinas, with the Chiapas uprising timed to coincide with the implementation of NAFTA, and with the assassination of his designated successor, Luis Donaldo Colosio, in March. Not surprisingly, these events made the market even more jittery, and with elections looming in August, the Salinas government did everything it could to keep the ship steady. While the president’s popularity remained very high, and many argue that he “won” a good victory for the PRI’s replacement candidate, Ernesto Zedillo, concern was mounting about the overvalued peso and the possibility and timing of a devaluation. There were also concerns about the growing trade deficit, and about the decline in national foreign exchange reserves. Politically, too, the PRI seemed in danger of imploding, with a further assassination—this time of the party’s general secretary—that appeared to be the responsibility of one of its internal factions. Notwithstanding these concerns, it was a surprise when the economic tapestry flew off the loom in such dramatic fashion immediately after President Zedillo assumed office on 1 December 1994. Instead of experiencing the expected continuity in macroeconomic policy, Mexico was thrown into its most severe economic crisis ever, one that effectively destroyed Salinas’s reputation overnight and threatened to have the most severe consequences for Mexico’s economic future—and for the political future of the PRI. The reasons for the December financial crisis were succinctly reported by President Zedillo during his first State of the Nation Address on 1 September 1995: a dangerously low level of foreign reserves and 53

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high vulnerability to withdrawal of foreign investment, much of which was in short-term, dollar-guaranteed treasury bonds. A dramatic loss of confidence was triggered by a badly mismanaged devaluation attempt on 15 December, which offered too little and, more importantly, was not managed in such a way as to stem the resulting hemorrhage in confidence. The uncontrolled tailspin that occurred throughout December and early January, and the almost total depletion of foreign reserves, threatened to place Mexico in bankruptcy with the immediate prospect of having to renege on guarantees to those investors wishing to cash in their treasury bonds as these rolled over. There seemed to be little that President Zedillo could do to reassure those investors. His government’s handling of the devaluation was widely criticized, and there appeared to be little effective leadership from Los Pinos (Mexico’s equivalent of the White House). In short, unlike any previous new administration, Zedillo’s government was beleaguered almost before it took office. The initial economic lifeline came from the United States in the form of a billion-dollar bailout of loans guaranteed by the U.S. Congress and aimed at restoring international confidence and ensuring payment to those investors who chose to withdraw anyway. President Clinton authorized the maximum line of credit possible without congressional approval—U.S. $20 billion—and the remainder came from the IMF, the World Bank, and other sources, for a total of almost U.S. $50 billion. The Zedillo government cut public spending dramatically and initiated a new period of austerity with major increases in the prices of gasoline and electricity and in the value-added tax (VAT; or impuesto al valor agregado, IVA). The economic impacts on the Mexican population were severe. Although prices were frozen on basic foodstuffs, the low-income population (which included most Mexicans) had to confront a doubling in the level of open unemployment and, equally important, major reductions in family earnings due to lower demand for goods and services. At a stroke, President Zedillo’s principal election slogan, “Bienestar para tu familia” (Well-being for your family), was in tatters. Those eligible for credit (largely middle- and upper-income groups) in the form of mortgages, loans, and credit cards were confronted with interest rates approaching, in some cases, more than 100 percent, so that massive defaulting was almost impossible to avoid. The middle classes, then, were no fonder of the incoming government than were the lower classes. The administration had to act on a number of fronts to shore up private banks and to create refinancing packages and arrangements that would 54

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offset widespread defaulting. By early 1996, the government was attempting to “talk up” some level of recovery, but it was not until the third quarter of 1996 that significant growth actually became observable. The implications of these financial and economic crises in 1982, 1987–1988, and, above all, 1994 –1996 extend far beyond economics. There is no doubt that the various crises placed unprecedented stress on the country’s political and economic system and raised questions about how the resulting social tensions would be handled. As we shall observe, the crises accelerated the level of political activism in Mexico in unprecedented ways. Likewise, the crises resulted in the entry of women into the workforce in massive numbers, changing forever their social, economic, and political roles. How did the crises alter the patterns of decision making for women in both the public and the private spheres, and how have these responses to crisis changed the character of Mexican women? Evolving Traditions: Women and the Household

The economic crisis of the 1980s facilitated the entry of millions of Mexican women into the workforce for the first time. As the data in Table 2.1 show, the percentage increase of women in every age group entering the paid labor force was dramatic. This increase is particularly striking in the 30-to-44-years-of-age cohort from 1982 to 1987, reflecting the impact of the 1982 shock. As a result of the crisis, households were forced to use creative strategies for survival, including cutting spending, reducing fertility, extending the household to include those outside of the nuclear family, and sending more people in the household into the workforce. Men and older sons were no longer the sole breadwinners for the household, as women and daughters regularly began to contribute to the family purse. The old social custom whereby Mexican women worked outside the home only when they were young—that is, before marrying and having children—was no longer an option. As a number of studies have shown, women rapidly developed strategies to cope with hardship (Arizpe 1977; Benería and Roldán 1987; Benería 1992; Chant 1991, 1997; González de la Rocha 1991, 1994). These included “an increase in the number of women and children (especially teenagers) entering the informal and formal wage-labor force, the selfprovisioning of goods and services formerly purchased, [and] coerced family cooperation” (Stephen 1997: 120). All of this, of course, did not 55

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TABLE 2.1

age 20 – 49 20 –24 25 –29 30 –34 35 –39 40 – 44 45 – 49

Female Workforce Participation Rates, by Age Cohort 1976

1982

1987

26.9% (6826) a 28.7% (1701) 24.2% (1415) 26.2% (1148) 28.8% (1054) 26.1% (820) 27.1% (682)

31.5% (7786) a 38.6% (2022) 33.5% (1602) 29.0% (1343) 28.0% (1109) 25.9% (950) 25.5% (759)

37.4% (7017) a 35.0% (1657) 37.5% (1595) 41.6% (1296) 41.5% (1018) 37.0% (814) 29.3% (636)

Source: Adapted from Brígida García and Orlandina de Oliveira. 1992. “El nuevo perfil del mercado de trabajo femenino: 1976-1987.” In La voluntad de ser: Mujeres en los noventa, edited by María Luisa Tarrés. Mexico City: El Colegio de México. 158. a Numbers in parentheses correspond to the absolute number of women participating in the workforce in each cohort.

imply a reduction in their heavy domestic workloads, although there is some scant evidence of men helping with household chores (see Gutmann 1996, but cf. Benería and Roldán 1987: 130). In addition to entering the labor force in record numbers, women developed other avenues of economic survival. As González de la Rocha (1988) found in her 1982 – 1987 study of working-class women in Guadalajara, women coupled their paid employment with other domestic strategies, such as producing their clothing and some foodstuffs like vegetables, all of which had previously been purchased. While this strategy is not new to women, especially rural women who farm, care for animals, and produce clothing, it was new to urban women who found that they had to work to protect the family well-being. As Benería and Roldán (1987) show, women were constantly thinking of ways to reduce the household budget. Women also ate lower-quality foods than men: women ate beans, tortillas, fruits, and vegetables, while men ate more meat and eggs. In the early 1990s, in a follow-up study of some of the same households included in her 1981–1982 study, Benería found that almost 70 percent of the households studied “bought less food, clothing, shoes, and spent less on other daily expenses such as transportation, drinks, and snacks than during the pre-1982 period” (1992: 94). In addition to these strategies for coping with hardship, the economic crises also heralded the emergence of a growing number of households headed by women. The crises forced many men to migrate 56

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to other parts of the country or to the United States to find work, leaving women behind as heads of families; other men simply abandoned their families, often because of the pressures of economic uncertainty; some women became widows and were forced to lead their households; and increasingly, women chose to leave their husbands. With the new economic power earned through having their own jobs, women were able to escape dominating or abusive relationships (Chant 1994). Although female-headed households had a more difficult time during the economic crisis than male-headed households, they were still able to effectively use collective tactics for survival. In Guadalajara, for example, women’s households were 18 percent poorer than maleheaded households during the 1980s crisis (González de la Rocha 1994), a result of the lack of a second income and the lower wages earned by women in all occupations, even when they were the primary wage earners for their households. Thus, women depended greatly on collectivity for survival. Collectivity provided flexibility and diversity in opportunities for work; compensated for the lack of real support from the state; and buffered the household against low salaries. Because women were mostly employed in the low-wage informal sector, children’s contributions to the household income were important. Both girls and boys contributed more to household income in femaleheaded households; also the girls’ incomes became especially important because they constituted a higher percentage of household income under female heads than under male heads. In her Guadalajara study, González de la Rocha (1994) found that girls contributed almost five times more in female-headed than they did in male-headed households. In addition, female-headed households almost always included extended family and friends. This inclusion helped to compensate for the social isolation that many female-headed households faced. With fewer public contacts, female-headed households relied on friends and family—usually other women—for support. Female-headed households tended to have a greater per capita income than male-headed households.4 While men may have earned higher wages, they tended to keep much of their money for personal use, whereas women contributed nearly all of their earnings to the household. Female-headed households usually were smaller than male-headed households, with more members in the workforce. Thus, although their incomes may have been smaller, they were distributed among fewer people, making per capita income higher for female-headed households.

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In their respective work, both Chant (1991, 1994) and González de la Rocha (1994) have found many positive side effects of female-headed households. They tend to lead to more nurturing environments, more freedom and autonomy for female decision making, more equitable income distribution among household members, greater attention to children’s nutrition and health, and perhaps most significant, less domestic violence. These healthy characteristics of female-headed households helped to compensate for a smaller household income. In the long run, they might even lead to upward mobility for members of the household. While many of these characteristics are difficult to measure, both Chant and González de la Rocha convincingly argue that their research indicates significant differences between the two types of households. As Mexico began to recover from the ravages of the crisis of the 1980s, women’s roles also began to change. Sylvia Chant (1994) found in her study of Querétaro and León that although most households tended to continue to practice the survival strategies developed during the crisis, women were increasingly giving up their jobs and returning to solely domestic tasks. Especially mothers with teenage sons, who often replaced women in the workforce, were returning home. Their sons were better educated and had easier access to the workplace, and therefore could earn higher wages. There was no appreciable new entry of women into the workforce in these cities. Women had been unable to achieve upward mobility in terms of either position or wages during the preceding decade, and many were tired of working hard for little money or status. Most analysts emphasize that women entered the workforce during the 1980s not to advance their own social positions, achieve gender equality, or begin feminist projects, but because they needed to help their families during a difficult time. Women were simply performing their domestic duties to sustain the family and the household. Although this rationale allows for an easy reversal of employment trends once the family is no longer in need, it is within the household, Chant argues (1991, 1994), that women have made significant and irreversible gains. Men have become exposed to female decision making and household democracy, and women have come to demand the more powerful household role that accompanies this more democratic environment. Indeed, the domestic power arrangements and the legal property rights afforded to women are now being systematically analyzed (Varley 1995,

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2000). For example, land title regularization programs throughout Mexico today put either both names of a couple or solely the woman’s name in the title deeds in order to provide her and her family with protection in the event of desertion or divorce. Furthermore, in the case of divorce, judges increasingly are seeking to ensure an equitable distribution of marital property even when it is registered solely in the name of the male partner. In his work in the Santo Domingo working-class area of Mexico City, Matthew Gutmann (1996) found evidence of these changes in household roles. Gutmann presents rich documentation suggesting that men play more active parenting roles than they once did (particularly with boys) and help in regular household chores, including cleaning and doing laundry. Gutmann points out that this increased male involvement in household chores is directly correlated with women entering the labor force; indeed, the men in his sample who were more engaged with domestic chores had wives who worked full-time outside the home. Gutmann also recognizes the long hours that women work at home in addition to their paid work outside. Although his research documents the ways in which men carry out unpaid labor at home to contribute to family survival, he remains somewhat skeptical of what this means for women and household dynamics. Thus, the 1980s crisis was a period of despair for the Mexican people and intensified the burden placed on women, yet there was a silver lining to this dark cloud. Decisions in the household included women in more democratic negotiations, a practice nearly unheard of a decade earlier (Chant 1994). Women had more resources for making household decisions, including the decision to leave and form their own households (Selby, Murphy, and Lorenzen 1990). Women were also making inroads in the workplace, including limited but not insignificant employment in the formal sector. These changes allowed women to expand their social base and gain power in formerly male realms. Despite these advances and their progress in household decision making, there was little substantial change in women’s inferior status in the labor market. Women made less than half as much as their male counterparts, and daughters earned only two-thirds of their brothers’ wages (Chant 1994). Women began working harder during the crisis, both inside and outside the home, but they had few substantive economic gains to show for it. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, women and children continue to be the poorest, least-educated people in Mexico.

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The Transition from Private to Public Work

As we have seen, many women, particularly those from low-income families, were required to work to deal with the economic hardship of the 1980s. In low-income households in Guadalajara, González de la Rocha (1988) found that the proportion of adult women working outside the home increased from 38 percent in 1982 to 46.7 percent in 1985. Even women who had never had to work before were now entering the workforce. Benería (1992) found that although partnered women with young children were still the last household members to enter the workforce, their employment numbers also increased during this time. These women were slow to seek work outside the home for several reasons: the traditional division of labor between genders, the ideology that women should stay at home, male resistance to the idea of wives working, and the lower educational attainment among most older women. Still, many employers were willing to hire women, especially in the informal sector, because of women’s willingness to accept lower wages than men. Census and other statistical data, although inconsistent, show that the numbers of women entering the labor force have grown steadily. According to the 1995 National Employment Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Empleo), the presence of women among the economically active population ( población económicamente activa) increased from 21 percent in 1979 to 31 percent in 1991, 33 percent in 1993, and 34 percent in 1995. Official census data, however, show a much more modest increase, from 17 percent in 1970 to 19 percent in 1990 (García, Blanco, and Pacheco 1999: 278 –279). These figures undoubtedly fall short of reality, due to the underrecording of women’s economic activities in the informal sector and the total omission of household work (also due to the alleged inaccuracies of the 1980 and 1990 Mexican censuses; see García, Blanco, and Pacheco 1999). The most recent employment data available, from the 1998 National Employment Survey (INEGI 1998), indicate that there are 49 million females in Mexico: 16 million of these are under 15 years of age; 30 million are between 15 and 64 years old; and 2.6 million are 65 or older. The female workforce consists of 13.3 million women, including women and girls 12 years and older. The male workforce comprises 26.2 million men, which means that of every three economically active Mexicans, one is a woman. Of the economically active female population, 12.9 million are employed and 400,000 are unemployed. By age groups, the female work60

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M I L L I O N S O F WO R K E R S

6

5.5

5 4 2.6

3

3.2

2 1.1

1 0

Agriculture

Industry

Commerce

Services

0.4

0.5

Unemployed

Other

SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY Women’s Employment, by Sector of the Economy Source: Adapted from Alejandra Arroyo et al. 2001. “Women and Full Employment.” Voices of Mexico 54 ( January–March), 24. Based on data from INEGI, National Employment Survey, 1998.

FIGURE 2.1

force consists of 388,000 girls between 12 and 14 years old; 12.5 million women between the ages of 15 and 64; and 402,000 women 65 years and older. The economically inactive group includes 22.8 million women. In this group, 2.9 million are between 12 and 14 years old; 17.5 million are between 15 and 64 years of age; and 2.2 million are 65 or older. Of the 13.3 million economically active women, 8.7 million have less than a secondary-school education, and 6.9 million live in urban areas. Of the 22.8 million economically inactive women, 18.5 million have less than a secondary-school education, and 10.4 million live in urban areas (data are from INEGI 1998, cited in Arroyo et al. 2001). As anticipated, the division of female labor by sector shows that far and away the single largest category is services (5.5 million), followed by commerce and industry (3.2 and 2.6 million, respectively; see Figure 2.1). Across all sectors, 1.7 million women are classified as professionals, technicians, and teachers; 1.7 million are clerical workers; 2.6 million are in sales; 1.6 million are domestic workers; 1.1 million are employed in agriculture; 2.4 million are artisans or factory workers; and 1 million are in other different types of services (INEGI 1998, cited in Arroyo et al. 2001). Figure 2.2 shows that according to their job categories, only 237,000 women are employers; 2.8 million are self-employed (primarily in commerce and service); 7.6 million are wage earners (more than 6 million are employed in commerce and service, and only 1.7 million in industry); 600,000 are piece workers (in industry and commerce); and 2.1 million 61

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7.6

8

M I L L I O N S O F WO R K E R S

7 6 5 4 2.8

3

2.1 2 0.6

1 0.2 0 Employers

Self-employed

Wage earners

Pieceworkers

Unpaid

POSITION HELD

Nature of Women’s Employment Source: Adapted from Alejandra Arroyo et al. 2001. “Women and Full Employment.” Voices of Mexico 54 ( January–March), 24. Based on data from INEGI, National Employment Survey, 1998.

FIGURE 2.2

work for no pay at all. Of the entire female workforce, 3.2 million work from their homes, and 5 million have no fixed physical workplace. Income distribution shows that 7 million women earn less than twice the minimum wage (3.3 million earn the minimum wage or less, and 3.7 million earn between the minimum wage and double that wage). Only 110,000 women earn more than 10 times the minimum wage. Of the 2.1 million women who are not paid for their work, nearly one million work in agriculture and the rest primarily in commerce. Of the 7.8 million women who do receive a wage, 3.2 million have no written contract. Six million women receive no fixed wage, and 7.7 million receive no benefits apart from their wages (INEGI 1998, cited in Arroyo et al. 2001). These data are useful for assessing the presence of women in the Mexican workforce, but what is troubling is what goes unreported. For the 22.8 million women who are economically inactive, there are very few additional indicators, other than that 5.2 million are students and 15 million are housewives. The majority of these 15 million housewives are mothers of three or more children who, although considered economically inactive, do work—but do so at unskilled jobs with no stability, no written contract, and no benefits. Moreover, they work for at least fortyeight hours a week, and often much longer (Arroyo et al. 2001).

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However flawed, these data show that during the last twenty-five years women have entered the labor force in record numbers. And in no other sector has their presence been felt more than in the informal economy. Women and the Informal Economy

The growth of an informal sector has been a trait common to developing countries. In nations where the pressures of urban poverty are great, and both state and market fail to provide an adequate living, the informal sector has commonly risen as a method of coping with hardship (Roberts 1994; Staudt 1998). Despite its generally low wages and inability to provide access to welfare, the informal sector has been for many the only way of surviving their country’s economic crises. Through its avoidance of state regulation (and thus labor codes), state fiscal obligations, and bureaucratic planning activity, the informal sector has been able to provide employment where it would have otherwise been impossible. All over the world, the poor have been able to secure incomes as small-time entrepreneurs, workers in medium- and small-scale enterprises, self-employed workers, family laborers, and domestic workers— jobs that, in fact, account for a substantial part of urban employment (Roberts 1994). In a survey of Mexico City informal entrepreneurs and their employees, only a minority said that they would take a job in the formal sector if given the chance. Yet the attraction of informal employment owes more to the poor pay and conditions of work in the formal sector and the absence of an adequate urban welfare system than to any entrepreneurial dynamic of its own (Roberts 1993b). Work in the informal sector is usually lower paid than formal-sector work and brings with it fewer benefits, if any at all. Additionally, informal employment often involves the employment of children, who may be compelled to forsake their educations in order to contribute to the family income. As whole families become dependent upon informal employment, the cycle of poverty and deprivation is likely to be more intense than in the past. The informal sector in Mexico is large and relatively robust. In the late 1970s, a substantial portion of the urban labor force was informally employed, and due to the continuing economic crises in the country during the 1980s and 1990s, that number remains substantial. Without doubt, informal employment plays an important part in Mexico’s economy, its heaviest concentrations being in domestic service (42.9 percent

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of total informal employment), followed by food and drink services (14.7 percent) (Roberts 1993a). Other common sources of informal employment in Mexico are small workshops receiving piecework from larger enterprises and small firms struggling to survive in Mexico’s difficult economic climate. In 1985 it was estimated that over 38 percent of Mexico’s GDP was generated in the informal sector (Vera 1987: 81). Between 1980 and 1987, there was an 80 percent increase in informal employment, while formal employment remained stagnant (Escobar Latapí and González de la Rocha 1991: 9). “How feminized is informality?” Staudt asks (1998: 60). The answer, she explains, is connected to poverty and to the worldwide trend of lower wages for women. In Mexico, women participate in two major types of work in the informal sector: subcontracting to produce intermediate or finished goods; and selling food, other petty commodities, or their services as domestic workers (Benería and Roldán 1987). In one study, women heads of households were almost invariably employed in the informal sector, as domestic servants, as domestic out-workers for manufacturers, or in informal trading activities (González de la Rocha 1986). These women’s employment in informal jobs was attributed to their lack of the skills necessary to obtain formal employment. Another contributing factor is the ever present loyalty to family, home, and motherhood (see García and de Oliveira 1997). As Stephen points out, One of the reasons women start doing poorly paid industrial work in their homes is so that they can continue their traditional duties as wives and mothers. Other studies . . . demonstrate that women tend to engage in paid activities which facilitate their domestic work. While many women are conscious of their exploitation in their underpaid, informal wage-labor force, they still feel a strong commitment to carrying our their socialized roles as wives and mothers. (1997: 122) García, Blanco, and Pacheco (1999: 276 –277) review a number of studies with statistical data pertaining to the domestic work performed by men and women and find that women continue to consider themselves responsible for domestic work, while men carry out this type of work as a way of helping out. While women regularly perform or supervise domestic chores, men do so only sporadically. They cite evidence from the 1993 Encuesta Nacional de Empleo (National Em-

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ployment Survey), which shows that more than 80 percent of women 12 years of age and older perform some type of domestic work, compared with 25 percent of men. The same survey also shows that 62 percent of women and only 18 percent men who worked full-time performed more than 20 hours of domestic work per week (INEGI/ UNIFEM 1995, cited in García, Blanco, and Pacheco 1999: 276 –277). In her study of informal economies along the U.S.–Mexico border, Staudt (1998) also found a distinctly gendered pattern to the division of labor. In the border’s informal economy, men do repair work on houses and cars, buy and sell used cars, and work in construction and in landscaping and gardening services. Women work as maids or care for others’ children, provide beauty services, cater parties, and are distributors of beauty and household products (1998: 74 –75). Staudt also found clear differences in the wages they earn, with women making up a larger proportion of the lower-earner group. In Ciudad Juárez the differential was less marked, with men earning U.S. $65 a week and women U.S. $54 a week; in El Paso, however, men’s wages were more than double those of women: men earned U.S. $134 a week, while women earned only U.S. $54 (1998: 76). The number of women employed in the informal sector far surpasses the number of women employed in the formal sector. The 1988 employment survey shows that women made up 38 percent of the informal labor force, compared with 31 percent in the formal sector (Staudt 1998: 60). As Roberts (1993a, 1993b, 1994), Staudt (1998), and other analysts indicate, there were many reasons for this divide. First, finding employment in the informal sector is less difficult. Informal employment requires fewer credentials and less education than formal employment. Second, informal employment can be an avenue to obtaining the necessary training to eventually move into a formal job. Informal employment provides an easy-entry, low-cost way of acquiring skills that can later be sold to formal enterprises. Third, informal employment often provides a convenient means for a woman to supplement her income while not neglecting her other duties. In general, it is easier to combine an informal job with domestic and family tasks than it would be to integrate these duties with a formal job. And fourth, informal employment can allow for the incorporation of other household members who are too young or too old to obtain formal work. Indeed, a relevant aspect of women’s employment in the informal sector is the marked association with life stage, as the informally employed are disproportion-

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ately concentrated in both the younger and the older age ranges. For the younger generation, this is generally due to their lack of skills; for the older generation, it is often due to the fact that a formal work routine can be too exhausting for them. Notwithstanding this general positive interpretation of the informal sector as providing opportunities for women to survive within a “resources of poverty” model (González de la Rocha 1994), there is now growing skepticism of its sustainability under the neoliberalism of the 1990s. Indeed, rising absolute unemployment among both men and women and the intensification of poverty levels have become increasingly evident in a number of Latin American countries, most notably in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay) (Valenzuela and Reinecke 2000; Sunkel 2001). In all cases, a sharp increase in unemployment affected women much more adversely than men: men’s unemployment increased from 5.1 percent to 7.6 percent between 1990 and 1998, while that of women increased from 6.1 percent to 11.2 percent (Valenzuela and Reinecke 2000: 17). For both men and women, the levels of unemployment in the late 1990s were far higher among the low-income population compared with middle- and upper-income strata. In Mexico, too, although open unemployment has not reached the same levels, there are similar warning signs that a “new poverty” is emerging out of economic crisis, adjustment, and restructuring (González de la Rocha 1999b). This so-called new poverty impacts the most marginal groups—the rural poor, the handicapped, the elderly, and, of course, women, particularly those who hold the most precarious positions in the informal sector. No longer can they mobilize the resources of poverty (such as networks, reciprocal relations, household extensions, and self-provisioning of goods for sale) in order to survive, since these are predicated upon having at least a minimum level of resources for exchange or for participation in petty commerce. Thus, a growing number of women in the informal sector are falling from a “resources of poverty” model into a “poverty of resources” model from which there is little effective escape (González de la Rocha 1999a). MAQUIL ADOR AS: ECONOMIC FREEDOM OR EXPLOITATION?

Traditionally, the role of women in Mexico has been defined by their capacity as child bearers and child rearers, by their ability to perform domestic tasks and take care of the sick and elderly, and by their tendency

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to remain in the household, precluding them from active participation in the workforce. However, the rise in female participation in the workforce— especially in the border’s maquiladora plants—suggests that traditionally held beliefs are now beginning to change. The presence of women in the maquiladora industry is so overwhelming that, almost single-handedly, these female workers have recast the image of working women in Mexico: these women, like Rosie the Riveter of World War II America, were the first to break en masse into Mexico’s male-dominated industrial workplace. Their relative autonomy . . . has fueled a grassroots shift that has rippled throughout border society, granting working-class women an unusual degree of domestic clout and social freedom. . . . In his latest novel, “The Crystal Frontier,” Carlos Fuentes casts the maquiladora women of the border, in a struggle for equal footing at home and at work, with aspirations that defy the self-sacrificing feminine ideals with which they were raised. (o’connor, LA Times, 22 February 1998) As far as industrialization is concerned, no other program in modern Mexico has had more impact on the working conditions of Mexican women than the Border Industrialization Program (BIP) of the 1960s. As maquiladoras gained an increasingly large role in the Mexican economy, the employment of women soared. In their early development stages, at least, these factories predominantly hired women, a practice that only began to change in the late 1980s (Sklair 1989). The concept of maquila (finishing off ) factories is by no means unique to Mexico, or even to this century. The idea originated during the Industrial Revolution and was practiced throughout France and England in the sweatshops of the nineteenth century. The model spread internationally when industrialized nations such as England and the United States began to relocate factories to countries in Asia that provided an abundance of cheap labor. These companies were able to amass huge profits by significantly reducing their overhead expenditures in wages and facilities. The practice of offshore assembly operations was adapted to Mexico in 1965. With the end of the Bracero Program in 1964, which had allowed Mexican agricultural workers to legally seek jobs in the United States, the Mexican government adopted the BIP to provide jobs for the

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new mass of unemployed workers (Sklair 1989). In the words of Patricia Wilson, “the BIP allowed foreign and Mexican investors to temporarily import duty-free all the inputs, machinery, and replacement parts needed for assembly as long as the investors bought a bond that would ensure their eventual reexportation. The government referred to these plants setting up under the BIP as maquiladoras” (1992: 37). The BIP encouraged multinational firms based in the United States to move their plants and factories to just inside the Mexican border. The multinational firms that established factories within a twenty-kilometer zone would not be required to pay tariffs or duties, except for a small tax on the value added to products brought over and sent back across the border. In other words, the companies only paid a small tax on the value of the Mexican labor they employed. In 1972, the twenty-kilometer zone was enlarged to include the entire country—a move that Leslie Sklair (1989) refers to as “the march to the interior.” However, even with additional incentives to relocate to Mexico’s interior, maquiladora factories remain predominantly in the border region and in border states. Still, what began as a specific regional arrangement has now grown into a national policy of industrialization in Mexico. In the years between 1985 and 1990, maquiladora employment accounted for 88 percent of the growth in industrial employment (Wilson 1992). Typically maquiladoras have employed mostly women. Estimates vary considerably, but most analysts agree that between 1965 and 1985, approximately 80 percent of the factory workforce was made up of women (Young 1984: 1). The jobs are typically labor intensive, highly standardized, and repetitive. The traditional arguments made in favor of hiring women (especially young women) centered around their lower absenteeism, quick learning ability, nimble, dexterous fingers, higher patience, and so on. However, another line of analysis suggests that the preference for women was based on the fact that they did not insist on unionization as often as male workers did (Sklair 1989). In the 1990s employment patterns started to change, with recent studies showing a growing trend of hiring men for these factory jobs ( Jiménez Betancourt 1989; Carrillo 1993; Rendón 1993; Oliveira and García 1996). A recession in the Mexican economy, along with improved working conditions and opportunities for advancement in the multinational factories, have led more men to seek these jobs—a phenomenon that raises questions about the future role of women in these factories. Rendón (1993) suggests three main reasons why men have entered the maquila industry: the declining number of young women in the geo68

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graphical areas where maquiladoras are established; the adoption of more sophisticated technologies for which employers prefer men; and the lower number of job opportunities for men in other industries. But regardless of these changing trends in employment patterns, the presence of women has forced employers and analysts alike to rethink gender roles in Mexico’s industrial labor force. At the end of the 1990s, approximately 800,000 women were employed in the maquila industry—now no longer just a border phenomenon—and it is estimated that they created even more wealth than oil exports (Arroyo et al. 2001: 21). From the perspective of scholars seeking to establish an analytical framework for understanding the impact of maquiladoras on women, much of the discussion has focused on whether the massive entry of women into this industry has been a liberating experience or one that has led to further exploitation. The growing stream of literature on Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) examines how the onset of industrial development has changed the nature of gender roles in the developing world (see Moser 1989, 1993). Scholars such as Linda Lim (1982), María Patricia Fernández-Kelly (1983, 1991), and Susan Tiano (1994) have used WID theories as the framework for their analyses of maquiladoras (see also Valdez 1997). From their work, three theories emerge as the primary lenses through which scholars analyze Mexican women workers (see Tiano 1994). The first of these is the integration theory, arising out of modernization theory. Integration theorists claim that women’s participation in the labor force is a liberating experience; it allows women to have economic independence and increases their bargaining power in the household. Second is the marginalization theory, which arises out of dependency theory and suggests that development increases women’s social and economic marginality by eroding their productive roles. That is, prior to this capitalist stage, women were able to be “productive” through informal means. When they become a part of the capitalist system, the informal economy is weakened, and thus women are increasingly unable to be productive. And third, the exploitation theory ties women’s oppression to the formation of the capitalist society that dictates gender roles: men are wage laborers and women are housewives. Any wage work that women do is seen as a surplus. Thus, when there is an expansion in the economy, they are integrated into the work force; when the economy contracts, they are released from work. Some integration theorists argue that women’s participation in the maquila industry has facilitated their “liberation” in Mexican society. They 69

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claim that it has defined new norms for what is socially acceptable for women. Exploitation theorists, in contrast, claim that women have been pushed into the maquila industry out of economic need. These women are thus condemned to poorly paying jobs with bad working conditions, and to having their paychecks controlled by male members of the household. Although none of the theories is all-encompassing, each provides a useful perspective on women in the Mexican maquiladora industry. More significantly, as García, Blanco, and Pacheco (1999: 286) conclude, no other area of research and scholarship analyzing labor markets in Mexico has presented a clearer or more systematic gendered perspective. WOMEN-TARGETED GOVERNMENT ANTIPOVERT Y PROGR AMS

Prior to the 1990s, no other antipoverty program in contemporary Mexico had as much impact as the Salinas administration’s National Solidarity Program (Programa Nacional de Solidaridad, PRONASOL).5 It was designed for “los que poco o nada tienen” (those who have little or nothing) and soon became, as one public official put it to me, “Salinas’s ticket.” Indeed, Solidarity began operations on 2 December 1988, one day after Salinas assumed the presidency. Solidarity’s stated objectives were to improve the living conditions of marginalized groups; to promote balanced regional development; and to promote and strengthen the participation of social organizations and local authorities in community affairs and infrastructure development. Solidarity’s main beneficiaries were originally to be the indigenous communities and the poorest peasant and urban groups. The program aimed to improve nutrition and health, regularize land titles and housing, provide legal aid, create and improve educational facilities, provide electricity and potable water, build agricultural infrastructure, and preserve natural resources (Consejo Consultivo 1990: 15 –16). As the program developed, these goals were grouped into three principal “areas of action”: solidarity for social welfare, solidarity for production, and solidarity for regional development (SEDESOL 1994: 10 –11). PRONASOL emerged as a community participation program. Any organized group, be it a state or local government, a neighborhood association, or a local assembly, could approach local Solidarity officials and present a proposal for any type of public work. Once the project was approved, Solidarity put up most of the financial resources while the group contributed the labor and, whenever possible, local resources. Many women served on the local managing groups of the program (Sol70

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idarity committees). Indeed, more often than not, women took leadership roles on these committees, and observers of the program frequently noted that women took charge of managing committee accounts because of their experience in handling family budgets. Also, many of these women were recruited to serve on the Solidarity committees because of their leadership experience in popular movements, which made them important leaders at the community level. Although the overall impact of Solidarity is difficult to measure because its programs were so wide ranging, federal financing for the initiative grew from U.S. $500 million in 1989 to U.S. $2.2 billion in 1993. The thirty-plus programs included in Solidarity covered a broad range of investments, often designed to complement regular sectoral investments. For example, one of the programs that was especially important to women, Escuela Digna (Decent School), funded the renovation of educational facilities; and the Niños en Solidaridad (Solidarity Children) program gave small scholarships to students. Neither of these expenditures was included in the normal education budget. At the end of Salinas’s sexenio, the administration claimed that 523,000 projects had been completed throughout the country between 1989 and 1994 (sedesol 1994: 25). Although the number of beneficiaries of Solidarity programs was impressive (see Rodríguez 1997, 1999a), Solidarity did have its critics, who alleged that the initiative was primarily engineered as a political consolidation mechanism and as a natural outcome of the economic development policies of the administration (see Cornelius, Craig, and Fox 1994). But what is important to underscore is the program’s intention of targeting specific regions and municipalities in a major effort of poverty alleviation. In the process, Solidarity had an impact on women. The PRONASOL program Mujeres en Solidaridad (Women in Solidarity) was designed to meet household needs and demands and actively sought the integration of women in community development. PRONASOL recognized women’s dual workday,6 while also addressing their demands for better health services, education, and housing, and calling for the “full and democratic incorporation of women into the economic, political, social, and cultural life of their communities and the country” (sedesol 1993: 111). In official documents, Women in Solidarity was described as promoting organized participation by women in all activities carried out to overcome poverty and to ameliorate the difficult situations to which 71

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they are subjected. Integral community development will only be possible if it is founded on the premise that activity by women is essential to the productive and social process of the community. The infrastructure and social service allotment, by the request of the women, goes toward the liberation of time from domestic chores and lightening the daily responsibilities so that they may participate in other aspects of life in their communities. (sedesol 1993: 111) Mujeres en Solidaridad was one of the more successful Solidarity programs, and much of the credit for its achievements must be attributed to the collaborative and managerial abilities of the women involved.7 Most of the projects in the program were productive projects, and most were closely related to women’s traditional chores: cooking and sewing. Other projects included mechanical knitting and shoemaking workshops, grocery stores, and craft, candy, and snack production centers. Still others produced bricks and roofing tiles. Mujeres en Solidaridad also sponsored social and service projects devoted to housing improvements, installation of latrines, drinking water and sewage installations, ecological conservation, and recreational and cultural spaces (SEDESOL 1993: 114). In the first three years of the program (1988 – 1991), 3,640 projects were executed under the Mujeres en Solidaridad umbrella, of which 2,006 were productive and 1,454 were social-service oriented. The beneficiaries were 76,602 women throughout the country (SEDESOL 1993: 114). The majority of the projects were executed in the eight poorest states in Mexico. Tortillerías and panaderías (tortilla shops and bakeries) were among the women’s more successful productive projects. There are numerous examples from throughout the country of groups of women who received nothing more from Solidarity than the indispensable equipment and machinery for baking bread and making tortillas, and in a matter of months were turning profits and expanding their shops. In fieldwork conducted throughout Mexico in 1993 –1994 for a World Bank project (see Rodríguez 1997), I had the opportunity to visit some of these projects and to speak with the women running them. They were impressive, and even Solidarity officials admired them. One official told me of a bakery in a rural village, for which the women had only received an oven and a mixer. Within three months their production had expanded so much that the women paid a second visit to the official to request a motorcycle because they wished to hire a young man from the village to deliver their baked goods to surrounding communities. To a large ex72

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tent, the success of these projects was due to teamwork. The groups of women organized themselves as women around the world do when undertaking cooperative ventures: some of the women worked on the production of goods, while others looked after the children and yet others did the cooking and cleaning, rotating their chores on a regular basis. Often they also created a community fund with the earnings from their projects, and those funds were in turn utilized both to finance new projects and for community improvements. If much of the success of Solidarity derived from its targeting of women, this was even more the case with its successor, PROGRESA (Programa de Educación, Salud y Alimentación; Program for Education, Health, and Nutrition). Also run out of the Ministry of Social Development (Secretaría de Desarrollo Social, SEDESOL), this program integrated subprograms of education, health, and nutrition targeting the poorest rural families. Its novelty was that it required the continued participation of the household mother, who received direct financial support as well as support in kind (medicine, vitamins, basic foodstuffs) so long as her children continued to attend primary school, and so long as the mother herself undertook to participate in health-support programs. By so doing, she would continue to receive financial aid in the form of modest scholarships for her children, foodstuffs and nutritional supplements, and medical attention. This highly targeted program appears to have had significant success in buffering the most adverse effects of poverty and malnutrition, particularly among children (PROGRESA 2000). Already it has become a model for other Latin American countries, including Brazil. President Fox has committed to intensifying and extending the reach of PROGRESA to an even larger number of poor citizens—again articulating antipoverty programs through the household and specifically through mothers. L ABOR UNIONS

Researchers the world over have noted that obstacles such as family structures, domestic responsibilities, child care, gender-based double standards, and the implicit authority granted to males create barriers to women’s sustained political participation. But despite such obstacles, urban and rural women have participated actively in organized movements, particularly in labor struggles and labor unions. This section provides an overview of the relationship between the labor movement and the state in Mexico, highlighting some cases in which women have bro73

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ken from their traditional roles as rank-and-file union members to lead powerful and influential labor movements. Like the Mexican government born under PRI rule, the modern Mexican labor movement has its roots in the Mexican Revolution. The participation of worker-organized forces—the “Red Battalions”—in the struggle against Porfirio Díaz’s authoritarian regime marked the emergence of urban and industrial workers as potential political allies of the new government. The right to unionize and to strike was written into the Constitution of 1917 as a statement to the burgeoning working class of their place in “the ideology of the Mexican Revolution,” an ideology that in theory emphasized nationalism, participation, economic redistribution, and social justice (Middlebrook 1991: 3 –5). In the 1920s and 1930s, the government provided subsidies to fledgling labor movements. Since then—and until very recently—the government cultivated patron-client relationships with labor organizations by making available financial and political subsidies, including material support for union activities and access to elected positions in the PRI for progovernment labor leaders (Middlebrook 1991: 9). In return, the “kept” labor movement helped maintain political control. Because it could be mobilized on a national scale, labor participated in everything from mass demonstrations in support of government policies to voter registration drives. For example, the official labor organization, the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (Confederation of Mexican Workers, CTM), provided support to the government in its campaign against the 1968 student uprising. Labor leaders contained workers’ wage demands and blocked mobilization against the state by simultaneously maintaining a centralized decisionmaking elite and a highly segmented work force, making it difficult for dissenters to organize (Cornelius and Craig 1991: 88). That the CTM remained for decades under the sole leadership of the octogenarian Fidel Velázquez—a deep loyalist both to the PRI and to the so-called “revolution within established frameworks”—blessed the government with continuity and stability from the party’s most powerful sector, labor. Labor unions suffered economically and politically from the economic crisis of 1982, and the labor movement in general continued to be debilitated by structural and political weakness (including the death of Fidel Velázquez) in the 1990s. Soaring inflation rates and falling government subsidies in the mid-1980s resulted in massive increases in unemployment, coupled with a decrease in real wages. Workers were laid off, wage ceilings were established, and budgetary constraints pre-

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cluded any government subsidies or price controls, from which union members had traditionally benefited (Cornelius and Craig 1991: 42). Labor leaders were pressured by workers to protest the austerity measures, and the CTM sought new alliances with independent labor movements and leftist parties in hopes of bringing pressure to bear on the government. Both the de la Madrid and the Salinas administrations maintained a hard-line approach to their economic stabilization measures, refusing labor demands and breaking up wildcat strikes (Middlebrook 1991: 15). Labor leaders, fearful of losing any more political leverage, never officially mobilized workers to openly challenge the new economic and political liberalization policies; instead, they offered their support for the economic stabilization measures. The years following 1982 saw a significant shift in state-labor relations as the erosion of labor’s political bargaining power began to expose the constraints inherent in labor’s unbalanced alliance with the state (Whitehead 1991). The 1990s posed new challenges to the labor movement. The North American Free Trade Agreement increased the number of employers resistant to unionization. Also, the stress of new industries characterized by employment instability (maquiladoras and tourism) exacerbated problems for an already weak and factional labor movement. Political liberalization policies implemented by Salinas and continued under his successor, Ernesto Zedillo, threatened the traditionally anti-opposition labor movement, which equated the rise in opposition movements with a reduction in its own political leverage. Finally, the changing of the CTM guard after Velázquez’s death altered the relationships among labor leaders and their movement, the government, and the PRI. These challenges of policy and leadership placed the labor movement at a pivotal point in its history. As Whitehead suggested at the beginning of the 1990s, the principal obstacle to the renegotiation of Mexico’s long-standing laborstate alliance rested not only in current and future economic difficulties, but also in the shift in official attitudes concerning the appropriate place for organized labor in the Mexican regime (1991: 80 – 82). Women Leading Unions: Teachers, Garment Workers, Flight Attendants

Mexico’s teachers’ union, the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (National Union of Education Workers, SNTE), is widely

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regarded as one of the largest and most powerful labor unions in Latin America. Throughout its history, it has been highly politicized and has engaged in some serious confrontations with the state (see Cook 1990; Foweraker 1993). For example, in the late 1970s, a conflict developed between the SNTE and the Ministry of Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP) when efficiency-minded government technocrats wanted to implement the decentralization of the SEP, a move that impacted all education union members. The SNTE turned to its members to mobilize against the government’s decentralization efforts, but instead the teachers took advantage of the prevailing conditions to organize dissidents into a national opposition movement. Many thousands of dissidents held sit-ins, work stoppages, marches, and demonstrations as part of their strategy to pressure both government and union officials. During the period of state-union conflict from 1978 to 1983, several teachers’ movements, including those started in Oaxaca and Chiapas, were highly successful in bringing greater democracy to their union locals (Foweraker 1993). From the women’s perspective, democracy within the union meant an end to male domination of the union leadership (see Cortina 1990). Much of the literature on the teachers’ movement has focused on the leadership roles that men played in the dissident struggles. Yet the teaching profession in Mexico comprises far more women than men; and at least in some cases, women were the principal actors in these struggles. The active participation of women in the movement suggests that they wanted, even more strongly than men, to confront the political structure and the institutional culture that had deprived them of social value and control over their careers. Although the majority of the SNTE’s members were women, they still did not occupy positions of power and leadership in the union.8 Cortina (1990) suggests several ways to analyze the difficulties women faced in gaining access to the union’s centers of power. On the one hand, women may have preferred to act within the more familiar spheres of their daily lives, such as in their individual schools and communities, and may have purposefully avoided interacting with male union leaders. On the other, women may have been at least partially blocked from positions of responsibility by male leaders. In 1977 the male-dominated leadership decided to abolish the women’s office of the union, precisely at the time when women, albeit in very small numbers, were beginning to enter SNTE leadership. Questions then arose about whether women needed separate representation and whether female 76

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rank-and-file teachers actually benefited from having women leaders in the union. In 1989, Elba Esther Gordillo became the first woman to occupy the highest position in the SNTE. Her rise to the powerful position of SNTE secretary-general was undoubtedly very significant in breaking down the barriers that hinder women from occupying such important political positions. However, Gordillo’s rise did not necessarily mean that she would use her power to promote the ascension of other female leaders or to improve the lives of women teachers in the rank and file. In fact, a study conducted by María Eugenia Valdés Vega (1992) found that female teachers in one major subregion (Section 9 of the Federal District) did not feel that Gordillo’s rise to the position of secretarygeneral had benefited the female members (Valdés Vega 1992: 248). Their perceptions may have been valid, for in the past, there appeared to have been very little communication between the female leaders (what few there were) and the general female union membership. Never had there been a strong formulation of gendered demands, such as improved day-care services, adequate medical assistance during childbirth, or the elimination of sex discrimination. Yet the lack of progress in the women’s fight for their own interests may not have been the result of unresponsiveness on the part of male or female leaders. According to Valdés Vega (1992), female teachers in Mexico traditionally have organized and identified themselves as salaried workers instead of as women. Altogether, they have been a rather conservative group, refusing to take feminist positions to combat problems such as female subordination (see also Cortina 1989, 1990). The confrontation between the SNTE and the Mexican government was significant for the continuing struggle of female workers in education. Most importantly, it showed that the powerful, traditionally maledominated position of SNTE secretary-general could be firmly and effectively handled by a woman, even under the watchful eye of a very aggressive and reform-minded administration. For example, one of the high points of Gordillo’s tenure as head of the union was her 1993 confrontation with then secretary of education Ernesto Zedillo regarding the revision of elementary school textbooks, in which she won a resounding victory (see Proceso, 22 February 1993). Also, the conditions upon which Gordillo insisted to allow for open and representative forums meant that women now had greater opportunities to participate than they would otherwise have had. After Gordillo’s departure from the SNTE, it remains debatable whether women in education took ad77

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vantage of those opportunities. While women continue to form the backbone of the union membership, their presence in leadership positions is not great. The most interesting contrast to the teachers’ union is the Nineteenth of September Women’s Garment Union, an independent union formed by female garment workers in Mexico City after the massive earthquakes that devastated both the city and the garment industry in 1985. In an innovative approach to organizing women workers, this union combined labor demands with a feminist agenda to produce a multifunctional organization. The union was formed when about forty thousand garment workers lost their jobs after the disaster and women became outraged that factory owners expressed more concern over salvaging their machinery than locating the missing workers buried under the rubble. As Ramos Escandón (1993: 211) points out, this initial rage served as the impetus for an event unprecedented in Mexico: the creation of “a rapidly organized autonomous union led by women.” What is unique about this union, Carrillo tells us, “is its leadership: women who have carved out a space in both the male-dominated realm of the Mexican labor movement and the broader realm of popular movements” (1990: 214). Under the leadership of Evangelina Corona, members raised organizational funds by sewing and crafting traditional dolls to sell in the streets and in the markets, and they established cross-class alliances with feminist groups who aided in their organizing efforts. For instance, the feminist magazine fem organized an auction of jewelry donated by upper-middle-class women, the proceeds of which went to the Nineteenth of September Union. This union is unique for a number of reasons: first, it emerged from an economic and natural crisis situation; second, it was the first independent national union to gain recognition since 1976; third, it is a women’s union—women-led and with a predominantly female membership; and fourth, it is a product of collaboration between garment workers and feminist advisors (Carrillo 1990: 213 –214). Carrillo argues that the multifunctional nature of this union allowed it to survive despite opposition from labor officials and garment industrialists. Also, by remaining independent, the union succeeded in staying outside of the corporate state. But more importantly, as Carrillo points out, the Nineteenth of September Union broke new ground for female leadership and collective action (1990: 214). This new style of women-led collective action is also evident in the flight attendants’ union (Asociación Sindical de Sobrecargos de Aviación, 78

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ASSA). With over two thousand members (most of them women) and the vigorous leadership of Alejandra Barrales, a young and dynamic woman who has placed herself among the leaders of Mexico’s new labor movement, it is one of the new politically independent unions that have come to prominence after Fidel Velázquez’s death in 1997. Barrales— who started working as a flight attendant when she was eighteen years old—was first elected to the top post in 1995, and in the summer of 1998 she led and brought to a relatively successful conclusion the first nationwide flight attendants’ strike for better salaries and benefits.9 John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, who has met with Barrales to discuss the possibility of forging alliances among North American unions, refers to her as “an impressive, dynamic new leader. . . . She’s the kind of new labor leadership we’re seeing in Mexico” (Dillon, NYT, 8 June 1998). In addition to her work for the flight attendants’ union, Barrales also helped found the National Workers’ Union, the rival federation to the CTM that was formed after Fidel Velázquez’s death. In the summer of 2000, Aeroméxico flight attendants went on another strike, seeking yet again to improve salaries. That same year, at the age of thirty-three, Barrales was reelected to the top post of ASSA; she was sworn in by President Fox in February 2001. ASSA’s membership is 80 percent female, yet until 1995 it had been under the leadership of men.10 Barrales has endeavored to clean up the union and improve the image of union activists in Mexico; as she stated in a recent interview, “not all union activists are ignorant, old, fat thieves” (cuando uno se acerca como sindicalista, todo mundo piensa que somos ignorantes, viejos, gordos, que robamos. Creo que es importante romper con [ese paradigma] [Día Siete 36, 2001]). She has also worked hard to change the public perception of flight attendants from an image of partygoers and vacationers to one of responsible workers. And in the 2000 election, she won a seat in the federal Congress under the banner of the PRD. As federal deputy she has continued to work vigorously on labor and employment issues, particularly as they pertain to women. Barrales is regarded in numerous circles as one of the key female leaders in the country, and she is widely admired for her leadership and dynamism. Fighting Discrimination in the Workplace

Women in unions have joined forces with other women in politics and in NGOs to fight for a woman’s right to fair treatment in the workplace. In this fight, no issue has been more important than that of modifying 79

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the Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo) to treat women with dignity and respect. In October 1998, over three hundred women from the major political parties (PAN, PRI, and PRD) met in Puebla with women from several union federations and NGOs to discuss issues related to women in the workplace. Some of the unions present were the independent Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (Authentic Labor Front, FAT) and the PRI’s CTM; one of the NGOs in attendance was the feminist Mujeres en Acción Sindical (Women in Action in Labor Unions, MAS). The meeting also included some key female union leaders, such as Alicia Sepúlveda from the Telephone Workers’ Union and Hilda Anderson of the CTM. The meeting took place as the federal Congress was starting its legislative session, and its goal was to prepare a set of proposals for reforms to the Federal Labor Law pertaining to women. The meeting’s aim was to help Congress end discrimination against women in the workplace (including sexual harassment and discrimination against pregnant women) and to demand equal pay for equal work. The women also wanted increased safety, health, and environmental protection for all workers. The Puebla meeting was critical in voicing women’s demands for labor law reform aimed at protecting the rights of women in the workplace. Also, it was one of the rare occasions on which women have crossed party lines and ideological persuasions to stand united in their fight for women’s rights. The most difficult issue that the meeting took up was employment practices of requiring women to take pregnancy examinations and firing women who become pregnant. Over the last ten years there has been a broad coalition of women in the legislature who have strongly supported proposals to make such practices illegal, but the pressure has come primarily from NGOs. For example, in the fall of 1998, several NGOs organized the First Tribunal to Reconcile Motherhood and Work, at which they denounced government and private employers alike for violating labor laws and human rights codes by requiring women to take the much detested pregnancy tests. The petition they presented to Congress contained over six thousand signatures (Sherman 1998). Finally, after many years of struggle, and after many proposals were presented to Congress—some by key women legislators such as María Teresa Gómez Mont and Patricia Espinosa of the PAN and Carolina O’Farril, an independent—the reforms to the Federal Labor Law to end discrimination against women were passed in May 1999 (see chapter 4).

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THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

The 1968 Mexican students’ movement and the events that followed in its wake galvanized young, middle-class populations into action against the government’s abuse of power, creating a tide of support for nascent social organizations that were beginning to champion the causes of the economically and politically marginalized. These movements sought to redress issues of inequality and human rights abuses neglected or ignored by the government, yet their concerns were practical as well as ideological. Access to potable water, reliable electricity, and adequate education shared the pulpit with issues of political reform and equal representation. As Foweraker suggests, “this sea change in popular politics finds a striking metaphor in the explosive occupation of the Zócalo . . . which begins in 1968 and recurs as popular mobilizations increase, providing a measure of the (re)appropriation of public and political space by the ‘people’” (Foweraker 1990: 7). Previously uncontested spaces were being challenged on multiple fronts. In the early 1970s, unemployed agricultural laborers from the countryside, joined by displaced, working-class city residents, began to invade and occupy property on the outskirts of Mexican cities. The neighborhoods that formed as a result of these migrations lacked basic public services such as potable water, sewage systems, electricity, and paved roads. Guided by the spirit of President Luis Echeverría’s plan for “democratic opening” in the early 1970s, residents of the squatter settlements started neighborhood associations to demand basic public services and land rights from local government leaders (Bennett 1992: 247). These associations brought about a shift in the PRI’s traditional clientelistic relationships with popular groups in that people increasingly expressed their communal demands as protests, outside the normal channels of state-society communication through the party’s (and the government’s) interest-group and sectoral institutions. The Mexican government first reacted to these autonomous groups by organizing institutionalized land invasions through the CTM and the CNOP (Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares, National Confederation of Popular Organizations), thereby attempting to link the interests of the neighborhood associations with governmentsponsored activities (Bennett 1992: 246). Some neighborhood association leaders were offered government positions in an effort to co-opt their activities into more easily monitored positions. However, as the 81

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Mexican Miracle came to an end in the late 1970s, the government had fewer funds available for urban social services, precisely at a time when migration to urban centers and the need for these services was increasing dramatically. Therefore, despite government attempts to control neighborhood association activities, the demand for basic public services remained unmet, and residents of squatter settlements continued to organize (Ward 1986). From the outset, women played crucial yet often overlooked roles in neighborhood associations. In his ethnography on the emergence of the neighborhood association called the Congreso Restaurador de Colonos (CRC) in Netzahualcóyotl, a suburb of Mexico City, Carlos VélezIbáñez describes the essential contributions of women, particularly in maintaining family property: Women basically controlled the protection of property during the day against land developers attempting to evict persons from their homes for nonpayment of utilities, and against police authorities attempting to arrest participants in the CRC. The reason is simple. During the day, most men were out looking for work or were working; but, in addition, men had not developed the kind of communication networks that existed among women. (vélez-ibáñez 1983: 119) Pre-established networks of communication and exchange among neighborhood women enabled them to carry out the day-to-day work of the neighborhood association using methods unavailable to (and often unrecognized by) men. But more importantly, as Stephen (1997), Bennett (1995), Massolo (1992), and many others have documented, these groups provided women a forum to fight for basic family needs in light of inadequate family incomes. Paradoxically, it was women’s concern with their traditional responsibilities to home and family that pushed them out the door into the political world. At the same time that women were making inroads into the male-dominated world of political activism, they insisted on reaffirming their identity as wives and mothers (Safa 1990: 355; see also Jelin 1987, 1990). The participation of Mexican women in a range of community, regional, and national popular movements since the 1970s has been remarkable, and there is an abundant body of literature demonstrating that women have comprised a majority of urban popular activists.11

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Women and the CONAMUP

Throughout the 1970s and continuing into the 1980s, neighborhood associations in Mexico grew in scope to form the bases of contemporary urban popular movements.12 The defining shift from the initial community-based organizations to urban popular movements occurred when community groups began to organize on a larger scale (eventually nationwide) and to express an ideology that demanded changes in the political structure. Among the first and more important urban popular movements were the Comité de Defensa Popular (Popular Defense Committee, CDP) in Durango and in Chihuahua, the Frente Popular Tierra y Libertad (Land and Liberty Popular Front, FPTyL) in Monterrey, and the Coalición de Obreros, Campesinos, y Estudiantes del Istmo (Coalition of Workers, Peasants, and Students of the Isthmus, COCEI) in Oaxaca. Many of these movements were affiliated with the political left and were led by student activists (Bennett 1992: 243 –247; see also Ramírez Saiz 1986). In April 1981, at a national meeting held in Durango, members of urban popular movements across Mexico (mainly from the central valley and the north) voted to create an umbrella organization to represent their demands in the national arena. This organization was called the Coordinadora Nacional del Movimiento Urbano Popular (National Coordinator of the Urban Popular Movement, CONAMUP). Although the participating groups were extremely diverse in their perspectives, organizational structures, and goals, the main aims of CONAMUP were to unify growing bases of popular activism and to demand an end to state political repression of populist activities (Ramírez Saiz 1986: 172 –195). Throughout the 1980s, CONAMUP was one of Mexico’s most powerful social organizations. Through their participation in popular movements, and in particular in CONAMUP, women were able to step outside of their traditional roles as mothers/wives/homemakers, often for the first time. In doing so, they became aware of the limitations imposed upon them by family members and society as a whole (Núñez González 1990: 255). Participating in movements frequently meant confronting the animosity of husbands and extended family members, as well as rethinking priorities of family and community. In addition, women also faced unequal treatment within the movements, since it was considered unusual and often inappropriate for women to lead groups or recommend plans of action

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(Núñez González 1990: 261–262). Stephen portrays women’s involvement with CONAMUP thus: While a majority of the participants in marches, meetings, sit-ins, and other activities carried out by the CONAMUP were women, they were not represented in the leadership, barely spoke at public meetings, and had few opportunities to give voice to their particular struggles. Some women who came to CONAMUP meetings and activities faced domestic violence simply for leaving their homes. Their husbands accused them of having affairs when they left their neighborhoods to attend regional meetings in the center of Mexico City. Most had to plan for days in advance, preparing food and making sure that their cleaning and washing was done in order to spend a day at a march or a meeting. (1997: 128) In 1983, after several discussions about the questionable merits of a democratic movement in which the majority of the members (i.e., women) did not participate in decision making, the Women’s Regional Council of CONAMUP was born.13 The transcripts of two interviews conducted by Lynn Stephen with Eugenia Flores Hernández and Irene Soto, both among the founders of the council, say it all: lynn: How was the Women’s Regional Council formed? eugenia: Within the CONAMUP the discussion for having a national meting of women came out of a discourse on democracy. . . . Men and women both realized it was a problem that even though most of the members were women, they were the ones who participated least in decision making. . . . That’s when it was first recognized that women are the backbone of the urban popular movement. lynn: You hear that phrase a lot, women are the backbone of the movement. eugenia: Yes, but it means that people accept that women are the backbone, not the head of the movement. (stephen 1997: 129 –130; my emphasis) irene: The CONAMUP has always been very concerned with the question of democracy. So at that meeting it was actually some of the men who said that it didn’t make sense that even though women were the majority of the participants that they had the least amount of decision-making power. . . . That was when they came up with that 84

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famous phrase that “women are the support system, the backbone of the urban popular movement.” Well, we said that we didn’t want to be the backbone, but the head, the ones in charge of the movement. (stephen 1997: 149 –150; my emphasis) The goals of the Women’s Council were to emphasize the many contributions of women to CONAMUP, to address gender inequalities within the movement, and to delineate and respond to the specific demands of urban women (Núñez González 1990: 259 –260). Although women had many different motivations for joining the council, they shared a common set of strategies. The struggles they identified as their own included improving their living conditions, improving health and reproductive practices, and addressing domestic violence, as well as democratizing the CONAMUP as a whole by achieving a larger presence of women in leadership positions (Stephen 1997: 129). The council is a “striking example” of a combination of strategic and practical interests, according to Bennett (1998: 122). It distributes thousands of free breakfasts to children daily, offers services to the elderly, and runs a school for women, a health clinic, and a number of workshops on domestic violence, reproduction, and other health issues relevant to women (Bennett 1998: 122; Stephen 1997: 148). The changes in the collective character of women as a result of their increased political activism through participation in social movements are remarkable. In a society where women have historically been expected to be passive, quiet, and submissive, women have now learned to be “vociferous and demanding” (Bennett 1992: 256). Some of the improvements in the overall representation of women in public life must be attributed to their roles in social movements, which created a politically conscious group of women and a political environment that is increasingly responsive to women’s issues (Bennett 1992, 1998; Stephen 1997). In fact, women’s effectiveness through social movements has been much more visible than through the formal avenues of governmental power. One example of this phenomenon occurred in Monterrey in the 1980s. Vivienne Bennett (1995) has documented the case of the Agua Para Todos (Water for Everyone) program, in which low-income women succeed in having an impact on federal investment policy for water services. From the late 1970s to 1990, Monterrey experienced a continued water crisis, despite the fact that it is Mexico’s second most important industrial center and the home base of the Grupo Monterrey, one of the 85

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country’s most powerful economic groups. With a population of two million, the city met only 50 percent of its water demand. Over 300,000 people were not even connected to the city’s water distribution system. For twenty years, the federal government refused to authorize waterworks projects for the city because of the ongoing hostility between the federal government and the city’s industrial elite. Finally, in 1980, after lengthy negotiations, President López Portillo authorized the multimillion-dollar Plan Hidráulico for Monterrey. However, the project was not scheduled to be completed until 1985, and in the meantime the city’s water system practically collapsed. The entire city was under strict water rationing, and some neighborhoods had water only for a few hours a day, if at all. Then the women mobilized. Housewives from poor neighborhoods began carrying out protests all over the city, using street blockades, kidnappings of water authority personnel and their vehicles, and rallies and sit-ins at the governor’s palace. They also bathed their children and washed their laundry in the fountains of the beautiful Macroplaza, in the heart of downtown Monterrey. Photographs of the women protesting were flashed nationally and internationally, badly embarrassing the city and the national government at a time when both the government and the Grupo Monterrey were attempting to attract international investment. As the water crisis became more severe, the women became more demanding. Then, in 1984, they finally succeeded: President de la Madrid approved a program to extend the water system to every house in every neighborhood that was not yet connected—Agua Para Todos. When it was completed in 1986, the program serviced the 300,000 people who had previously been unconnected. As Bennett explains, the success of women in the Agua Para Todos project serves to illustrate how a group of organized women can impact policy decisions. It also illustrates how these low-income women were able to alter the city’s power relations by inserting their voice and their demands into a decision-making process that previously had considered only two powerful voices: the government and the industrial elite. Women Reframing the Social, Economic, and Political Context

The mobilization of women and their increasing ability to impact policy decisions during the last twenty-five years have turned women into a for-

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midable political force. Measured in terms of political efficacy, Mexican women appear to have gone considerably further in the informal than in the formal sphere of politics, becoming more influential through mass movements than through traditional political channels or through occupying top political posts. Problems threatening the home, the land, and the family—problems to which women seem to be more directly connected—have brought women into the forefront. This has not led to equal representation in government, but it could arguably bring about this end as women increase their involvement in state-society interactions and become more aware of their political efficacy. For the time being, it is impossible to deny that the women who have been active in social movements have irreversibly changed the definition of the female role in Mexican society, leading the way for generations and leaders to come. Scholars consider the proliferation of social movements one of the most significant developments in Mexico from 1970 to 1990 (Foweraker 1990: 3; see also Craske 1993; Massolo 1994b; Bennett 1995; Stephen 1997). Women have provided the greatest numbers and consistency to these movements, and their unique demands as women have been critical in shaping the new structures and strategies of political participation. In addition to affecting public policy, women’s participation has raised their level of self-esteem. In some cases, the demands of women in social movements included clearly feminist issues, leading to the emergence of “popular feminism” in the 1980s. But while the period from the 1970s to the 1990s marked a watershed in terms of women’s popular involvement in social organizations, ranging from cooking cooperatives to feminist reading groups, it is important to remember that the contemporary lineage of women’s political activities dates back at least to the Mexican Revolution, as I describe in the following chapter.

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The Women’s Movement in Mexico FROM SUFFRAGE TO THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF GENDER

for their rights and have participated in public life for over a century. During the Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1917), large numbers of peasant women accompanied the rebellious armies to provide food for their husbands, brothers, and fathers, and some entered the struggle as soldiers and generals. As soldaderas and adelitas, women occupied an important (and often romanticized) place in the history of the Revolution.1 After the armed struggle ended, however, even though progressive laws were passed regarding workers and land reform, the Constitutional Convention of 1917 enacted overtly sexist laws relating to the status of women. The official argument sustained that “la mujer no estaba preparada para actuar en la política y por lo tanto existía la necesidad de capacitarla mediante su incorporación paulatina a esa actividad” (women were not prepared to participate in the political sphere, and therefore it was necessary to train them through a gradual incorporation into this activity [Silva 1989: 272]). In the view MEXIC AN WOMEN HAVE FOUGHT

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of the constituyentes (i.e., those attending the Constitutional Convention), the argument for denying women the right to vote was indisputable: “El hecho de que algunas mujeres excepcionales tengan las condiciones necesarias para ejercer satisfactoriamente los derechos políticos, no funda la conclusión de que éstos deben concederse a las mujeres como clase” (The fact that some exceptional women have the necessary attributes to exercise their political rights satisfactorily does not support the conclusion that these rights should be conceded to women as a group [Aguilar León 1995: 13]). The sexist overtones of the Constitution of 1917 and the exclusion of women from political activity provided the starting point for the women’s movement in Mexico.2 In the first half of this chapter I review the decades-long struggle for equal rights, which women waged using a variety of strategies: publishing their own newspapers and magazines to promote their goals; organizing women’s groups that focused on issues such as equal education and suffrage; becoming involved in international women’s organizations; and participating in opposition parties that were sympathetic to women’s causes. This historical overview of the actors, events, and accomplishments of the women’s movement in Mexico allows us to better understand the career struggles of women in contemporary Mexican public life. The second half of this chapter aims to go beyond political history and to analyze how political organizations— namely the three main political parties—have adapted their discourses to incorporate gender into their party documents and official rhetoric. The main issue I wish to explore is whether platforms that are rhetorically sympathetic to women’s causes translate into proactive policies that actually improve the status of women within these organizations. The chapter ends with a discussion of the DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, Integrated Family Development) and the Programa Nacional de la Mujer (National Program for Women), two agencies established at different times by presidential decree with the goal of officially incorporating gender into the government’s programs. The analysis of these agencies allows us to take a deeper look into the government’s stance on women’s issues and women in political life and to assess how its rhetoric on gender actually translates into a specific set of initiatives designed to help women. WOMEN’S ORGANIZ ATIONS: A FR AME WORK FOR ANALYSIS

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ment in the political process. Before providing a historical overview of how these organizations have come about and what they have accomplished, I introduce a framework for thinking about women’s organizations in a more systematic way. Gita Sen and Caren Grown, based on their work with the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) project, have written on the importance of organizations for women in their struggle for survival and power. Sen and Grown (1987) see participation in organizations as an experience that empowers women, enabling them to withstand the social and family pressures that accompany their role in developing countries. In order for these organizations to be empowering, however, they must have adequate resources, provide skills and leadership training, allow for democratic decision making and open dialogue, encourage participation of a diverse group of women, and offer techniques for conflict resolution. This seems a huge set of requirements for effective women’s organizations, but they may be necessary for the organizations’ long-term viability. Sen and Grown (1987) identify five types of relevant organizations in which women are involved. The first is the traditional service-oriented organization, which tends to be a “welfare” giver, providing food, basic education, child care, and household items to disadvantaged women. Such organizations often have significant resources, systematic methods for transferring skills, and access to formal policy-making structures. However, they may suffer from a class bias that privileges the needs and ideas of middle- and upper-class women. That is, their decision-making process tends to be top-down and nonparticipatory, and they lack a clear understanding of the complexities of gender subordination and its links to societal and economic structures. The second type of organization is the political party. Several studies have shown that political parties pose barriers to women’s participation in government and access to power, but their importance for women cannot be denied. The evidence presented in this volume demonstrates that while it may be difficult to address gender issues directly within a political party, women’s membership in political parties is crucial during a time of transition and political change. The third type of organization identified by Sen and Grown is the worker-based or labor organization. Like others (e.g., Foweraker 1998), Sen and Grown find that most leadership positions in these organizations are held by men, even when the union base is mostly women, a point developed earlier. While some of these organizations explicitly address the unique complexities of women’s public roles, many fail to 91

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see the importance of gender in their work. However, as we saw in chapter 2, a growing number of organizations are turning their attention to women’s needs and increasing their female membership bases. Unions may be hampered by their generally limited resources, but they will continue to evolve in their work with and for women. The fourth type of organization is the grassroots organization, which is most often affiliated with a specific project or issue. These groups tend to direct their actions toward poor women, offering technical assistance and training, advocacy, and legal and political action. The groups cover a broad spectrum of issues, and many grassroots organizations are feminist in orientation. Sen and Grown identify as the weaknesses of these groups a lack of resources and a bias toward middle-class and urban women in their membership and leadership, despite their action focus on poor women. That is, middle-class women are in positions to decide what actions the group will take on behalf of poor women, without having the latter’s direct input into the structure and policies of the organization. We will see ample illustrations of this type of organization later in this chapter. A final type of group is the research organization. These range from participatory action and policy research organizations, to academic women’s studies departments, to broad-based research networks. Many of these groups aim to break down barriers between the researcher and the researched, striving for a process of “mutual education.” They also hope their findings can serve to empower the subjects of the research. However, they often fall short of these goals and “exacerbate tensions between researchers and activists by using results in individualistic ways without benefiting those researched” (Sen and Grown 1987: 92). This may be more a problem of specific self-serving researchers, rather than an organizational flaw, but it should be addressed on a broader level. The framework developed by Sen and Grown is useful for examining women in Mexican organizations. Women have clearly gained strength through their participation in these organizations, increasing their networks, skills, and political voices. Several of the women in this study are involved with organizations that fit into more than one of the above categories, or are involved with several organizations simultaneously. But regardless of the types of organizations in which women are active, what is important is the ways in which women have put their organizational strengths to use in their quest to effect political and societal change. We now turn to see, in historical perspective, how that change has occurred.

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THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SUFFR AGE

The years between 1916 and 1934 marked the rise of the women’s movement in Mexico, concerned almost exclusively with gaining the right to vote. At the time, women were not even considered citizens. The 1857 Constitution referred to women thus: Ser ciudadano es una prerrogativa política que la Constitución otorga a quienes tengan los requisitos que esa Ley Suprema designe, en razón de la aptitud, virtudes cívicas e integridad personal que son necesarias para ejercer libremente las funciones públicas; de aquí que no puedan votar ni ser votados, en ningún caso, los menores de edad, los tahúres, los sentenciados a una pena que traiga consigo la privación de esos derechos, y las mujeres. (aguilar león 1995: 19) [To be a citizen is a political privilege granted by the Constitution to those who meet the requirements designated by that Supreme Law, based on the aptitude, civic virtues, and personal integrity that are necessary to freely exercise public functions. Therefore, under no circumstances could minors, gamblers, individuals sentenced to a punishment that will end those privileges, or women vote or be voted into office.] The situation of women did not improve after the Revolution. As one distinguished gentleman expressed it at the Constitutional Convention that led to the promulgation of the Constitution of 1917: Así, mientras las mujeres y los menores de edad, por ejemplo, gozan plenamente de los derechos del hombre, no poseen los del ciudadano. Estos últimos los confiere la Constitución . . . a los individuos que juzga más aptos para la vida pública, excluyendo a algunos como a los menores y a las mujeres, por no creerlos capaces para esas funciones, y a otros, como los extranjeros, por suponer inconveniente o peligrosa su intervención en ellas. (aguilar león 1995: 20) [Thus, while women and minors, for example, fully enjoy the rights of men, they do not possess those of a citizen. The latter are conferred by the Constitution . . . to those individuals it considers most competent for public life, excluding some such as minors and women,

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because they are not considered capable of those functions, and others, such as foreigners, because their participation might be inappropriate or dangerous.] The movement reached its peak during the administration of President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934 –1940), when women almost succeeded in passing new amendments to the Constitution that would allow them to participate politically. From 1940 to 1952, women found a way to work with the system and to press their demands for change from within. They were given the right to vote in municipal elections in 1947, and finally, in October 1953, women were granted the right to vote in national elections and to participate in public life. However, President Ruiz Cortines’s pro-woman stance was, like much else in the Mexican polity, a gift from above. The intent clearly was to co-opt women into the governmental and party structures. As Silva remarks: “desde los años treinta había sufrido un proceso de desactivación que transformó el movimiento de independiente a institucional y la lucha colectiva en una lucha individual” (since the 1930s, [the movement] suffered a process of deactivation, moving from independent to institutional and from a collective struggle to an individual one [1989: 276]). After a promising start, women’s activism in Mexico had dissipated by the mid-1950s. 1910–1920: The Revolution—Early Signs of Women’s Political Activism

Women’s participation in the revolutionary struggle has been documented in rich historical detail.3 As Ramos Escandón points out, “their combat-related activities represented a profound change in their usual confined roles. In the heart of the armed struggle, women served as couriers, arms runners, spies, nurses, and in other roles that would have been unthinkable in peacetime” (1994: 200). But after the Revolution ended, women were virtually forbidden to continue their activities in public life. Thus, on the heels of the Mexican Revolution, women’s organizations began to form as a reaction to the lack of recognition they received for their efforts during the war. Both the Revolution and the importance that the new Mexican state placed on revolutionary rhetoric helped set in motion the first cohesive women’s organizations in the country that advocated suffrage as the main issue. During the revolutionary period, women’s participation in political

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activities began to take shape. Many women worked in opposition to Porfirio Díaz’s bid for re-election. Francisco I. Madero, Díaz’s chief rival, was an attractive political candidate for women. He personally favored women’s suffrage and made it part of his platform. Women supported Madero’s campaign by organizing women’s political clubs, such as the Hijas de Cuauhtémoc and Amigas del Pueblo (Cano 1991: 271). These clubs had a profound effect on the women’s suffrage organizations that would form six years later. At the turn of the century, the women’s movement had been most active in the south of the country. The first feminist organizations to focus exclusively on equal suffrage emerged in Mérida. Although Mexico City has always been the cultural, political, and economic hub of the country, it is not coincidental that the first feminist activity began in Mérida. As a booming port on the Yucatán peninsula, the city had direct contact with Europe and the United States. More importantly, Mérida had a strong tradition of political activism. One of the Yucatán governors of the 1920s, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, was a staunch supporter of women’s suffrage. Indeed, his sister Elvia was one of the first women to run for elected office when women gained the right to vote in and to run for office in local elections.4 In 1923, Elvia Carrillo Puerto, along with teachers Raquel Dzib and Beatriz Peniche, were elected to the state congress, and Rosa Torre was elected as regidora in Mérida’s ayuntamiento (i.e., as member of the city council). These were the very first women in Mexico to hold elected political offices (Cano 1991: 281; Tuñón Pablos 1999: 97). This relative openness toward women was rooted in a strong socialist tradition in the state. In 1916, with the help and support of socialist governor Salvador Alvarado,5 Mérida women leaders organized the first Mexican feminist congresses in that city (Miller 1991: 76; Tuñón Pablos 1999: 94). The congresses, held in January and November of 1916, had two main goals: to act as a forum where women of diverse backgrounds could meet to discuss the various issues that affected women’s position in society; and more importantly, to prepare a specific agenda to present at the Constitutional Convention in early 1917. The women’s congresses were both progressive and lively: Alvarado’s agenda outlined themes for discussion, which included encouraging women to greater participation in public life, the importance of primary education for girls, and ways to ‘free women from their traditional yokes.’ The opening paper, written by Hermila Ga-

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lindo, very nearly ended the conference. Her advocacy of sex education and her belief that women were the sexual as well as the intellectual equals of men shocked the assembled teachers. One delegate demanded that the paper be burned on the spot. (miller 1991: 76) Nearly seven hundred women (mostly teachers) attended the first conference in January of 1916, and they considered issues “ranging from the function of schools, the importance of secular education, and the need for sex education, to the political participation of women” (Ramos Escandón 1994: 200). The women were able to come to a general consensus on the majority of issues discussed, with the exception of the “suffrage question.” Although suffrage had become the overriding goal for feminists, it was still a controversial issue. There were splits among the conservative, moderate, and liberal factions at the conference about what type of suffrage to advocate at the Constitutional Convention (Ramos Escandón 1994: 200; Miller 1991: 77). Conservative women asserted that suffrage should not be granted until women were sufficiently “educated” to handle the responsibility; moderate women advocated partial suffrage; and radical women, full suffrage. When participants reconvened at the second conference in November, the delegates were finally able to compromise on the issue. The conference platform, which was presented to the Constitutional Convention the following spring, advocated suffrage for women at the municipal level (Miller 1991: 77). The women’s efforts to persuade the convention failed, however. Instead of granting equal suffrage to women, the Convention opted to make it clear that women were excluded from participating in public life. Although the women of the Mérida conferences were soundly defeated in their attempts to gain the vote, the efforts of one particular woman—Hermila Galindo— eventually helped the movement find important allies in the highest levels of government. During the early part of the twentieth century, Hermila Galindo became the central figure of the consolidated women’s movement in Mexico. Well-educated and publisher of the magazine La Mujer Moderna, Galindo was very well connected politically. She was a confidant of Venustiano Carranza and at one point had been his private secretary. She had also served as diplomatic liaison in Cuba and Colombia (Cano 1991: 272). Her influence on Carranza helped persuade him to pass a series of laws granting women more rights, including a law authorizing divorce and remarriage (1914) and the Law of Family Relations (1917), which gave women the right

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to receive alimony, own property, and have equal custody of children (Ramos Escandón 1994: 200; Miller 1991: 78; Tuñón Pablos 1999: 96). In the early 1920s, the movement underwent several changes. The assassination of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the progressive governor of Yucatán, forced women activists to move beyond that region. His sister Elvia moved to San Luis Potosí, the other state where women’s political rights were recognized. There she ran for federal deputy, insisting that her alternate (suplente) also be a woman. Although she won by a wide margin, the federal Congress did not recognize her victory. Indeed, her campaign was so controversial that she even survived an assassination attempt (Soto 1990: 62; Cano 1991: 282 –283). Other women moved to Mexico City, a shift that had an important and lasting impact on the movement: first, the move from south to center of the country helped diversify the movement; and second, the relocation to the country’s center of political activity helped the movement attract the attention of the mainstream political elite. 1923–1934: The Congreso Feminista Panamericano and The Congreso Nacional de Mujeres Obreras y Campesinas

The second phase of activity in the women’s movement was heralded by the Congreso Feminista Panamericano (Panamerican Feminist Congress) in 1923. The attendees were mostly upper-class women active in international suffrage movements. The Congreso worked on a variety of issues, but its two main goals were “la elevación de la mujer” (the elevation of women) and full political equality for both men and women (Cano 1991: 282; Ramos Escandón 1994: 202). More than one hundred women attended the conference in Mexico City, and together they produced a resolution calling for a variety of political reforms, which they presented to the Mexican Congress in 1923. Because of their class position, many of the women in the Congreso Panamericano were well known to the male politicians. Thus, although the resolutions they advocated failed in Congress, they succeeded in making the political establishment aware of what they referred to as the “woman question.” The most influential efforts on behalf of suffrage during this period came from the Congreso Nacional de Mujeres Obreras y Campesinas (National Congress of Worker and Peasant Women). Its members— unlike those of the Congreso Feminista Panamericano—were workingclass women, but they were also pressing for women’s equality. Compris-

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ing mainly women active within the socialist and communist parties, this Congreso held a series of conferences between 1931 and 1935. At first, the group debated the role that the “woman question” played within the party platforms. The women hoped to persuade the parties to take a more active role both in including women in positions of party leadership and in addressing issues related specifically to women. At their last conference in 1935, however, they realized the need for an organization devoted solely to women’s suffrage and not affiliated with a political party. Members of both the Congreso Nacional de Mujeres Obreras y Campesinas and the Congreso Feminista Panamericano consolidated their efforts and eventually formed the very successful, broad-based, prosuffrage Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer. 1935–1953: The Suffrage Movement

Organized in 1935, the Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer (Sole Front for Women’s Rights, FUPDM) “succeeded where earlier efforts to create a unified feminist organization had failed. This first effective mass feminist organization in Mexico united feminists from the Left and Right, liberals, communists, Catholics, and the various factions from the women’s sector of the PNR” (Ramos Escandón 1994: 203). In addition to lobbying for equal suffrage, the FUPDM pressed for a variety of reforms, such as the establishment of employment centers and a children’s bureau; reform of labor laws and the civil code; and equal rights for the indigenous and the poor. Although the FUPDM included women from different sectors of Mexican society, the leadership of the organization was in the hands of urban, working-class women involved in the Congreso Nacional de Mujeres Obreras y Campesinas. The Frente was headed by Refugio (Cuca) García, an avowed communist and a rural teacher from Michoacán. García was a longtime friend of Lázaro Cárdenas. By 1935, the PNR (Partido Nacional Revolucionario, National Revolutionary Party, forerunner of the PRI) had begun to allow women to participate more actively in the internal affairs of the party. The party allowed women to vote for party candidates and had asked Margarita Robles de Mendoza, a feminist activist, to organize a comité femenil (women’s committee) in the party (Cano 1991: 284). Although many members of the Frente were independent of the PNR, its alliance with the party was due mainly to the PNR’s presidential candidate, Lázaro Cárdenas. Cárdenas actively supported women’s right to vote and had

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asserted that one of his main goals, if elected, would be to push for an amendment to the citizenship clause that would extend it to include women. The alliance between the PNR and the FUPDM, however, began to disintegrate soon after Cárdenas became president and introduced the amendment to Congress. The main cause of the split was internal party conflicts within the PNR. In early 1937, Cuca García sought to be nominated as the party’s candidate for diputada (federal deputy, or congresswoman), and although she won the party’s nomination by a large margin, PNR leaders refused to allow her to run as the official candidate (Cano 1991: 285 –286). The Frente’s split from the PNR helped the organization begin a new phase of feminist activity, and by 1937 the Frente had become a standalone, quasi-political organization that ran its own independent candidates for elected positions, openly defying electoral laws. The Frente had two main goals: to gain women’s support countrywide, and to call attention to the need to ratify the suffrage amendment. The Frente’s confrontational tactics began to pay off by late 1939: the amendment to allow women equal suffrage was finally approved and ratified by all (then) twenty-eight states. However, the FUPDM’s efforts were thwarted when the amendment went back to the national Congress, for the Congress decided not to formally declare the amendment law, effectively making it null and void. The Congress took this step out of fear that women, if allowed to vote, would support the conservative opposition candidate in the 1940 presidential election.6 Once Manuel Avila Camacho became president in 1940, an intensely conservative period began, and the quest for suffrage lost political momentum. As Ramos Escandón describes, “the bitter defeat of the suffrage issue turned the attention of women’s organizations to other goals such as child care centers, cooperatives for indigenous women, and legislation to protect domestic servants” (1994: 204). But even though suffrage became virtually a non-issue, the Frente experienced a surge in popularity because it attracted attention to issues that were of most concern to women. Ironically, Congress’s abrupt decision to overturn the amendment and Avila Camacho’s refusal to support women’s issues had the unanticipated effect of helping the organization attract new members. By 1942, the FUPDM was at its peak: it had over fifty thousand members, with more than eight hundred affiliated groups across the country (Cano 1991: 284; Miller 1991: 113; Ramos Escandón 1994: 203; Silva 1989: 273). The Frente continued to mobilize

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mass support by running women candidates for a variety of elected positions throughout the country. Once Avila Camacho’s sexenio was over, the FUPDM was again able to make some gains. In 1947, during the presidency of Miguel Alemán, Article 115 of the Constitution was revised to grant women the right to vote in municipal and local elections, but not in state or federal elections (Cano 1991: 290). Also, President Alemán appointed women to highly visible positions, and in his reorganization of the PNR into the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), he included a woman, Margarita García Flores, on the national executive committee. Thus, the Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer was successful both in mobilizing women around the country and in making the political elite recognize that women’s suffrage was important. While the FUPDM was instrumental in helping pass legislation that allowed for at least some suffrage, it took the influence of another, better connected segment of the feminist movement—particularly the efforts of one feminist, Amalia Caballero de Castillo Ledón—to finally succeed in gaining full suffrage for women in 1953. Although Castillo Ledón was not originally involved in the Frente, she was part of a group of elite Mexican women who worked diligently for women’s rights in the international arena. From the mid-1930s through the end of World War II, Castillo Ledón was active in several international women’s organizations that lobbied both the League of Nations and the United Nations to ensure that women were seen as citizens on par with men. Her efforts in the international women’s peace movement, particularly as chairwoman of the Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres (Inter-American Women’s Commission, under the auspices of the OAS, Organization of American States), helped her form and become one of the first officers of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. In 1950, Castillo Ledón returned to Mexico to help organize the Alianza de Mujeres Mexicanas (Mexican Women’s Alliance). The Alianza was an offshoot of the FUPDM, but it was more successful in swaying the political establishment because of Castillo Ledón’s connections. Although the Alianza campaigned heavily on behalf of Adolfo Ruiz Cortines’s bid for the presidency, it was Castillo Ledón’s close association with him that finally helped women get the vote after his election. Under her persuasion, Ruiz Cortines agreed to formally declare equal suffrage if five hundred thousand women signed a petition on behalf of the measure. Castillo Ledón collected the five hundred thousand signa-

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tures in no time (Cano 1991: 290). The Constitution and the electoral law were changed in 1953 by congressional approval, finally giving women the right to full political participation. The decree that granted women the right to vote was published in the Diario Oficial in October 1953 (Tuñón Pablos 1999: 105; Cano 1991: 292). Once it had achieved full suffrage, the Alianza turned its efforts to helping elect women into political office. The first woman to be elected to the national Congress was Aurora Jiménez Palacios, from Baja California, in 1954; in 1955 four more women were elected to Congress (Ramos Escandón 1994: 205). In the mid-1950s the women’s movement in Mexico waned and became virtually nonexistent. Scholars attribute the end of activism during this period to several interconnected factors. One view argues that women simply felt no further need to push for women’s issues because they had finally won the vote. They believed that once political equality was established for women, their equality in other areas of society would soon follow. Others argue that the movement had become fragmented because it was overly elitist and urban based. In yet another view, the decline in activism was related to the beginning of the country’s enormous economic growth (including the implementation of import-substitution policy and the massive nationalization of private industry). Helped by this growth, the PNR (now reincarnated as the PRI), was able to consolidate and further centralize its power in the political realm. By the time suffrage passed in 1953, the PRI had already achieved total dominance over the political system, and everything, including women’s organizations, was coopted by it. Most women who were active in the party were confined to the sección femenil (women’s sector), and others went into the bureaucracy, but both groups were ineffective in making any substantial improvements for women in the public sphere. Finally, there is the view that women themselves were to blame, for seeking their personal interests over those of the movement. As longtime militant Adelina Zendejas put it, “They gave us the vote, and then everything went downhill, because women would not fight for women’s causes but for their own personal interests, to become a director or a deputy—and they forgot everything” (quoted in Ramos Escandón 1994: 205). Several women’s organizations were established in the 1950s and 1960s, but they did not parallel the strength and activism of the organizations of the 1930s. Although women’s activism eventually reemerged in the country in the late 1960s, the movement only regained its

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strength when the PRI’s political dominance was questioned and the country’s economic stability threatened. THE EMERGENCE OF FEMINISM

Worldwide, the feminist movement has dramatically altered the political, economic, and social scene, as collective women’s organizations have helped women gain access to areas of society from which they were once excluded. In both the United States and Mexico, for example, women now comprise over one-third of the work force and almost half the students in higher education, and they form one of the most important voting blocks for candidates across the political spectrum. Feminist activity in Mexico has existed in some form or another for as long as it has in Europe or North America,7 although Mexican feminism is quite distinct from these other movements. Early Mexican feminists may have looked to European and North American feminists for inspiration, but the movement they created has been shaped by quite different sociopolitical and cultural forces. Indeed, one of the distinctive characteristics of the feminist movement in Mexico is its nationalist tone—its Mexicanness (Miller 1991: 117). Feminism in Mexico, as elsewhere, is not expressed in a single voice.8 Rather, Mexican feminism is a coalition of various types of feminisms. It has been difficult (at best) for Mexican feminists to organize a massbased autonomous movement, yet all feminist groups share the same two goals: to educate the public about the discrimination that women face, and to improve the life of women within the country. As the movement has matured, it has not only expanded its membership beyond traditional feminist circles (middle class and educated) but also expanded its demands beyond the traditional “feminist” rhetoric. The 1970s: The Early Stages of Feminism

In the early part of the 1970s, small groups devoted to discussing gender issues (grupos de reflexión) organized in Mexico City. In the latter half of the decade, a much more public, politically active movement arose from these beginnings (Lamas 1994). This growth was encouraged by the more liberal political climate that Mexico experienced in the wake of the student revolt of the late 1960s. After the countrywide protests, and as part of the political opening (apertura) during the Echeverría

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sexenio (1970 –1976), the Mexican government tried to establish more dialogue with, and have more tolerance of, opposition groups, making it easier for feminists to organize. While students were seizing geographical spaces, feminists and women’s groups were beginning to fill various intellectual, social, and political lacunae. The political liberalization of the Echeverría regime allowed the registration of new opposition parties, granted new leverage to labor unions, and accepted, if it did not encourage, the emergence of new social movements. Within intellectual circles, women’s groups focused on the oppression of women in Mexican society as a whole. They sought to expose and alleviate the inequalities between men and women, calling on women to question their social roles and the class structure. They wanted to make women of all social levels aware of their double exploitation as women and as workers and to realize the link between their daily life and their oppression in the private sphere. However, the practical concerns of working-class and peasant women were much more mundane, and thus feminists were forced to confront the problems arising from deep race and class differences among women. Nonetheless, professional and university women gradually built alliances among the working-class and poor women, as well as with other social movements, to press for change in every sector of Mexican society. Feminists whose activism had arisen from their participation in leftist student groups tried to incorporate their demands into an overarching leftist political agenda.9 In 1972, feminists in Mexico City organized Mujeres en Acción Solidaria (Women for Solidarity Action) to reach out to and educate women workers about the discrimination they faced, both as proletarians and as women. In an effort to build a cross-class alliance, the organization became involved with striking textile workers. Their efforts, however, failed. Although it may seem relatively easy to understand how class differences between the two groups would hamper coalitional activity, one of the major issues that kept them from working together was very specific to Mexican culture: the issue of domestic work. Feminists in Mexico, like their North American and European counterparts, were mainly middle-class women, but Mexican feminists found it difficult to relate to one of the cornerstone issues of western feminism: the “housewife’s dilemma,” that is, the oppression that women faced within the domestic sphere. In conventional western feminism, almost all women (with the exception of the very wealthy), shared the com-

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mon bond of being confined to the traditional roles of wife, mother, and housekeeper. One reason women were not allowed to participate fully in public life was the public/private split, separating the domestic and public spheres. Women were expected to stay home, raise children, and do housework. In Mexico, the “housewife’s dilemma” was far less of an issue because middle-class women had access to inexpensive domestic help. Thus, although these middle-class feminists realized that oppression in the home was a reality for most Mexican women, the textile workers they befriended were wary of working with them. The workers felt (with justification) that the middle-class feminists could not truly empathize with the doble jornada, since they did not have to work both inside and outside of the home. After this initial attempt at establishing cross-class coalitions, efforts to organize a political movement stalled. From 1972 onwards, the bulk of feminist activity was confined to small consciousness-raising groups comprised of the same middle-class, educated women from Mexico City. Although not necessarily political in nature, these groups were important precursors to future feminist activity because they helped feminists regroup and reflect on how to articulate and organize a movement tailor-made for Mexico and to formulate a political agenda. By 1974, feminists focused on three main themes: voluntary maternity (reproductive rights, including abortion); violence against women; and freedom of sexual choice (Lamas 1994: 143; Lamas et al. 1995a: 332). That year, they were able to test the political waters when the government began preparations to host a UN conference in celebration of the International Year of the Woman, scheduled for June 1975 in Mexico City. 1975–1980: The Emergence of Feminist Politics

In 1974, the Mexican feminist movement reached a turning point. Feminists decided to boycott the UN conference to call attention to the problems women faced in Mexico and the Mexican government’s lack of responsiveness. Among the several activities organized to protest the conference was the counter-congress, an event that received a good deal of media attention, thereby giving the movement a public face. The counter-congress also provided the opportunity for feminists to organize the political wing of the movement—the Coalición de Mujeres Feministas (Coalition of Feminist Women). At an international level, the Mexico City conference created a

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women’s movement that was much broader than the feminist movement; moreover, it was a generalized wake-up call for women the world over to think carefully about what exactly “women’s issues” meant. For the first time, class was raised as an issue to be recognized and openly discussed. As Miller describes, the differences among women emerged dramatically: The lines of contention were drawn between first world women and third world women. The most visible protagonists in the debate were Betty Friedan, whose book The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, was the touchstone of the new women’s movement in the United States, and Domitila Barrios de Chungara, who came to Mexico City representing the Housewives Committee of Siglo XX, an organization of Bolivian tin miners’ wives. . . . [A]fter the publication of Let Me Speak! Testimony of Domitila, A Woman of the Bolivian Tin Mines, Domitila Barrios de Chungara became the symbol that the vital issues for women to be addressed by the UN Decade for Women could not be defined solely by upper- and middle-class women. . . . Gradually, a shift took place. . . . Latin American women redefined feminism, opening up the understanding of what feminism could mean. (miller 1991: 199, 201) After the UN conference, Mexican feminists pursued a clearly feminist agenda, though they were cognizant of the class issues raised by the conference. In 1976, the Coalición wrote to and lobbied Congress for the first law in support of “voluntary maternity,” that is, a woman’s right to choose to have children (Lamas 1994: 148). Although the issue was not even brought up for discussion on the floor, the proposed law helped generate much debate among members of both houses of Congress and helped the women’s movement empower its membership to press for other feminist demands. During the two years after the UN conference, feminist activity flourished: the first feminist publications appeared (Cihuat, 1975; fem, 1976; and La Revuelta, 1976); the first women’s studies course was taught (by the Guatemalan political activist and feminist Alaíde Foppa, 1976); and the first rape crisis center was established (1977) (Lamas 1994: 148). By the late 1970s, feminist groups began to appear outside Mexico City, in Oaxaca, Veracruz, Morelos, Michoacán, Baja California, and Colima (Lamas et al. 1995). Although the Coalición was unsuccessful in its attempt to persuade

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Congress to pass the voluntary maternity measure, the experience helped feminists realize the need to work in tandem with other groups. In 1979, feminists formed the Frente Nacional por la Libertad y los Derechos de las Mujeres (National Front for Women’s Rights and Liberty, FNALIDM) as an umbrella organization that included members of the feminist movement, union activists, gay rights organizers, and members of the communist party (PCM) and the workers’ party (PRT) (Lamas 1994: 148; Lamas et al. 1995: 332). The main goal of the FNALIDM was to lobby for an array of political and social reforms. Feminists found this coalition useful because they could rely on the communist party members to lobby Congress directly for reforms related to women. For example, in 1979, the original voluntary maternity law, now sponsored by the PCM, was introduced once again to the house for discussion. But the measure failed even more controversially this time, as the political climate had become quite conservative during López Portillo’s sexenio (1976 –1982). In the end, the FNALIDM was not able to recover from the blow it suffered with the voluntary maternity law, and the organization was dissolved in 1982. However, the collapse of the Coalición and the FNALIDM, coupled with the impending economic crisis, helped pave the way for a more broadbased and successful form of feminist activity. 1982–1984: Feminism and The Economic Crisis

As we observed in chapter 2, the 1980s saw a marked increase in the number and effectiveness of popular movements throughout Mexico. The economic crisis of the 1980s provoked cuts in government spending on social services, reductions in investments, and high levels of inflation. On top of a 50 percent decrease in real wages, Mexicans were hurt by the fact that the country had no comprehensive social services program to assist people during times of hardship. The failure to channel sufficient quantities of oil-generated resources and funds to welfare programs and wage supports, despite a 25 percent growth in real per capita income during the boom (1978 –1981), meant that individuals were still struggling to make ends meet (Wyman 1983; Rodríguez 1997). When the crisis hit, the diminished resources of the Mexican economy and its inability to sustain economic growth ushered in a score of social organizations intent on meeting the economic and political needs and demands of the marginalized sectors of society. However, while political activism strengthened among popular groups, including some women’s groups, the same was not true for feminist groups. 106

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Feminist activity declined in the early part of the 1980s. The disintegration of the Coalición and the FNALIDM forced feminists to retrench and reassess the strategies they had been using to influence the political process. Further, the de la Madrid administration (1982 –1988) marked the beginning of a period of intense austerity in the country. While the devaluation of the peso did not affect middle-class feminists as much as it affected the poor, the government was forced to curtail all social spending, and any government-sponsored efforts related to women were essentially discontinued. It was the “lost decade” for the feminist movement as well as for the Mexican economy. Most feminists opted to pursue different forms of activity. Some returned to academic life and focused on developing the theoretical branch of the movement, relying on the concept of “mutual education” to break down the barriers between researcher and researched (barriers that often reflected class differences) and seeking to empower women on both sides. During this period several women’s studies/gender studies academic programs were established across the country, most notably the PIEM (Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios de la Mujer, Interdisciplinary Program for Women’s Studies) at the Colegio de México and the PUEG (Programa Universitario de Estudios de Género, University Program for Gender Studies) at UNAM. Feminists who wanted to continue working within the organized movement found it difficult to develop a new comprehensive political agenda with issues that had cross-class appeal. Between 1981 and 1984 there were five encuentros feministas (feminist meetings),10 but most admit that these conferences were largely ineffective because of poor attendance and in-fighting between the theoretical and proactive wings of the movement. After 1984, the Mexican feminist movement was, for all intents and purposes, no longer a movement. The disillusionment brought about by the inability to effect real change and the lack of cohesiveness in the movement led women activists to more focused activities. “They looked toward new political projects and their own survival; some formed support groups, while others created nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in order to work with poor women” (Lamas et al. 1995: 334). Between 1982 and 1985, several NGOs were established in Mexico City, including GEM (Grupo de Educación Popular con Mujeres, Group for Women’s Popular Education) and GIRE (Grupo de Información sobre Reproducción Elegida, Group for Information on Reproductive Choice), two of the most notable organizations devoted specifically to feminist activity. 107

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While the feminist movement waned, the economic crisis spurred the organization of popular sectors of society, and the most vocal and organized participants in this awakening were women. Although the popular movement’s main concerns focused on improving the economic situation of the poor as a whole, “In response to these changing conditions, women’s groups began to develop their own discourse, which combined feminism and the perspective of the poor” (Lamas et al. 1995: 336). Several related events helped solidify the emergence of the “popular” feminist movement. Through NGOs, women could build crossclass alliances. Because NGOs were not overtly feminist, women of the popular movements felt less pressured by “militant” feminists and more comfortable receiving advice and counsel. 1986–1989: NGOS and The Rise of “Popular Feminism”

The catastrophic earthquakes in Mexico City in 1985 helped to empower the women most affected by the destruction through organizations such as the Nineteenth of September Garment Workers’ Union. In 1986, two of the earliest popular groups, the Nineteenth of September Garment Workers’ Union and the Asamblea de Barrios, joined with others to form CONAMUP (Coordinadora Nacional del Movimiento Urbano Popular). CONAMUP successfully incorporated women’s issues into the larger popular movement and in time even assumed the leadership in organizing events that had traditionally been feminist activities. For example, during the first year of its existence, CONAMUP took charge of organizing three key feminist events: the International Women’s Day march, the Mother’s Day march, and the March to End Violence Against Women (Lamas 1994: 153; Stephen 1997: 130). After 1986, a plethora of popular women’s groups developed across the country, helped and counseled by feminists who had left Mexico City to establish NGOs in the provinces. During the 1980s, fifty-one new NGOs were established, the majority of which worked with popular women’s groups on gender-related issues. In an attempt to address the issues raised by the popular feminist movement, traditional feminists created a series of women’s networks (redes de coordinación) countrywide. These issue-oriented networks brought together groups across social, economic, and political lines and focused on a range of issues that affected women: examples include the Network Against Violence Towards Women, the Feminist Peasant Network, and the Network of Popular Educators (Lamas 1994: 152; Lamas et al. 1995: 336). 108

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The popular feminist movement helped the older feminist movement redefine its priorities, so that by 1987 there was a marked shift in feminist rhetoric. The movement was no longer focused on “strategic” challenges, but on policy-related issues. In particular, the shift in feminist ideology was visible in the combined political efforts of popular and middleclass feminists during the 1988 presidential election. Two organizations helped women exercise the vote and increase their participation in public life: the Benita Galeana Coordinating Committee,11 a broad-based organization that focused on mobilizing low-income women, and Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia (Women Struggling for Democracy, MLD), which concentrated on organizing prominent women, including female PRI and PRD members in elected offices (see chapter 5). The 1988 election revealed a new rhetoric based on promoting women’s political participation and representation. The presidential election, widely considered to be fraudulent, was a wake-up call that caused feminists to focus almost exclusively on political activity. During the postelection year they made considerable changes in the tactics and forms of political activism they chose to pursue. As the women of the movement became older—and wiser—they realized the importance of coalition building and the need to work with more mainstream parties, including the much reviled PRI. One of the first attempts they made at coalition building was to organize a special agency in the attorney general’s office focusing on sex crimes. In 1989, feminists were instrumental in advising both government officials and members of the Mexican Human Rights Commission on the severity of the situation and on ways to treat women who had been sexually assaulted. This time feminists were victorious: in 1991 Congress passed legislation stiffening punishment for rape and protecting victims. The 1990s and Beyond: Feminism and The Struggle for Democracy

In the last decade, the feminist movement has continued its emphasis on becoming a viable actor in the political process and its efforts at coalition building. The movement continues to expand its membership to include more women from the popular sector, professionals, academics, and female politicians. Although there is marked resistance among many women to being labeled feminist, the movement has shown its ability to influence the new crop of female politicians. With their new focus on increasing women’s participation in the political process, feminists have tried to educate women to exercise their right to vote and to achieve a 109

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“critical mass” of women elected to public office. As a result, feminists have become much more visible—and influential—in Mexican politics. In the 1990s it became clear that feminism is not a monolithic concept. The rise of popular feminism showed that there are different types of feminisms in Mexico, and that all are valid. The lessons feminists had learned became apparent as Mexican women prepared for and participated in the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The feminist approach to Beijing paralleled the feminist reaction to the first women’s conference held twenty years earlier in Mexico City: as they had done in 1975, mainstream feminist groups opted not to attend the 1995 conference. However, the rationale behind their decision not to participate in 1995 was quite different. Unlike the feminists in the 1970s who boycotted the conference in protest, feminists in the 1990s opted instead to step back and allow the popular feminists an opportunity to voice their concerns to the international community. Although Beijing was not as successful as many had hoped, the experience these popular groups gained helped them become savvier in understanding how women as a collective can have an impact on the international political arena. At the same time, they became more adept at influencing the political process in Mexico. Within the last ten years, the efforts of the popular, mainstream, and prodemocracy feminists have helped change the way women are seen in Mexico. Their struggles are focused and their policy agendas precise. Feminists have also learned that they can work within the political establishment without compromising their commitment to equal treatment for women in the home, in society, and in politics. Far from being labeled as “man-haters” and “bra-burners” as they were in the 1970s, female activists are now seen by both the Mexican state and Mexican society as influential voices. Gender issues have been institutionalized into NGOs, political parties, and government. The “woman question” of yesteryear is now a part of the organizational and official discourse.

THE INSTITUTIONAL DISCOURSE ON “ THE WOMAN QUESTION”

The Gender Discourse in NGOS and Feminist Organizations

In Mexico, as elsewhere, the lines between feminist organizations and nongovernmental organizations have blurred over the last several decades. As Sen and Grown (1987) and others have pointed out, many grass110

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roots NGOS are feminist in ideology and practice, since the integration of women into NGOS is “rooted in the link between women’s historical experiences of subordination and collective action” (Tilly 1978, quoted in Tarrés 1998: 132). This description is consistent with the development of Mexican organizations. As feminist discourse has changed with the rise of “popular feminism,” feminists are now more willing to work within organizations that do not have a specific feminist bent. Through their work in these organizations, feminists have often been able to sway internal and external policies that affect women and to bring their feminist insights into creating policies and programs that provide practical solutions for women. By broadening their goals, these women have had a greater impact on society while also strengthening and modernizing their own feminist ideals. This change in feminist strategy has also worked to expand the definition of feminism. The women throughout governmental and nongovernmental organizations who identify themselves as feminists have ensured that feminism is not confined to women’s groups, but rather injected at many levels of public life. This development has created a twoway process of transformation. Feminists extend their definition to include a more diverse female experience, while NGOS and government agencies incorporate feminism into their discourse and programs. In fact, many of Mexico’s leading feminists, including Marta Lamas, Alicia Martínez, and Eli Bartra, have commented that in Mexico there are numerous feminist movements that define their goals and identities in markedly different ways. While they all seek to expand the role of women in society and create a more equitable political, social, and economic system, they target different issues and sectors of the population. Feminist discourse extends to women in households, workplaces, and political arenas. As Tarrés points out, NGOS have become “the institutionalized space from which women can voice their demands and needs as well as the forum from which they can propose public policies related to the interests of women from a gender perspective” (1998: 134). However, it is important to clarify that while many feminists work for NGOS, most of these organizations do not have specifically feminist agendas, and very few of them would identify themselves as feminist organizations. Many NGOS have specific offices that focus on the needs and issues of women, but their general agendas are broader. Despite this clarification, NGOS have the most goal-oriented and progressive discourse on women of all the sectors examined in this study; and while many of the NGOS may be uncomfortable with the label “feminist,” 111

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these groups tend to promote the advancement of women in fundamental ways. Part of the reason for this, as Tarrés explains, is that women often gain a sense of satisfaction by working to improve the lives of other women. At a practical level, we found in our research that many NGOS provide services and support that affect women in all aspects of their daily lives, cutting across the various roles women play in modern Mexican society. For example, some NGOS provide childcare services, thereby decreasing the number of hours spent on domestic labor and allowing women to join the paid workforce while still effectively attending to domestic duties. Some NGOS respond to violence against women in the home by lobbying for legal reform, while others fight violence against women in the larger society by pressing for increased security and lighting in the workplace and public spaces. Yet other NGOS offer technical training. For example, in addition to providing emergency assistance to hungry women and their children, an NGO aimed at addressing hunger might train women to run small farms that sell products for profit. Small business ownership and financial self-sufficiency allow women to support their families and engage in public life simultaneously. And finally, our research showed that NGOS often address women’s diverse needs through personal empowerment and education by bringing women together both to learn from one another and to realize that there is strength in numbers. In her in-depth study of women’s NGOS in Mexico, Tarrés (1998) found that the most popular area of activity is health, followed by violence and human rights. She found that NGOS working in the areas of production, education, or politics tend to be less abundant, and that focuses such as the environment, regional development, and housing are very uncommon. An interesting finding, which clearly echoes the findings of this study, is that 25 percent of the organizations she analyzed included “the study, discussion, and dissemination of feminism or activities oriented to the construction of a new identity . . . regardless of the main area of activity of the organization” (1998: 136). Consistent with Tarrés’s findings, we found that many Mexican NGOS are staffed and led by middle- and upper-class women working to meet the needs of poor and working-class women. Most of the NGOS included in our study are located in Mexico City, adding to the centralized, urban bias of these organizations and pointing to the difficulties of creating a women’s organization that is truly representative. Be-

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cause the demands on the lives of poor women are so vast, their participation in formal organizations is hampered. One of our respondents, Margarita Dalton, noted that in the southern state of Oaxaca, for instance, regional economic atrophy prohibits most women from investing in their educations, making future participation in NGOS unlikely. More educated and privileged women often fill the void, but this can create an institutionalized class bias within the organization. Feminists extend their discourse to women workers and professionals alike. In Mexico, the long workdays are structured around the needs of men. Women who enter the workforce must adhere to this male schedule while still performing their traditional duties as mothers and keepers of the home, leading to a doble jornada for professional as well as low-income women. Feminists in NGOS have tried to change this situation by pushing for policies that better meet the schedules of working women. In recognition of those women who are bound not by a doble but by a triple jornada (i.e., those women who add the role of political activist to their roles as caretakers and workers), feminist groups have made efforts to support their participation and political activism. Training programs that emphasize the involvement of women in politics beginning at the grassroots level have enhanced the political power of women. For some feminist groups, such as GIRE (Group for Information on Reproductive Choice), the signature issue is reproductive choice. The struggle to ensure that women become mothers through personal choice is a formidable battle in predominantly Catholic Mexico, where the voice of the church usually drowns out any opposing views. The government has gone so far as to support family planning and sex education despite the protests of the church. Feminists, who have fought diligently to persuade the government to legalize abortion, have not had positive results in terms of changing legislation, but they have kept reproductive rights on the public policy agenda. For example, groups such as GIRE use methods like radio programs and public forums to educate women about abortion rights (Honey 1994), and they run large spreads (desplegados) in newspapers to keep the issue of abortion in the public debate.12 Many feminists also still choose to work through universities and feminist journals, representing yet another of the organizational structures identified by Sen and Grown (1987), the research organization. This type of work differs from that of feminists in NGOS in that it tends to be less action oriented, and more geared toward producing academic re-

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search addressing women’s concerns. Women who are editors of feminist journals—such as Marta Lamas (Debate Feminista) and Esperanza Brito ( fem)—may tend to stay within the academic confines of their journals, but this does not mean that they do not build broad coalitions with feminists in other circles. Marta Lamas has excelled at this strategy, extending her network to include politicians, activists, and many others. The Discourse on Women in Mexican Political Parties

None of the three principal political parties in Mexico can win elections without the female vote. Women not only compose 52 percent of the electorate but often feel the reverberations of government policies more profoundly than men. As managers of the family budget, women are the first to cope with price increases, product shortages, and interest rate fluctuations; as mothers, women feel the responsibility to ensure that their children grow up in a safe environment while receiving an adequate education. These themes resonate strongly within the electorate. Indeed, appeals to these concerns greatly influenced the PRI victory in the 1994 presidential election, which was achieved with the campaign theme “Bienestar para tu familia” (Well-being for your family). The PRI also successfully cultivated and managed support from women around the issue of instability and insecurity—the so-called voto de miedo (fear vote). Although Mexican women share fundamental concerns about a healthy economy and family stability, their specific policy preferences vary widely. Women’s political and partisan affiliations reflect the distinct cultural and economic environments found throughout Mexico, and this variety leads the PAN, PRD, and PRI in very disparate policy directions. Even though all three acknowledge the fundamental role women play in their organizations and in the nation, each party views women and their policy needs differently. Each of the major parties has a specific focus on women and their role in Mexican society, both in its platform and within the party structure. This focus includes a separate internal body where women in the party can address concerns and issues of importance to them, as well as a policy of promoting women’s involvement in politics. Efforts by the parties to increase participation include encouraging more female candidates to seek political office and encouraging women to vote. The official stance of a political party, however, has not always translated into real gains for women.

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Ideological differences among the parties often disintegrate on issues of special concern to women. When reform of the rape law came before the national Congress in 1991, for example, party distinctions faded due to the strong consensus among women. All women, regardless of party, united to support legislation for stiffening penalties against rapists and for better protection for victims. Similarly, other issues such as sexual harassment and workplace rules that discriminate against pregnant women concern female politicians regardless of party affiliation and have also led to unity among them (see Stevenson 1998, 1999). The differences in political outlook among the parties influence the way women participate inside the party structures. What is common across party lines, however, is that despite the differing ideologies, women have gained force within each of the three major parties. Although the numbers of women in the executive committees of the parties are far from glowing, it is important to recognize that in the year 2000 —scarcely fifty years after women won the right to vote—two of the three principal parties had female presidents: Amalia García in the PRD and Dulce María Sauri in the PRI. Also reassuring is the fact that these two women have been important figures in Mexico’s feminist movement and indeed have made women’s causes one of the principal blocks in building their careers. Since party-defined issues heavily influence any political campaign in Mexico, it is useful to look at the differences among party platforms with regard to issues pertaining to women. It is worth noting, however, that the attitudes conveyed by the women we interviewed reflected similar opinions of the rhetoric of all three parties. As several women commented, reality is very different from the pro-woman picture painted by party documents. Moreover, the women often felt that they had made their own gains without much support from their parties—at times, indeed, even in spite of their parties. The following sections provide a synopsis of the perspective of each party towards women and an overview of the advancement of women within the parties’ internal structures. The PRI’s specific platform on women can be found in party documents that express the party’s concern for the equality and inclusion of women. These documents are broadly based on Article 40 of the national Constitution, which states that women and men are equal before the law. The PRI seeks to promote the political and social participation of women in the

THE PARTIDO REVOLUCIONARIO INSTITUCIONAL (PRI)

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party. Specifically, PRI rhetoric states that the party is concerned with women’s participation in the formal structure of government, and that this participation must be commensurate with women’s contributions to society as a whole. The PRI traces women’s involvement in the party back to its creation. In particular, women were extremely supportive of Lázaro Cárdenas, perhaps the best-regarded president of modern Mexico (1934 – 1940). Indeed, the PRI’s sector femenil was first established in 1934. At the time, women still did not have the right to vote on a national level, but states could grant women the right to vote in local elections on an individual basis. Some states gave women the vote in the 1920s, but as we have already seen in this chapter, it took a long fight to achieve national equality. Although name changes and consolidations have taken place within the PRI’s women’s sector, the PRI has continually sponsored women’s organizations. Indeed, the party’s sector femenil has always been a part of the party’s sectoral structure (based on the three pillars of the party—the CTM, CNC, and CNOP), together with the youth sector and others. Consistent with its tradition of incorporating factions with particular interests into the party, the PRI points to its women’s organizations as the foundation for achieving gender equality. The main party organizations for women in the 1990s were the Congreso de Mujeres por el Cambio (Congress of Women for Change, CMC) and the Consejo para la Integración de la Mujer (Council for the Integration of Women, CIM), both of which sought to recruit and incorporate women into the PRI. These organizations changed markedly during the decade. Early documents produced by both CMC and CIM were relatively conservative. For example, in a 1994 PRI campaign publication titled “Mujeres y Zedillo,” the party outlines health and education as the major areas of concern for women. The document explains the need for all women to have sex education. Specifically, the PRI calls for programs to detect and control the spread of AIDS, to inform women about birth control, and to give women the power to decide the size of their families, as well as for the reform of family violence penal laws. In the realm of education, the party points to the need for literacy programs and encourages young girls to stay in school. The document also calls for the creation of an umbrella organization to coordinate women’s service providers. However, even before 1994, there are CIM documents acknowledging that the struggle for equality is not only a woman’s fight. In former President Salinas’s words, “the achievement of equality be-

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tween men and women is not the sole task of women. Men must also commit themselves to this goal. We believe in the women’s cause because we believe in the cause and destiny of Mexico” (PRI/IEPES/ CIM 1990). In the second half of the 1990s, the PRI’s women’s sector changed dramatically, largely as a result of the vigorous leadership of María Elena Chapa, a senator from 1991 to 1997, a state congresswoman in her state of Nuevo León, and then a federal deputy in the 2000 –2003 legislature. She was also president of the Consejo Consultivo (executive committee) of the Programa Nacional de la Mujer, the government agency created by President Zedillo to attend to women and gender issues. Chapa has been one of the strongest voices advocating for the institutionalization of a quota system within the PRI to increase the number of women in public office. She has pushed this issue to the party leadership and is emphatic (and sometimes defiant) about the party’s lack of support of women. For example, at a major rally for PRI presidential candidate Francisco Labastida on International Women’s Day 2000, she challenged the candidate and all the party heavyweights present about the places women occupy in the candidate lists. Women, she said, “vamos de relleno. Nos ponen en los últimos lugares, nos dicen que no sabemos ganar, y luego resulta que ganamos donde nos mandan a perder” (they send us in as fillers [in the candidate lists]. They put us in the last spots, they tell us we don’t know how to win, and then it turns out we win in places we were supposed to lose [Zárate Vite, El Universal, 8 March 2000]). Her leadership has also gained considerable strength from the support she has garnered, especially around the quota issue, from top women within the PRI, most notably Beatriz Paredes, María de los Angeles Moreno, and Dulce María Sauri. Like the perredistas, women in the PRI state that equality between men and women should be the ultimate goal. They repeatedly emphasized in our interviews the need for both sexes to realize that society would benefit from women’s increased involvement in politics and public life. Much like the panistas, however, the priístas feel that women often fail to seize the opportunities that their party presents. They argued that women need to take the initiative to make their own spaces and set their own agendas. Women who have risen within the PRI seem to be more conscious of their role within the party than men are, and they display assertiveness in making their demands known—as illustrated above with María Elena Chapa’s statement. The priístas interviewed in-

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dicated that their success could often be attributed more to their own persistence than to strong support from the party, and that women must work twice as hard as men to win respect within the PRI. The PRI won accolades from women across the political spectrum for promoting María de los Angeles Moreno to become the first woman president of the party in 1994, for the appointment of Rosario Green as secretary of foreign affairs, and then for electing Dulce María Sauri as party president in 1999. Their ascent appears to demonstrate that PRI women have reached the apex of political power. The votes of confidence in these top-ranking women solidify the legitimacy of women in all levels of politics. Nevertheless, priístas, like women from other parties, continue to express the view that the quality of their performance today will determine the number of opportunities available to women entering politics in the future. THE PARTIDO ACCIÓN NACIONAL (PAN) The PAN’s party documents trumpet its historic support for women’s rights and the commitment to recruiting women into the party since its inception in the 1940s. Although the PAN was not the first party to fight for women’s rights, it is committed to encouraging women’s political participation. Its national executive committee officially acknowledged the importance of women in the party in 1957, and throughout the next decades various female panistas ran for public office and became involved in party governance. Also, from the beginning, panista women have actively fought fraudulent elections and become crucial supporters during elections and campaigns. Party documents make it clear that the PAN supports women in whatever roles they choose, whether that means staying at home to care for the family or running for public office. The official PAN platform differs from PRI doctrine in that panistas oppose an autonomous section for women. Although prior to 1970 the PAN promoted a sección femenil, party leaders feared that its interests would diverge from those of the rest of the party and soon dissolved it. They replaced the distinct women’s section with Promoción Política de la Mujer (Political Promotion of Women, PPM), a secretariat that participates in each committee of the party. The party argues that this has allowed women to remain active in each cell of regular party committees instead of giving them a separate place. PPM seeks to encourage female participation in the party without “ghettoizing” women.13 However, this thinking also implies that the fortunes of female panistas are to

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rise and fall with those of the PAN. Panista women must dedicate themselves to their party above all, and less so to a distinct women’s agenda. Both in party documents and in interviews, representatives of the PAN emphasized and promoted women’s traditional roles. In their view, women’s strengths are in their sensitivity, their emotions, and their spiritual and moral leadership abilities. The PAN encourages the recognition and celebration of the differences between the sexes, believing that both possess particular advantages and traits that should be acknowledged and developed. According to the PAN, women have a responsibility to society and to themselves to preserve their dignity and femininity; moreover, they have the critical role of creating life. The panistas we interviewed reinforced the party stance, usually prizing motherhood above political involvement and thereby lending greater legitimacy to the role of mother and wife. In a world where many women forsake the responsibilities of motherhood because they are “too busy” or claim that children “get in the way of having a career,” the panistas see the role of motherhood as supreme. They feel, however, that public life should be open to women because women enrich Mexican politics with the dignity they bring to it. This view of the role of women in politics is a distinctive marker of women of the right (see Power 2002). Many panistas interviewed during the early phase of the project attributed the absence of women in high party positions to their own lack of interest, not to institutional problems within the party. They also saw the low representation of women as a result of the societal constraints imposed on women, like the pressure to have and nurture children and the stigma of leaving the family to pursue a career. While many panistas acknowledged that their party was somewhat reluctant to support female candidates both at the local level and federally, they also believed these obstacles were easier to overcome at the municipal level, where PAN women are more inclined to participate politically. Moreover, at the state and local levels, women do not have to face the prospect of leaving their families to pursue political careers in Mexico City—a significant barrier that women often find more problematic than men. Overall, the panistas’ comments reflected an overwhelming bias toward the traditional roles of women as mothers and caretakers. Yet by the end of the 1990s, the PAN’s stance had changed dramatically. Following in the progressive footsteps of María Elena Alvarez, and under the leadership of Patricia Espinosa and Sandra Herrera, the outlook of PAN women in the later phases of research was completely dif-

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ferent. While they still respected family and motherhood, they had changed both their views and their strategies. First and foremost, they now openly acknowledged that the party had placed many obstacles in they way of women’s advancement. The comments of 1994 PAN presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Ceballos about women—specifically his infamous reference to them using the pejorative viejerío 14 — clearly touched a nerve and triggered a reaction. The panistas’ new efforts to improve the status of women within the party were helped by the election of Felipe Calderón to the presidency of the party; his youth and support of women were key to including more women in the national executive committee, as well as giving more support and visibility to the women’s secretariat, the PPM. Now under the joint leadership of Margarita Zavala (Calderón’s wife) and Sandra Herrera—both professionals and mothers in their early thirties—the PPM’s discourse became engaging and fresh. Although the official party rhetoric regarding women has not changed much, women’s efforts are now enhanced by the fact that a number of senior panistas sitting on the national executive committee— Cecilia Romero, Ana Rosa Payán, Teresa García de Madero, Esperanza Morelos Borja, Leticia Carrillo viuda de Clouthier, Blanca Alvarez, and of course, María Elena Alvarez, among others—are strongly supportive of the advancement of women. Their seniority in the party has indeed been instrumental in making the party leadership “allow” PAN women to move forward. The overall theme underlying the party documents on women continues to emphasize their roles as creators of life, mothers, mediators, guardians of the family, and educators, an emphasis that has created tension as women seek to penetrate the PAN’s top echelons. The documents produced by PPM in the late 1990s present a stark contrast with earlier party statements. Under the leadership of some of the top PAN women mentioned above, especially María Elena Alvarez, PPM has become without question the best-organized group of women in any of the three major political parties. They are professional and committed, and they have moved aggressively to make their party aware of the importance of including more women in the top levels of party leadership and of supporting their candidacies for public office. They run workshops throughout the country with the goal of increasing the number of women in the PAN, and they hold training sessions for women running for office and for women already in government. Generally speaking, PPM seeks to educate, train, and groom women for public

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office, teaching them everything they need to know, from public speaking to how to dress. Their preparation for the 1997 and 2000 elections was indeed impressive. THE PARTIDO DE L A REVOLUCIÓN DEMOCRÁTIC A (PRD) Since the PRD was formed relatively recently,15 it lacks a long track record on women’s issues. In its short existence, however, it has distinguished itself by supporting and promoting women more actively than either the PAN or the PRI. The PRD’s party documents promote a progressive stance towards women, and overall the party appears to view women as important actors in the workplace and in the public sphere. Also, the PRD addresses women’s concerns in a more policy-oriented way than the other parties do. For example, the PRD strives for equal pay in the workplace, the right to family planning, and constitutional reform in laws dealing with violence against women. The PRD criticizes the PAN and the PRI for refusing to address women’s concerns beyond a narrow band of family-oriented issues like children’s health and daycare, arguing that the focus on children and families leaves many key women’s issues out of the national debate. The PRD’s platform for women reflects the party’s leftist orientation and its demands for reform of the state. Specifically, PRD documents list the following fourteen reforms aimed at making Mexican society more democratic and egalitarian:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Free and open elections State reform and a new constitutionality Social justice Full incorporation of women into national politics Full access for women to education, health, culture, and information Equal pay for equal work Responsible paternity and maternity Land rights and access to credit Proportional representation of women in legislatures and the government Nonsexist education A new image of women in the media Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women

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13. Right to plan the number and spacing of children 14. A plan for equality of opportunities Of these demands, half deal directly with women. Equal pay for equal work, equal educational opportunities for males and females, and the elimination of all discrimination against women are goals the PRD has clearly outlined in its party platform and have been standard issues in the PRD’s electoral campaigns. Attention to reproductive issues has also stood out in the PRD’s electoral platforms. In addition to its commitment to a couple’s right to birth control, the party also seeks to guarantee free access to medical services for unwanted pregnancies. Providing adequate health care, the PRD argues, is a duty of the state. The women interviewed during the field research for this study generally confirmed the above-mentioned party platform, but some were also quick to point out that while these pro-female ideals represent official party goals, they should not be assumed to reflect reality. Where the PRD wins its highest accolades is for taking the lead in pushing affirmative action programs for women’s political representation. Without question, the PRD has been at the vanguard in emphasizing the need to provide women the same opportunities as men have for advancement in public office, beginning with fairer recruitment processes. This strategy includes temporary compensatory mechanisms such as affirmative action programs to give women equal access to power. Party documents stipulate that a minimum of 30 percent of the slots in the party’s candidate lists and on the national executive committee be reserved for women. Although both the PRI and the PAN have now followed suit in setting aside a number of spaces for women, during the first part of the 1990s the PRD was unique in supporting gender quotas for all organs of popular representation, all directive bodies of public institutions, and educational and party institutions. However, as will be discussed in the following chapter, attempts to pass legislation requiring a 30 percent quota for women at a national level have so far failed. Indeed, the PRD’s own delegation to Congress has not yet managed to reach 30 percent female representation, although it has consistently had the highest proportion of women among the major political parties.16 Some female perredistas cite this shortfall as an example of the vast differences that often surface between the party’s stated dedication to women’s issues and its actual track record. In fact, some argue that the sexism existing within the PRD may be more difficult to reverse precisely because it is more hidden. 122

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Even if the PRD were to comply with representational provisions that it argues should apply to all political parties, it is unclear what significant effect this would have. The PRD’s popularity has waned since its initiation as a protoparty in the 1988 presidential election, partly because both the PRI and the PAN have also courted the working- and lower-class communities that form the PRD’s base of support. Although the PRD’s strength in the Mexico City metropolitan area is substantial and the party has now won several municipal and gubernatorial elections, the 2000 Federal District election was very close, and the PRD won only narrowly over the PAN (Ward and Durden 2002). Moreover, the party is riddled with internal factions that are so strong that the party has lost its cohesiveness. Without unity around an ideological base, it is highly unlikely that the party will be willing to promote a progressive platform on women’s issues as it attempts to lure a constituency that is preoccupied with more pressing issues. Both the PRI and the PAN appear more committed to opening leadership opportunities to women than does the PRD, despite the PRD’s litany of promises. It sometimes seems that as far as women are concerned, the PRD is resting on its laurels; after taking the lead in espousing more opportunities for women, it has now placed women’s concerns on the back burner. Also, the conflicts within the party ranks over the candidacy of Amalia García for the party presidency in 1996 left a bitter taste for many PRD women. Later that summer, García commented to me on her sense of disillusionment with the party, saying that she felt somewhat alienated, especially after learning that some of her friendships with other women proved frailer than she had thought. Many women whom she had expected to support her abandoned her, and the experience naturally led her to reexamine both her friendships and her political alliances. Although García eventually won the party presidency in July 1999, even then the internal divisions in the party were so strong that her legitimacy was questioned.17 Nor did she find it easy to promote within the PRD the women’s agenda she has so strongly supported throughout her career. For example, when running for the party presidency in 1996, she was the only candidate who touched on issues of tolerance, equality, respect, individual decision making, and gender. And according to an exit poll conducted by La Jornada on 14 July 1996, the voters who supported her were women, young people, and educated people. But García’s strong presence in national politics brings praise to the PRD, as does that of Rosario Robles, the former mayor of Mexico City. 123

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Indeed, both are regularly featured not only in the Mexican media but in the international media as well. Soon after taking over the mayoralty when Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas resigned to run for the presidency, Robles was described in a feature story in the New York Times thus: Ms. Robles has surprised beleaguered residents of the capital city by convincingly and cheerfully taking command of one of the largest and most chaotic metropolises in the world. . . . Ms. Robles quickly proved to be spunkier, more efficient and more appealing than her dour mentor. . . . ‘I have my skirt on straight and I accept my responsibilities,’ she told the press, recasting a classic Mexican phrase defining macho men as having their pants on straight. (preston, NYT, 28 February 2000) García, in turn, is described thus: She’s diminutive, soft-spoken and genteel. She’s also an ardent feminist and one of Mexico’s most powerful political figures . . . a woman constantly on the go and a regular front-page item in newspapers. She flies from city to city meeting constituents and political leaders of all backgrounds, and she has been credited with helping transform the PRD from a party at the margins to a force to be reckoned with. (ferriss, Miami Herald, 16 February 2000) These women have been two of the brightest stars of the PRD, male or female. They were close friends and allies during the party’s early stages, but since the 2000 election, they have chosen different factions within the party and have become political rivals, particularly as Robles sought the party presidency in 2001. Where the PRD surpasses the other parties is in the actual implementation of women’s policies and programs. Under the leadership of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, and latterly of Rosario Robles, the Federal District government instituted the largest number of programs to date in support of women. Many of these initiatives fell under the direction of Clara Jusidman, a leading figure among Mexican women who has demonstrated her commitment to women’s causes throughout her career. Although not formally a member of the PRD, Jusidman had the credibility to earn the post of secretary of social development in the Federal District. Cárdenas charged Jusidman to undertake a series of

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programs directed toward street children, the homeless, and other vulnerable groups, but these activities were severely limited by lack of resources (Ward and Durden 2002). However, she was much more successful in her primary goal of developing greater equity for women, which she accomplished through a number of programs such as legislative reforms to eliminate discrimination, campaigns to reward women for housework, and the creation of seven Centros Integrales de Apoyo a la Mujer (Integrated Centers for the Support of Women). After Rosario Robles took over from Cárdenas, women’s issues came even more to the forefront; not least among these were further reforms to the Federal District’s penal code in summer 2000, extending the rules permitting legal abortions. Significantly, this was a time when many in Vicente Fox’s PAN were moving fast in the opposite direction, towards limiting abortion and women’s reproductive rights. Jusidman and Robles further strengthened the efforts they had initiated with Promujer (Programa para la Participación Equitativa de la Mujer, Program for Women’s Equitable Participation, created on 8 March 1998) by establishing the Instituto de la Mujer del Distrito Federal (Women’s Institute of the Federal District) in August 1999. While all these initiatives arose in Mexico City under the leadership of visionary women, they serve as an illustration of what a party in power (in this case the PRD) can accomplish when there is a genuine commitment to supporting women. As we have seen, the three principal political parties in Mexico have all undertaken to embrace women in their party rhetoric, but all three struggle to translate that ideal into more equitable representation in party leadership and on candidate lists, let alone into policy development. THE FEMINIZ ATION OF THE OFFICIAL DISCOURSE IN GOVERNMENT ORGANIZ ATIONS

If one were to search carefully, one would probably find that most government agencies in Mexico do incorporate the needs of women into their programs in some way or another. This is certainly the case in sectors that are traditionally closer to women’s concerns, such as education and health. Yet with the exception of the DIF and the Programa Nacional de la Mujer—the two government entities discussed below—we find little evidence of a gender discourse, suggesting that at least in part, these two agencies have been set up to explicitly institutionalize the

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government’s commitment to women and gender. Let us see how that discourse has been made operational. Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF)

The DIF is the one governmental institution originally designed and established with the specific purpose of giving women a “space” in the political arena, albeit as spouses of elected officials. Even though the DIF was created to promote child welfare, it was unequivocally set up to showcase women, specifically the first lady. Traditionally, the president’s wife has presided over the national DIF, while state-level DIFs have been run by governors’ wives, and local-level DIFs by mayors’ wives.18 Indeed, this direct connection to the chief executives at all levels allows the DIF access to formal power structures and to governmental resources that often elude other organizations. In 1929, the National Association for the Protection of Children (Asociación Nacional de Protección a la Infancia, ANPI) was created as a private organization, presided over by the wife of Emilio Portes Gil, then president of Mexico; at the time, the organization focused on the distribution of breakfasts to schoolchildren. In 1937, President Lázaro Cárdenas created the Ministry of Public Assistance, which shared with ANPI in the care of needy children and their families. As the concept of social assistance grew in political importance, the government created in 1961, as an outgrowth of ANPI, the National Institute for the Protection of Children (Instituto Nacional de Protección a la Infancia, INPI), which now tended to the problems of abandoned, exploited, and handicapped children. Like its predecessor, the INPI was also presided over by the first lady. With increasing demand for services to children and their families, the federal executive later reorganized and restructured the INPI into the DIF, extending the services from children to the entire family. Over time, the DIF has evolved into the government organization for promoting social welfare throughout the country. In addition to being the oldest governmental organization clearly directed toward women, the DIF has served as a unique network for women both in its discourse and in its programs focused on women and their families. It is the agency through which many of the wives of male politicians in Mexico connect with one another. For example, the PAN’s Web site (PAN 2000) posted a lengthy report on a conference that took place in June 1999 and brought together the presidents of the munici-

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pal DIFS in the state of Mexico—all of them, naturally, of the PAN. The conference was entitled “20 Panistas en Acción” and was geared toward allowing these women to share experiences and join efforts to advance the DIF’s programs. Although the presidents of the DIF chapters are the wives of mayors, governors, and presidents, the organization’s administration is not composed exclusively of women. In fact, the chief administrator is often a man; at the national level, this post is considered a top appointment and has traditionally been held by a man until Fox appointed a woman as national director in 2000. While the day-to-day running of the agency is left to the chief administrator, the Mexican first ladies and their collaborators, whom the institution is designed to showcase, make appearances at the DIF’s official functions. DIF-sponsored volunteer programs (Patronato de Promotores Voluntarios/Voluntariado), for example, are often staffed by middle- and upper-middle-class female volunteers with grown children, women who have the freedom to volunteer outside of the home; they also tend to be friends and acquaintances of the first ladies. The DIF is a classic example of the traditional service organization identified by Sen and Grown (1987). Like many of the NGOS, the DIF sponsors programs that directly benefit women, such as parenting classes, daycare, family medical services, and so on. However, one of the more interesting aspects of the DIF is that the content and effectiveness of these programs and the manner in which they emanate from an organizational discourse on women depends to a large extent on the personal agenda of the particular wife who is leading the organization at any given time. Some governors’ and mayors’ wives may seek feminist agendas for their DIFS, completely outside of the political actions of their husbands. Some may hold to the party discourse on women and not stray into areas that may be controversial for their parties (or their husbands). Other wives adhere to their husbands’ platforms, allowing men to decide how the DIF will foster their political goals. Although there is a specific DIF agenda at the national level that is developed by the president’s wife and the national director, the success of its programs depends on two important variables: first, the competence and enthusiasm of the president’s wife, the governors’ wives, and the mayors’ wives; and second, the dynamism and effectiveness of the national director—in part an outcome of this person’s working relationship with the first lady. Within the framework of a national DIF agenda, it is also evident that

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the priority programs of the different DIFs at the state and local levels depend on who is running them. For example, during our fieldwork in 1995, we found that the Chihuahua state DIF, run by Hortensia de Barrio, was more concerned with implementing quality management in the organization than with women’s issues per se. In contrast, the Oaxaca state DIF, run by Clara Scherer, an avowed feminist, worked mainly with indigenous women on an array of antipoverty strategies targeted specifically to women. In the late 1990s, under the directorship of Mario Luis Fuentes, the national DIF office took a much more proactive stance regarding women and gender. This occurred under the leadership of Laura Carrera, a close collaborator of Fuentes and also a strong feminist. One of her achievements in this regard was the publication and dissemination of a first-rate training manual—which includes readings, exercises, and excellent graphics— designed to sensitize both men and women about gender issues (see DIF 1997). The manual, incidentally, was put together under the direction of Marta Lamas as an external consultant. President Vicente Fox, who was not married at the time he became president, appointed Ana Teresa Aranda from Puebla as director of the DIF, but there was some expectation that one of his daughters or another female family member would take over the DIF’s presidency. Some people are pleased that for the first time the national director of the DIF is a woman, but others are highly concerned about the future of the institution. Aranda is an ultraconservative member of the PAN who in her first few months in office made serious reversals on many of the more progressive policies and programs instituted by Fuentes and Carrera during the previous administration. At another level, the DIF structure seems to promote a fairly contradictory agenda because of its inevitable partisan linkages. Whereas in the past the DIF was intimately associated with the PRI and indeed was seen as one of the party’s (and the government’s) welfare arms, that is no longer the case. As the PAN and the PRD have won more offices at the state and local levels, the local DIFS are now beginning to become associated with those parties as well. But the DIF has not shaken its reputation of serving as a patronage network. In the beginning there was hope that the increasing presence of panistas and perredistas in DIF offices might bring a different perspective to the DIF, but that has not happened. The programmatic agenda of every DIF seems to be heavily conditioned by the partisan affiliation of the governor or mayor in power,

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and thus a PAN DIF will be rather different than a PRD or a PRI DIF. Nevertheless, all DIF branches are still widely regarded as sources of patronage; all political parties expect the dispensation of goods and services to women and their families, as in the past, to be traded for political support. Thus, even though the DIF specifically promotes women’s issues, its programs are often disjointed. For the most part, the same type of cooptation traditionally associated with priísta DIFs is now occurring in states and municipalities run by the PAN and the PRD. Thus, regardless of the political party in charge, the DIF increasingly appears to be as concerned with maintaining the political popularity of the party in power as it is with creating tangible advancements for women. In this regard, the DIF’s discourse and functions are related to the earlier discussion about the political parties’ discourses on women and gender. Because the DIF is widely seen as the most important of the government’s women’s organizations specifically run by and for women (at least at the local level), the party in power is able to hand off women’s issues to an organization that runs parallel to the party structure, even if it is not actually part of the party itself. This system is problematic because it takes women’s issues out of mainstream politics. The process indeed depoliticizes women’s issues, allowing the parties to avoid speaking about controversial topics because the DIF is run not by the politicians but by their wives. This in turn ties into another problematic issue in the DIF’s women’s agenda: the role that female politicians play in supporting the DIF. Although most female politicians, particularly panistas and priístas, are openly supportive of DIF programs, it is difficult for them to actively work with the DIF in pushing for certain women’s issues because the DIF continues to exist outside of, and parallel to, the main partisan structure. Moreover, because of the DIF’s close links to the wives, work in the DIF is not likely to attract senior female career politicians; there is very little political payoff. Because of these nuances, the discourse of the DIF as a governmental organization is difficult to generalize. While the DIF is committed to working for women in the community, its various approaches create a multiplicity of discourses that change with the party in power, the election cycle, and the individual wife leading the DIF. The discourse of the DIF is also often affected by the fact that the wives of politicians are virtually obligated to work for the organization, rarely receiving economic compensation or professional recognition for their efforts. So while the organization was arranged to meet the needs of women in Mexico, it

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fails to follow through by supporting and recognizing them for their leadership, ideas, dedication, and plain hard work. The DIF also institutionalizes the conflicting treatment of women and men in Mexican society: while wives of male politicians are practically required to work for the DIF, husbands of female politicians rarely work for the organization. Programa Nacional de la Mujer

The Programa Nacional de la Mujer (National Women’s Program, PRONAM) was created as an outcome of the 1995 Beijing conference, clearly with the purpose of institutionalizing the government’s discourse on women and gender. Although this was not the first program of its kind in Mexico, it was different because of the context surrounding its creation. Similar programs had been set up during the administrations of Presidents de la Madrid and López Portillo, but they were short lived and generally perceived as ineffectual. These earlier efforts had also been triggered by international meetings—namely the 1975 UN conference in Mexico City and later conferences in Copenhagen and Nairobi— and thus were bowing to an international gender discourse. They were firmly under the direction and control of the government, with no participation from social groups. Since the 1980s, however, the involvement and cooperation of NGOS and government has increased. In creating PRONAM, the government attempted to be more inclusive of various groups of women and the interests they represented. Under the leadership of Cecilia Loría, among others, NGO women played a key role in the planning stages of the program. President Zedillo formally instituted PRONAM as a new agency in 1996 and appointed Dulce María Sauri as its executive coordinator. Sauri, a leading member of the PRI who had demonstrated a strong commitment to women and gender issues over the course of her career, was at the time a federal deputy, and had to request a leave of absence from the legislature to head the agency. Eventually, Sauri left PRONAM to become secretary general of the PRI, and later president of the party. In her stead, Guadalupe Gómez Maganda, a senator and another senior PRI member, was appointed by the president to lead PRONAM. Her appointment drew mixed reactions from the various women’s groups. While some praised the choice because of her seniority, others saw this as a step back: Gómez Maganda belongs to an older generation of priístas that many want to forget—the dinosaurios. While she did a good

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job of keeping the agency on track, the organization’s impressive start was largely a result of the leadership of Sauri. PRONAM was placed within the Ministry of the Interior (Gobernación) because of a law passed in 1994 that gave Gobernación the power to oversee and coordinate women’s programs. In the past, women’s programs had resided under the auspices of CONAPO, the National Population Council. The change was good news, since as Cecilia Loría pointed out in conversation, Gobernación has a larger scope. If PRONAM had been placed in CONAPO, gender issues would have been seen as population issues. Most of the women who participated in the planning process of PRONAM wanted it housed in Gobernación. While PRONAM was being created, there were three trends of thought among the women involved: some proposed that it was convenient to place the organization in Gobernación because of the ministry’s ability to work with other ministries and public agencies; others wanted to create a new ministry, the Secretaría de la Mujer (Women’s Secretariat, similar to the SERNAM in Chile); and a final group felt that it would be too challenging to create a whole new ministry but favored the creation of an Instituto de la Mujer (Women’s Institute, similar to that in Spain).19 The Gobernación faction prevailed, but later, during the 2000 election campaign, discussion focused strongly on creating a new, independent institute. Until late 2000, under the executive coordinator of PRONAM there were two consultative bodies, the Consejo Consultivo (Advisory Board) and the Contraloría Social (Public Monitoring). The Consejo sought to foster PRONAM’s relationship with society and was headed by María Elena Chapa; the Contraloría pushed for implementation of programs affecting and relating to women and was led by Clara Scherer. An NGO representative was appointed to each body; initially these were Cecilia Loría in the Consejo and Patricia Mercado in the Contraloría. The rest of the membership read as a veritable who’s who of Mexico’s politically active women.20 The main objectives of PRONAM as a whole were to coordinate all programs and actions related to women and to promote the implementation of women’s programs at the regional and local levels (see Poder Ejecutivo Federal 1996). Also, PRONAM sought to maintain contact with the larger society, and in particular with NGOS, academics, and international organizations, to promote the agency’s objectives. As both Sauri and Loría commented, the idea of PRONAM was to integrate women’s programs into various ministries and govern-

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ment agencies, and to have a system of horizontal, as opposed to vertical, coordination. Indeed, one of the more prominent accomplishments of PRONAM under the direction of Sauri was to establish an undersecretariat in the Labor Ministry exclusively for women, the Subsecretaría de la Mujer. Her strategy was to eventually duplicate this office in the other ministries. Sauri was also praised for taking key steps for the advancement of women in the rural communities of Chiapas and southern Mexico. Altogether, the agency’s principal areas of activity were health and education. In the area of health, PRONAM led several initiatives that resulted in higher life expectancy for women and lower mortality rates for children. By 1998, basic health care services had been extended to more than six hundred thousand women who had previously lacked them, and there were significant increases in the number of children’s vaccinations. The agency also implemented a strategy of information dissemination to spread knowledge of contraceptives and increase the availability of contraceptive devices. Indeed, the agency claimed to have satisfied 100 percent of condom demand. Other health-related goals were to reduce maternal deaths from preventable causes, to implement prevention strategies for those deaths, and to provide follow-up medical attention to high-risk pregnant women. Having fulfilled these goals, Sauri began the distribution of the National Women’s Health Card in 1998. This card was intended to facilitate access to prenatal care follow-up exams and to help in the early detection of cervical-uterine cancer (Sauri 2000). In conversation with Sauri in late 1997, I asked what her priority areas for the agency were, and she unequivocally answered “education.” One of her goals, she said, was to change the design of elementary school textbooks so that the stereotypical images of boys and girls were altered from an early age. Sauri also pushed the National Institute of Adult Education to teach 2.2 million women, 76 percent of whom lived in rural areas. She helped develop a literacy program with a special emphasis on women that focused on raising children, building self-esteem, and promoting health. Another innovative program was the Satellite Educational Television Distribution Network, which made education available to women living in even the remotest rural areas of the country (Sauri 2000). In Sauri’s view, any information that can lead to professional development is essential for women. Sauri’s work as head of PRONAM led to her appointment in 1998 as president of the Inter-American Women’s Commission in the OAS; she is the first Mexican woman to serve in this very important interna132

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tional post. Although she accomplished significant changes as head of PRONAM, Sauri recognizes that there are still many obstacles to overcome. While there seemed to be a degree of cautious optimism among the women I spoke with about the agency—most stated that it was well structured, with representatives from all sectors of society—the one problem all addressed was the lack of appropriate funding. Although Sauri justified the agency’s meager budget by saying that the national budget had been reduced across the board, others were not as positive. Loría, for example, felt that the decision process affecting PRONAM was still very much top-down (with decisions emanating directly from the office of the president) and that the lack of funding did not bode well for the future of the program. In her view, PRONAM was tantamount to a political concession to women. As all three of the major political parties geared up for the 2000 presidential election, the discussion of the creation of an independent women’s institute heated up once again. Indeed, all three presidential candidates made the creation of this institute a priority in their gender platforms (see chapter 5). The discussion about all formal structural aspects of the future institute was a truly multipartisan effort, and as such it incorporated a wide-ranging discourse. The leadership for the creation of the institute rested heavily on the shoulders of María Elena Chapa of the PRI and María Elena Alvarez of the PAN. The proposals to create the new women’s institute focused specifically on two matters: that it would be an autonomous entity, and that it would have its own budget. On 8 March 2001, the new Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (National Women’s Institute, Inmujer) was officially inaugurated by President Fox to replace PRONAM (by then PRONAM had changed its name to Consejo Nacional de la Mujer). The law by which its creation was decreed appeared in the Diario Oficial on 11 January 2001. The institute was created as a deconcentrated entity (organismo público descentralizado), with the stated objective of promoting gender equity and fighting discrimination. Its very first objective states that there must be adherence to and respect for the principles of nondiscrimination enshrined in the Constitution and in international agreements, particularly as they pertain to human rights, and that public policies must be designed and implemented in a manner commensurate with this respect for women’s rights and nondiscrimination.21 The institute has no authority to enact policy, only to make recommendations. And compared to its predecessor’s very small budget of 26 million pesos, the new insti133

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tute’s budget is almost tenfold—230 million pesos (González, Reforma, 8 March 2001). The organization no longer depends on Gobernación or any other ministry; all decisions are made by a board. In its current makeup, the board is overwhelmingly dominated by panista women. The governing bodies of the institute are the governing board ( junta de gobierno) and the presidency (presidencia). The board comprises the heads of almost all ministries, along with the attorney general and the heads of the DIF and the INI (Instituto Nacional Indigenista, National Indigenous Institute). The Congress approved the creation of the institute after much partisan discussion of how the new president was to be selected. The final agreement was that President Fox would choose the institute’s president from a list of three candidates proposed by the various women’s groups that were behind the creation of the institute. The three names proposed to Fox were Cecilia Loría, Patricia Duarte, and Patricia Espinosa. Loría and Duarte are two of the most recognized names in the feminist movement in Mexico. Loría, in addition to her work on behalf of women, was also very visible as the leader of Causa Ciudadana (Citizen Cause), a prominent and respected citizen political organization. Duarte, together with Patricia Mercado, is a key figure in the feminist organization Diversa, and along with Mercado is actively working to form a new feminist political party. Espinosa has been a federal deputy and the head of the women’s sector in the PAN. Faced with the prospect of choosing one of these three, Fox was under pressure from all fronts. It was clear that the appointment of either Loría or Duarte would be very favorably received by the broader women’s movement because it would be interpreted as a real commitment on Fox’s part to the advancement of women’s and gender issues; but the PAN would frown upon this choice because both women are seen as ardent feminists overly concerned with issues of reproductive choice. Espinosa’s appointment would be popular with the PAN and the more conservative sectors of society because she was widely expected to follow the PAN’s idealized vision of the role of women in the family and in society, as well as a clear anti-choice stance. Her appointment would parallel the appointments of panistas Ana Teresa Aranda to the DIF and Josefina Vázquez Mota as secretary of social development, since both are well known for pursuing conservative agendas. Espinosa’s appointment, however, would be considerably less well received by women’s (and particularly feminist) groups. Two days before the appointment was to be made, Loría and Duarte publicly expressed their support for reproductive freedom and for de134

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criminalizing abortion. That same day, ProVida, a very vocal anti-choice group, staged a demonstration outside Los Pinos demanding that Espinosa be appointed and condemning Loría and Duarte as “abortistas” (abortionists). Espinosa confirmed in a public statement her position as defender of the right to life. Fox was in a bind: on the one hand, he was faced with partisan and conservative pressures; on the other, his commitment to women’s advancement was on the line. He appointed Espinosa. Predictably, her appointment sent ripples across a number of women’s groups. Congresswomen from both the PRI and the PRD immediately mobilized to undermine Espinosa’s appointment and insisted (successfully) that her secretary general be a woman not from the PAN, essentially to keep her in check. A very positive appointment was that of Teresa Incháustegui as director of one of the three main areas within the institute, the training sector. Incháustegui has been a key player in the feminist movement and is widely respected among women’s groups and other political circles for her impartiality and intellectual abilities. Her appointment also speaks well of Espinosa, who in this fashion has sought to bring alternative views into the institute. One of the institute’s very first objectives is to offer training to all government agencies so that they become more sensitive to gender issues, a critical step in fighting discrimination against women. Incháustegui’s presence in this project is crucial. It is important to underscore that Espinosa’s job at this juncture is far from easy. On the one hand, she belongs to a group of panista women who are very much on the progressive side of the party and whose vision of the role of women is very different from that of the party’s mainstream. As a federal deputy she openly supported legislation that favored women in ways that were frowned upon by some members of the PAN. Moreover, she is one of the few panista women who have seriously made efforts to reach out to women’s groups outside the party in order to build a common gender agenda. And as head of the women’s sector within the PAN, she worked hard to promote a larger presence for women within the party, both in the internal governing bodies and on candidate lists. Because of this moderate stance, she has the backing of some of the more prominent women (and men) within the party who are genuinely committed to equality and privately (but never in public) refer to themselves as feminists. On the other hand, Espinosa is under pressure to toe the party line and follow the conservative positions of the PAN with respect to women. She is also expected to promote Fox’s commitment to gender and equality, and that cannot be simple. Although he speaks publicly of this commitment, his general policy posi135

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tions and some appointments he has made to his cabinet raise serious questions about the true depths of his support for women and equality; indeed, they often threaten to reverse some of the hard-won gains that women have achieved in the last decade. CONCLUS ION: IMPLIC ATIONS OF THE CHANGING DISCOURSE ON WOMEN AND FEMINISM

This chapter has shown that the women’s movement in Mexico has a rich and fascinating history, dating back to women’s contributions to the revolutionary struggle of 1910. The PNR (later the PRI), the party founded in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, was primarily responsible for determining the modern structures of the state and the political relationships among social sectors throughout most of the twentieth century. Because women participated in the armed struggle, they obtained legitimacy, at least tacitly, as a distinctive group within the PRI, and they thus felt that they had a moral right to be heard when they pressed for their social, legal, and political demands. History would prove otherwise. The road towards political equality between men and women—including women’s right to vote—has not been easy. Mexican women have come a long way, and as we move into the new millennium we can assess how the concerns of women and feminists have become integrated into government and official institutions. Feminism as a force in society remains relatively small. Despite efforts at unifying and strengthening feminism, conflict over strategies and goals within the leadership and cadre has undermined the movement’s potential strength. As we shall see in the following chapter, however, women have capitalized on the women’s movement and on the lessons learned since the days of their struggle for suffrage. The numbers of women in public office have grown steadily, and with this increase in numbers has come a greater ability to impact public policy and the political world, both as policymakers and as activists.

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CHAPTER FOUR

Women in Public Office BUILDING ALLIANCES, GETTING THINGS DONE

WOME N LEADERS HAVE EMERGED at many points in history and throughout the world, but even in modern times it is rare to find women at the summit of power. In most countries there is an inverse relationship between the level of political offices and the presence of women in those offices. In their worldwide study of women and politics, Nelson and Chowdhury (1994) found that nowhere in the world do women have political status, access, or influence equal to that of men. This is indeed true in Mexico, and many of the women interviewed remarked time and again that there are many more women in lower-level political offices than in high-level positions. In many countries, even if women do attain high political office, they are relegated to what are traditionally considered “women’s fields,” such as health, education, and culture, and are seldom considered for positions in fields such as defense, the economy, or foreign affairs (Randall 1987; Gentleman 1996; Staudt 1998; Camp 1999). As several of the Mexican women in this study pointed out, there are numerous highly qualified women who are capable of taking on such

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positions. Most respondents were convinced that gender segregation within the political sphere is pervasive, and that proof of this lies in the fact that so many female officeholders are denied the opportunity to work in traditionally “masculine” areas. As an illustration, although President Zedillo initially appointed three women to his cabinet when he took over the presidency in 1994 —the highest number ever—he assigned them to what are widely regarded as secondary-level ministries: tourism, environment and fisheries, and the comptroller. By the middle of his administration there was only one woman left on his cabinet, and it was only towards the end of his presidency that he appointed a woman to head a top-tier office, the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Thus, despite the fact that Mexican women comprise the majority of the electorate and of the country’s population (52 percent in both cases), their representation in elected and appointed positions remains small. Although women’s participation is transforming the political process, both at the grassroots level and at the national level, many of the women in this study decried the fact that Mexican women do not capitalize on their majority status to ensure that they are fairly represented in government. In this chapter I analyze Mexican women as officeholders and policymakers. The first section provides an overview of the representation of women at different levels and branches of government; this is followed by an assessment of the political behavior patterns of women in public office. I focus on how women practice leadership and mentoring, how they go about building alliances and forming networks, and what some of the concrete results of this networking have been, specifically the Comisión de Equidad y Género (Gender and Equity Committee) in the Chamber of Deputies and the bicameral Parlamento de Mujeres (Women’s Parliament). In a third section, I analyze the policy agendas of these women, focusing on the dilemma sometimes posed by conflicts between personal and professional or organizational agendas. Finally, the analysis turns to specific policies and programs that women have promoted and enacted to support Mexican women. WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION IN PUBLIC OFFICE: THE STATISTICS

Worldwide, as of 1995, women accounted for 10 percent of national legislatures (cabinets and parliaments), 7 percent of cabinet positions, and 4 percent of chief executives (presidents and prime ministers) (Staudt 1998: 26). By 2000, the numbers had not changed. The women’s pyramid in figure 4.1 contrasts dramatically with the men’s inverted pyramid, il138

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96% Chief Executives 93% Cabinet Members

4% Chief Executives

90% National Representatives

7% Cabinet Members

84% Local Representatives

10% National Representatives 48% Eligible Voters

16% Local Representatives 52% Eligible Voters

Estimated Distribution of Women and Men in Positions of Political Influence Worldwide, 2000 Source: Constructed using data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. http://www.ipu.org. Accessed 22 June 2000 and 23 February 2001.

FIGURE 4.1

lustrating the imbalance of representation in positions of power. While women comprise over half of the electorate, the proportion of women declines sharply in positions of greater power. It is critically important to underscore that this is a worldwide phenomenon. As an example, Mary Hawkesworth, former director of the Center for the American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University, described the situation of women in the United States prior to the 2000 election thus: At the outset of the 21st century, women hold only 12 percent of the seats in the 106th Congress; 22 percent of the seats in state legislatures; 6 percent of the nation’s 50 governorships; 36 percent of the offices of lieutenant governor; 27 percent of other statewide elective executive offices; 29.8 percent of gubernatorial appointments to state agencies, boards and commissions; 19 percent of the mayoral offices in cities with populations larger than 30,000; and 13.9 percent of the federal judiciary. (hawkesworth, Dallas Morning News, 8 March 2000) Although the numbers improved in the 2000 election, Hawkesworth adds that according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, “the United States currently lags behind 32 nations that have elected women to the highest executive offices—president and prime minister—and 42 nations in terms of percentages of women elected to legislative offices.” In the 1992 U.S. election the number of women in the Senate tripled and the number of women in the House of Representatives nearly doubled (Thomas 1994a), raising the expectation that these num139

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60% 50%

Executive Branch Elected Officials Cabinet Members (est.) National-Level Legislative Representatives Local-Level Representatives

40%

UN Goal 30% 30% 20% 10% 0% Mexico

Latin America

United States

Europe (excluding Nordic)

Nordic Countries

Asia

FIGURE 4.2 Women’s Representation in Government Worldwide, 2000 Sources: Constructed with data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union. http://www.ipu.org. Accessed 22 June 2000 and 23 February 2001. Zárate’s Political Collections. http://jpersonales.jet.es/ziaorr/oowomen.htm. Accessed 3 July 2000 and 23 February 2001.

bers would certainly increase, but the much-heralded successes of the “Year of the Woman” were soon over. As Collins (1998: 54) asks, “Where did all that momentum go, and why? Was the Year of the Woman just that— one year?” (see also Belluck, NYT, 19 January 1998; and Cook, Thomas, and Wilcox 1994). Now it appears that the momentum has been recovered, at least at the national level: in 2001 the Senate had a record 13 women, while in the House the number of women increased from 56 to 59, another record; and five women, the most ever, were serving as governors. Also, in November 2002, House Democrats elected Representative Nancy Pelosi of California as Minority Leader giving her the highest post ever held by a woman in Congress. Figure 4.2 shows where Mexico stood compared to the rest of the world and in relation to the United Nations goal of 30 percent in the year 2000. Although Mexico compares favorably with other countries in the Americas (including the U.S.), there is still considerable room for improvement. Let us see how the numbers of women in public office have evolved. The Legislative Branch

From 1953 —when Mexican women won the right to vote—to 2000, the participation of women in the federal Congress has grown steadily, 14 0

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as the data in table 4.1 show.1 The peak was reached during the 1997– 2000 legislature, when women’s representation grew to 17.4 percent in the Chamber of Deputies and 14.9 percent in the Senate.2 The political presence of women became highly noticeable in the July 1997 election, when some of the most prominent women from all three political parties became senators: from the PRI, Beatriz Paredes, Elba Esther Gordillo, and Rosario Green; from the PAN, Ana Rosa Payán and María Elena Alvarez; and from the PRD, Amalia García and Rosalbina Garavito. All these women represent, indeed, las planas mayores (the heavy-hitters). However, it is also important to underscore that in this election, as in others, there was a mix of prominent and junior women politicians in each party’s list. In fact, a brief statistical examination of Camp’s (1995) data shows that in every election established women have shared space on the candidacy lists with first-timers or women with low-level careers. In early 2001, the number of seats occupied by women dropped somewhat in the Chamber of Deputies but increased in the Senate. Table 4.2 provides a breakdown of female representation in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate by party. Given the historic overall dominance of the PRI, it is not surprising that the largest number of women in Congress has consistently been from the PRI. Indeed, PRIaffiliated organizations (such as unions and sectoral organizations) have produced a disproportionate percentage of female Congress members. The exponential growth in the number of PRD women in the Chamber of Deputies—from 5 in 1991, tripling to 16 in 1994, and then almost doubling to 29 in 1997—is remarkable. As I will discuss later in this chapter, this dramatic growth of female representation from the PRD is in part due to the institutionalization of a gender-based quota system. However, as is also apparent from table 4.2, the relatively high representation of PRD women in the 1997–2000 legislature was slashed in 2000 as part of the PRD’s overall demise in Congress, although women remained 25 percent of the party’s delegation. Table 4.2 also shows that the party that made the biggest gains in terms of women’s seats in the 2000 election was the PAN/PVEM alliance (Alianza por el Cambio, Alliance for Change), riding on the coattails of Fox’s victory. Nevertheless, the PAN still had the lowest representation of women within its delegation at 12.1 percent, while the PRI had 15.7 percent. Some female panistas, although not included on their own party lists, entered the Chamber of Deputies by the plurinominal (proportional representation) route on behalf of the PVEM. In that 141

Women’s Representation in the Mexican Legislature, 1952 –2003 chamber of deputies

presidential period

as a as a % of % of total women total

legislature

men

1952 –1958 Adolfo Ruiz Cortines

XLII (1952 –1955) XLIII (1955 –1958)

161

99.4

1

156

97.5

1958 –1964 Alolfo López Mateos

XLIV (1958 –1961) XLV (1961–1964)

154

1964 –1970 Gustavo Díaz Ordaz 1970 –1976 Luis Echeverría Alvarez 1976 –1982 José López Portillo

senate as a as a % of % of total women total total

total

men

0.6

162

56

100.0

0

0.0

56

4

2.5

160

95.1

8

4.9

162

58

100.0

0

0.0

58

176

95.1

9

4.9

185

XLVI (1964 –1967) XLVII (1967–1970)

197

93.8

13

6.2

210

56

96.6

2

3.4

58

198

94.3

12

5.7

210

XLVIII (1970 –1973) XLIX (1973 –1976) L (1976 –1979) LI (1979 –1982)

184

93.4

13

6.6

197

58

96.7

2

3.3

60

212

91.8

19

8.2

231

215

91.1

21

8.9

236

59

92.2

5

7.8

64

368

92.0

32

8.0

400

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TABLE 4 . 1

(continued ) chamber of deputies

presidential period

as a as a % of % of total women total

legislature

men

1982 –1988 Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado

LII (1982 –1985) LIII (1985 –1988)

358

89.5

42

358

89.5

1988 –1994 Carlos Salinas de Gortari

LIV (1988 –1991) LV (1991–1994)

441

1994 –2000 Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León 2000 –2006 Vicente Fox Quesada TOTAL

senate as a as a % of % of total women total total

total

men

10.5

400

58

90.6

6

9.4

64

42

10.5

400

88.2

59

11.8

500

54

84.4

10

15.6

64

455

91.2

44

8.8

499

60

93.7

4

6.3

64

LVI (1994 –1997) LVII (1997–2000)

426

85.9

70

14.1

496

112

87.5

16

12.5

128

413

82.6

87

17.4

500

109

85.2

19

14.8

128

LVIII (2000 –2003) LIX (2003 –2006)

420

84.0

80

16.0

500

106

82.8

22

17.2

128

5,448

786

4,892

556

86

Sources: Programa Nacional de la Mujer, 1997. Más Mujeres al Congreso. Mexico City: pronam. Cámara de Diputados. http://www.cddhcu.gob.mx; http://www.camaradediputados.gob.mx. Accessed 28 August 2000; 11 June 2001. Senado. http://www.senado.gob.mx. Accessed 6 September 2000 and 11 June 2001.

872

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TABLE 4.1

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Mexican Women Legislators, by Party Affiliation, Chamber and Legislature, 1988 –2003 TABLE 4 . 2

presidential period

legislature

1988 –1994 Carlos Salinas de Gortari

LIV Chamber of (1988 –1991) Deputies Senate

pri

Total LIV LV Chamber of (1991–1994) Deputies Senate Total LV 1994 –2000 LVI Chamber of Ernesto Zedillo (1994 –1997) Deputies Ponce de León Senate Total LVI

2000 –2006 Vicente Fox Quesada

independents and pan prd pvem othera total

37

11

0

0

11

59

9

0

1

0

0

10

46

11

1

0

11

69

27

7

5

0

5

44

4

0

0

0

0

4

31

7

5

0

5

48

42

12

16

0

0

70

14

1

1

0

0

16

56

13

17

0

0

86

LVII Chamber of (1997–2000) Deputies Senate

38

15

29

3

2

87

13

3

3

0

0

19

Total LVII

51

18

32

3

2

106

33

25

13

8

5

84

10

6

2

4

0

22

43

31

15

12

5

106

227

80

70

15

23

415

LVIII Chamber of (2000 –2003) Deputies Senate Total LVIII Grand Totals

Sources: Programa Nacional de la Mujer, 1997. Más Mujeres al Congreso. Mexico City: pronam. Cámara de Diputados. http://www.cddhcu.gob.mx and http://www.camaradediputados .gob.mx. Accessed 22 June 2000 and 8 June 2001. Senado. http://senado.gob.mx. Accessed 22 June 2000 and 8 June 2001. a Includes both independent candidates and members of smaller political parties.

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party, a full 50 percent of the sixteen-member delegation was female, and four of the five PVEM Senators were also women. In spite of the increasing proportion of women in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, it is discouraging to consider that, within the legislature, women are largely relegated to the less influential positions. For example, the committees they chair are usually those considered to be of minor importance and traditionally regarded as “women’s” committees. (The one major exception is the most influential committee, the Gran Comisión, which both in 1991 and in 1997 was headed by a woman. In the Senate’s Gran Comisión, a woman—María de los Angeles Moreno— occupied the position of chair for the first time in 1998.) In the 1997–2000 Chamber of Deputies, out of a total of fortyone committees, five were chaired by women: Artesanías (Arts and Crafts); Ciencia y Tecnología (Science and Technology); Corrección de Estilo (Editorial); Cultura (Culture); and Reforma Agraria (Agrarian Reform). Clearly, none of these is a top-ranking committee. Of a total of fourteen special committees (comisiones especiales, or ad-hoc, rather than permanent, committees), four were headed by women: Equidad y Género (Gender and Equity); Desarrollo Social (Social Development); Asuntos de la Juventud (Youth); and Protección Civil (Civil Protection) (Crónica Legislativa 1997–1998: 34 –35). Similarly, in the 2000 –2003 Congress, only five committees were chaired by women (three from the PAN and two from the PRI), and once again they were among the least important: Atención a Grupos Vulnerables (At-Risk Populations); Ciencia y Tecnología; Equidad y Género; Población, Fronteras y Asuntos Migratorios (Population, Border, and Migration); and Salud (Health). In the Senate, women headed eleven of the forty-nine committees. Although they were not the top committees, the chairs included the more prominent women from each of the parties: Luisa María Calderón and Cecilia Romero (PAN); Dulce María Sauri and Silvia Hernández (PRI); and Leticia Burgos (PRD) (Cámara de Diputados 2001; Senado 2001). Even more discouraging is the fact that the hard work of female legislators is sometimes undermined because they share the legislative floor with another group of female employees who seem to get a great deal of the attention: congressional pages. A journalist described them thus: The pretty, young women filter through the aisles of Mexico’s Congress in miniskirts and broad smiles, delivering papers and serving coffee to the lawmakers, most of whom are men. . . . In Congress, the pages’ uniforms change each day but normally consist of heeled 145

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shoes, blouse, blazer and miniskirt— often worn shorter than the blazer. . . . They earn about $360 a month. . . . [Their supervisor] trained the women to stick out their chests, hike up their skirts, and smile at lawmakers. (price, AAS, 19 November 1997) It was not long after the newly reconstituted Congress took power in 1997 that this group of women attracted international attention when they challenged the custom of providing sexual favors to legislators in addition to their regular duties in the Congress. In the spirit of the changes occurring in Congress as the PRI lost its majority for the first time ever, the young women decided to take a stand against the woman in charge of the pages and accused her of running a prostitution ring for lawmakers. The pages complained that lawmakers would “joke about their bodies, send them lingerie, make them work private functions without pay and sometimes try to buy their sexual services” (Price, AAS, 19 November 1997). Although the pages’ supervisor denied the charges, the women’s cause was taken up by Patria Jiménez, an outspoken feminist deputy who had just won a seat in Congress. Jiménez zeroed in on the central issue—the role of women in the workplace—and demanded an investigation. Although sexual harassment is prohibited in Mexico, there are no laws to forbid making employment decisions on the basis of appearance, age, or marital status. Indeed, want ads often openly request that applicants be female, under twenty-five years of age, and unmarried, and that they have “good appearance” (buena presentación). Photos are often requested. It is doubtful that these practices will change overnight, but what is important is that attention has now been called to the matter. As Jiménez stated, “the legislators thought they had a right to this. . . . No one is above the law, and it’s important that women begin to denounce this kind of thing” (Price, AAS, 19 November 1997; see also Bierma 1998). The legislative branch seems to be more open to women, both in numerical and in partisan terms, when compared with the executive and judicial branches. We now turn to an examination of the executive branch, where women are not only few in number but also overwhelmingly associated with the PRI. The Executive Branch

Women have had little involvement in elected positions within the executive branch, at both the national and the state levels. There has never 146

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been a female president of Mexico, and only three women have been state governors. At the national level, Mexico is not unlike the majority of countries worldwide. Zárate’s Political Collections (ZPC) asks: Have you ever noticed that many relevant countries have never had a woman as head of the State or of the Government in the last decades? This happens with the United States, Russia (and the former USSR), Germany, China, Japan, Italy, Spain, Australia, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico. On the contrary, many small, developed, developing and Third World countries have been pioneers in the issue, Asian states in particular, giving example to the others. (zpc Web site 2000) Based on data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, table 4.3 documents female heads of state and presiding officers in national parliaments since 1945. Although in both categories it shows steady increases from base levels of one and two respectively in 1965 (prior to that there were none), the numbers remain derisory: worldwide women still represent only 4.7 percent of heads of state and 12.8 percent of presiding officers. In the year 2000 (using a different database), we find that there were fourteen female rulers. However, four of them—Elizabeth II of Great Britain, Margrethe II of Denmark, Beatrix of the Netherlands, and Maria Domenica Michelotti of San Marino—were regents or queens. Of the ten remaining women rulers, six of them governed the type of small countries observed above by Zárate: Prime Minister Bandaranaike and President Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka, Prime Minster Wajed of Bangladesh, President Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, President Moscoso of Panama, and Governor-general Louisy of Saint Lucia. Of the remaining four, three governed in countries where women rulers are not unprecedented: President McAleese of Ireland, Governor-general Clarkson of Canada, and President Clark of New Zealand. New inroads are not being made. Even in Finland, where Tarja Kaarina Halonen is the first female president, the presence of women in society and politics is not new. Only three women have run for the presidency in Mexico thus far: Marcela Lombardo, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, and Cecilia Soto. None of them won a significant percentage of the vote, but their presence on the ballot did leave a mark. In particular, the candidacy of Cecilia Soto received considerable media attention and demonstrated that an accomplished female politician could make a credible run for the highest office. Although the percentage of votes she received was minimal, the positive public response to Soto’s candidacy encouraged discussion of 147

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TABLE 4 . 3

Women in the Highest Positions of State, 1945 –2000 heads of state and government (queens and governors general excluded)

1945

1955

1965

1975

1985

1995

2000 (May)

68 sovereign states 0 (0%) women heads of state or government 81 sovereign states 0 (0%) women heads of state or government 122 sovereign states 1 (0.8%) woman head of government in Sri Lanka 147 sovereign states 4 (2.7%) women heads of state or government in Argentina, Central African Republic, India, and Sri Lanka 162 sovereign states 6 (3.7%) women heads of state or government in Dominica, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia 187 sovereign states 12 (6.4%) women heads of state or government in Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Dominica, Haiti, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Turkey

190 sovereign states 9 (4.7%) women heads of state or government in Bangladesh, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, New Zealand, Panama, San Marino,

presiding officers of national parliaments 26 parliaments, 37 houses (bicameral parliaments) 0 (0%) women presiding officers 61 parliaments, 90 houses (bicameral parliaments) 0 (0%) women presiding officers 94 parliaments, 129 houses (bicameral parliaments) 2 (1.6%) women presiding officers in Austria and Uruguay 115 parliaments, 155 houses (bicameral parliaments) 3 (1.9%) women presiding officers in Canada, Germany, and Iceland 136 parliaments, 179 houses (bicameral parliaments) 6 (3.4%) women presiding officers in Belize, Dominica, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, and Sao Tome and Principe 176 parliaments, 228 houses (bicameral parliaments) 23 (10.5%) women presiding officers in Antigua and Barbuda (both houses), Croatia, Dominica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Grenada, Guatemala, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Peru, South Africa, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, and United Kingdom 177 parliaments, 242 houses (bicameral parliaments) 31 (12.8%) women presiding officers in Antigua and Barbuda (both houses), Australia, Bahamas, Belize (both houses),

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TABLE 4 . 3

(continued)

and Sri Lanka (both head of state and head of government)

Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Finland, India, Jamaica (both houses), Lesotho, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, San Marino, South Africa (both houses), Spain (both houses), Suriname, Sweden, and United Kingdom

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union. 2000. Women in Politics, 1945 –2000. Reports and Documents 37. Geneva: Inter-Parliamentary Union. Note: The percentages are valid strictly for the year considered. However, women may have occupied such positions in other years during the ten-year periods considered.

the potential for a female presidential candidate in the 2000 election. Patricia Mercado, a leading feminist and activist (and head of the feminist group Diversa), was widely expected to win the presidential nomination of the newly formed Partido Democracia Social (Social Democratic Party) in 2000. Although she had broad support within the party and was seen as young, fresh, and inspiring, in the end the party endorsed the nomination of its founder, Gilberto Rincón Gallardo. Mercado lost the nomination by only 6 votes out of 120, but ultimately the party’s message was consistent with the one so often sent to female candidates: a woman is too risky and may be too costly for the party. In the executive branch at the federal level between 1980 and 1992, women’s representation was 6 percent: of the 7,655 appointed positions available, women occupied only 466. The ministries with the highest female participation were the Ministry of Planning and Budget (14 percent), the Ministry of Public Education (12.9 percent), and the Ministry of Fisheries (10.3 percent) (Fernández Poncela 1995b: 48). The first woman undersecretary (subsecretaria) was appointed in 1958, to the Ministry of Public Education; 3 the first female chief of staff (oficial mayor) was appointed in 1970, to the Ministry of Foreign Relations; and a woman was first appointed to head a ministry (tourism) in 1981 (Fernández Poncela 1995a: 151). Between 1981 and 1998, female cabinet secretaries were relegated

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primarily to three ministries: tourism, fisheries, and the comptroller. Each of these has been headed twice by a woman (Camp 1998: 169). In 1994 a woman, Julia Carabias, was appointed to head the new Environment Ministry (SEMARNAP), but it was only in 1998, with the appointment of Rosario Green to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, that new ground was truly broken. Women appear to do well in this ministry, albeit at the lower levels: in 1999, in the administrative sector of Mexico’s foreign offices, the total number of women was 340, compared with 175 men. There were eleven female ambassadors, eight of whom were career foreign service officers (PRONAM 1999). Statistics for 1999 from the Programa Nacional de la Mujer indicated encouraging numbers of women in the executive branch as a whole (Administración Pública Federal), which includes all bureaucratic offices of the federal government: 27 percent of mid-level management and 30 percent of department heads and advisors were female. The lowest representation of women was at the undersecretary level, where only 4.7 percent were female (PRONAM 1999). While overall these numbers appear good, they are problematic if, as Camp (1993) suggests, candidates for high office most often come from the bureaucracy and national appointments. It is critically important to look at women’s representation in these areas. When women do not have access to pools of political recruitment such as these, it is not surprising that they are missing from the top decision-making positions in Mexico. In the government of the Federal District in 1999, women were relatively well represented: five of the sixteen delegaciones (city districts) and two of the ten secretarías were headed by women. Although women tended to hold less important delegaciones, the two female-run secretariats were two of the most important: Clara Jusidman was secretary of social development, one of the busiest and most visible positions, and Rosario Robles was secretary of government, the top position following the mayor. Robles, of course, went on to become mayor of Mexico City when she was selected to fill the unexpired term of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas when he resigned to run for the presidency. However, it was not until López Obrador took office on 5 December 2000 that women’s representation in the Federal District government increased significantly: no less than half (eight) of the secretariats (the positions in his top-level cabinet) were held by women. Of the eleven delegaciones won by the PRD/Alliance, four were taken by women, this time including some of the more important sections of the city, such as Cuauhté-

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moc and Coyoacán. Of the PAN’s five delegaciones, one—the large and important central Venustiano Carranza—was won by a woman. THE FOX C ABINET Vicente Fox initially appointed only three women to his cabinet: Leticia Navarro in tourism, Josefina Vázquez in social development, and María Teresa Herrera in agrarian reform. Of these, only the Ministry of Social Development can be considered top-tier (it was first offered to Amalia García of the PRD, who turned it down). Other women appointed to Fox’s “extended” cabinet (which consists of thirdand fourth-level positions) were Xóchitl Galvez for the newly created Office for the Development of Indigenous Communities (Oficina para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas); Martha Sahagún as spokesperson (Comunicación Social); Mariclaire Acosta as special ambassador for human rights and democracy, another new position; and Laura Valdés de Rojas for the national lottery. While some of these appointments have been lauded— Galvez and Acosta, for example, have very strong reputations in their respective fields—some observers have still raised the point that women have once again been relegated to typical “women’s fields” and to lower-ranking positions. Where a precedent was set in the extended cabinet was in the appointment of Sahagún, since never before had there been a female spokesperson for the president of Mexico. Sahagún broke even newer ground when she resigned as spokesperson to marry the president and become first lady. There are many interesting stories behind the Fox appointments. In the weeks prior to his taking office and making cabinet appointments, various groups of women from diverse backgrounds and ideological persuasions began pressing the newly elected president. On one side was a group of feminists who constituted a committee and proposed eleven women for Fox’s cabinet. Each had proven leadership in her field and would have been an excellent appointment. The list of eleven included Patricia Mercado and Cecilia Loría, well-known feminist leaders; Sabina Berman, a writer with a reputation for her work on culture; academics of the first rank such as Lourdes Arizpe and María Amparo Casar, and other academics such as Mercedes Barquet, Rosalba Carrasco, and Patricia Galeana; Jacqueline Peschard, an academic and the only female member of the IFE’s (Instituto Federal Electoral, Federal Electoral Institute) Electoral Council; and Patricia Olamendi and Mariclaire Acosta, both of whom were working closely with Fox’s team. On the other side, Fox faced pressure from a strong anti-choice group,

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Pro Vida, which proposed three well-known conservative women: Mireille Roccatti, former president of the National Commission for Human Rights; Guadalupe Arellano, leader of ANCIFEM; and PAN senator Cecilia Romero. Both groups were roundly criticized by women and by analysts alike: the feminists because they did not include a single panista on their list and were considered “intolerantes y poco incluyentes” (intolerant and noninclusive); and the Pro Vida group because they automatically discarded the eleven proposed feminists on the grounds of their pro-choice stances without any consideration of their qualifications (González, Reforma, 16 November 2000; Reforma, 27 October 2000). Of all these women, only Mariclaire Acosta was appointed to the cabinet, and even then, as noted above, it was not to a position of the first rank. Women on all fronts were disappointed with the total number of women in Fox’s cabinet. The appointment with the most colorful story is undoubtedly that of Martha Sahagún as spokesperson for the president. Sahagún had been Fox’s spokesperson since 1995, when he was governor of Guanajuato, and during his five-year-long quest for the presidency there was already talk of their romantic involvement. Although both of them were divorced, there was much gossip, speculation, and even betting among the public at large regarding the future of the relationship. She spoke openly about her feelings for him and relished her appearances in the media, to the point that some referred to her as a virtual first lady (with the inevitable peppery stories of her disagreements with Fox’s children; she also has adult children and one grandchild). Others were more critical of her, saying she had no training or abilities for the job. She had never finished college and was often ineffective and imprecise; other members of the Fox cabinet frequently contradicted her public statements, and she clashed with some of them publicly and privately. Fox never made any public statements about his feelings for her, and thus there was rampant speculation about the outcome of this “office romance” (see Thompson, New York Times, 1 June 2001). The speculation ended somewhat abruptly and surprisingly when Fox and Sahagún married on 2 July 2001, one year to the day after Fox’s electoral victory and on his fifty-ninth birthday. The private ceremony was performed by a judge at Los Pinos, with only a few family members in attendance. The president, who is not a shy man, did not elaborate when pressed by reporters, calling it “a personal matter.” All he said the next day was “just look at my smiling face and you can judge for yourselves”;

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he then carried on with his daily work, which included a meeting with Prime Minister José María Aznar of Spain (Ferriss, AAS, 3 July 2001). Analysts immediately jumped to interpret the wedding as a ploy by Fox to boost his popularity, which had been sagging because of unfulfilled campaign promises, some controversial policy proposals, and “Toallagate” (Towelgate), the scandal that in earlier weeks had rocked the administration and the country.4 Some joked that the president’s expensive linens had been purchased in preparation for the wedding night. Other analysts theorized that Fox needed to remove Sahagún as spokesperson because she was not doing a good job, and because he did not want to fire her, he married her instead. But most Mexicans seemed to think that it was real love and wished the couple well. Some women admire Sahagún, comparing her to Hillary Clinton, because she has worked hard to help Fox in good times and bad. The Judicial Branch

After the legislative branch, where women are relatively well represented, the judicial branch seems to offer the most opportunities for women in Mexico. In 1961, the first woman was appointed as justice of the Supreme Court, and from 1982 to 1986 the attorney general for the Federal District was a woman (Martínez 1995: 101–102). The data show steady growth. In 1984, women accounted for 7.3 percent of top officials in the judicial branch; 9.5 percent in 1987; 10.5 percent in 1989; and 12.4 percent in 1992 (Fernández Poncela 1995a: 151). In 1994, women made up 19 percent of Supreme Court justices, 15 percent of federal magistrates, and 24 percent of judges (Camp 1998: 168; Martínez 1995: 101). The judicial system was thoroughly reorganized by President Zedillo at the end of 1994. These reforms sought to professionalize the Supreme Court, reducing the number of justices from twenty-six to eleven, extending their tenure, and ensuring that they were no longer political appointees tied to the revolving door of presidential mandates. Additional reforms sought to professionalize the lower-level judicial apparatus and to provide greater financial independence for the judiciary (Ward and Rodríguez 1999). In 1999, women held 36.14 percent of mid-level positions in the federal judicial branch (poder judicial federal). As in other branches and agencies, women are disproportionately represented at the lower administrative levels: 69.5 percent of employees in these (mostly clerical) positions are women. Only one of the eleven Supreme Court

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justices is a woman, but 51.4 percent of the lower administrative positions in the Supreme Court are held by women (PRONAM 1999). A woman has never occupied the position of attorney general or assistant attorney general ( procurador or subprocurador general de justicia) at the national level. The Procuraduría General de la República (attorney general’s office) is in charge of the police system at the federal level, with equivalents at the state and local levels. Interestingly, the Federal District metropolitan police began experimenting with assigning female officers in the summer of 1999 in an effort to curb police corruption. They were assigned specifically to hand out traffic fines, which usually are overlooked in exchange for bribes when drivers are stopped for small infractions. During their first two weeks on the job in August 1999, the policewomen in Mexico City issued 11,198 citations (Reyes, Reforma, 18 August 1999). It is also increasingly common to find young women in the customs areas of airports and other border crossings, allegedly in an effort to curtail the common practice of bribing these officials. The message sent is double: not only is it considered more difficult to attempt to bribe a young woman than an older man, but women are seen as incorruptible. Incidentally, these women tend to be, generally speaking, more cordial and well mannered than their male counterparts. But the female traffic officers also are tough: when an infuriated driver verbally abused an officer and tore up a ticket she had issued, she sued him for disrespect to a public official (Reyes, Reforma, 18 August 1999). Women of the States: Governorships and Legislatures

There have been only three women governors in the history of Mexico, and of these only two were elected. Griselda Alvarez served as governor of Colima from 1979 to 1985, and Beatriz Paredes governed Tlaxcala from 1987 to 1993. Dulce María Sauri, who was governor of Yucatán from 1991 to 1993, was appointed on an interim basis by the state congress to finish the unexpired term of Governor Víctor Manzanilla Schaffer.5 In the United States the situation is similar: until 1996, only thirteen women had ever served as governor, and of these, only nine were elected in their own right while the remaining four were appointed to fill unexpired terms (Thomas 1998: 2). The first female governor in the United States was Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming, who served from 1925 to 1927—fifty years earlier than her counterpart in Mexico.

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According to the U.S. National Governors’ Association, in 2000, women held 3 of the 52 gubernatorial positions in the United States (the fifty states, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands). Women also held 92 statewide elected offices in the United States, accounting for 28.5 percent of the 323 total positions (CAWP 2000). Among those 92 women, over 20 percent held the office of lieutenant governor, which is the highest elected office in the state after the governor. Two of the three states where women served as governors—Arizona and New Hampshire—also ranked among the top states in terms of the percentages of women serving in their state legislatures, at 35.6 percent and 31.8 percent, respectively. These states also rank highest among all the state legislatures in the number of women who have served in house and senate leadership positions (CAWP 1999). In 2001, there were five women governors—the most ever—including firstever female governors in Delaware and Montana. The contrast between the United States and Mexico in the number of female legislators at the state level is striking. Whereas in the United States women have made their greatest electoral gains in state legislatures (see, for example, Carroll 1994; Thomas 1994a, 1994b), the same is not true in Mexico.6 In 1999, for example, women occupied only 134 out of 1,036 seats in Mexican state congresses—slightly over 10 percent. The party breakdown was as follows: PAN delegations were 9 percent female (27 women out of 296 total PAN state legislators); PRI, 12 percent (67 out of 550); PRD, 18 percent (31 out of 175); and other parties, 60 percent (9 out of 15). The states with the largest representations of women were Yucatán (28 percent of the state legislature) and Morelos (26.6 percent) (PRONAM 1999). By way of contrast, the data for the United States show that in 2000, women held approximately 22.5 percent of state legislative positions in the country, that is, more than double what their Mexican counterparts held. Women accounted for 1,670 of the 7,424 state legislators (CAWP 2000). Women held about 20 percent of state senate seats and slightly more than 23 percent of house seats. Over 60 percent of these women belonged to the Democratic Party, 38.8 percent were Republicans, and less than 1 percent were Independents or nonpartisan (CAWP 2000). In 1999, approximately 20 percent of state legislators chairing standing committees were women. Women held about 18.5 percent of the committee chair positions in state senates and slightly over 21 percent of house committee chair positions. Also in 1999, 5 women served as sen-

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ate presidents and 4 as Speakers of the House, out of a total of 23 women who have ever held either of these positions (CAWP 2000). In the 2000 election, although the number of female governors increased, there was a slight drop in the number of women elected to state legislatures and statewide elected offices. In 2001 there were 1,658 women state lawmakers, down 12 from the 1,670 women holding office in 2000. The number of women elected to statewide office also dropped slightly, from 92 to 88 (Tanner, AAS, 25 November 2000). What is troubling about this drop, however slight, is that it is the first time this has occurred in the last thirty years. In 1969, only 301 women served in state legislatures, about 4 percent. That figure grew to 10 percent by 1979, and to 17 percent by 1989. In 1992, the “Year of the Woman,” the numbers jumped to 21 percent (Tanner, AAS, 25 November 2000, citing data from CAWP). The percentage for 2001 was just over 22 percent, down slightly from the 22.5 percent in 2000 mentioned above. The relatively low involvement of Mexican women in state legislatures may prove costly, if one takes the United States as an example. Several studies have shown that service in a state legislature often is a key entry point to higher office (Darcy, Welch, and Clark 1994; Dolan and Ford 1998). For example, according to CAWP data, of the 47 women serving in the House of Representatives in 1994, 20 of them served in their state legislatures prior to being elected to Congress (Dolan and Ford 1998: 74). “State legislatures are a pipeline,” commented Deborah Walsh of the Center for the American Woman in Politics (CAWP) in the wake of the 2000 election. “If you look at women who are in Congress and governor’s offices now, a tremendous number were in state legislatures before” (cited in Tanner, AAS, 25 November 2000). Former women governors in both Mexico and the United States who have become national figures confirm the point about the importance of developing a career at the state level. It is there that many women develop and prove their mettle. In Mexico, Beatriz Paredes and Dulce María Sauri are two of the most prominent women both in their party and in national politics. Both of them have held the position of secretary general of the PRI (Sauri held the party presidency as well) and served as federal deputies, senators, and in a variety of top appointed positions. In the United States, two of the more visible women at the national level—Ann Richards from Texas and Christie Whitman from New Hampshire— developed their careers and much of their prominence as governors. After her reelection in 2000, Whitman was appointed to the Bush cabinet as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. 156

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Women in the Municipalities

As we have seen, women in Mexico are making inroads by holding offices at the national, state, and local levels of politics. Although the number of women holding public office in municipal governments is small (see tables 4.4 and 4.5), this is the arena in which they often appear to be most influential. Women’s reasons for commitment to public service at the local level vary; while many women actively involved in the political lives of their localities intend to use such activities as stepping-stones to higher political levels, others have no desire to become involved at the state or national levels. Moreover, the majority of politically active women tend to center their activities around local interests through their participation in social movements, as discussed in chapter 2; their very involvement in politics is often motivated by a demand to satisfy daily needs or by a crisis in the neighborhood or local community.7 While it is true that much of Mexico’s political life is centered in the nation’s capital city, many women choose to participate in politics within the realm of their own local environments. Often their concerns are local concerns, which they feel cannot be addressed efficiently at the state or national level. In the opinion of many women in elected office, it is more effective to stay in their communities and remain in close contact with their constituents. And for some women, it is a matter of family obligation. Strong ties to family have prevented women from aspiring to political offices that would force them to leave their communities and move to the nation’s capital. Many women feel a strong sense of duty as mothers, wives, and daughters, and as a result they sometimes do not consider leaving their communities and their families to pursue a political career. Of course, this is not always the case: this research project uncovered a definite tendency among women active in nongovernmental organizations to move to the Federal District from all parts of the country in order to pursue their political goals. Studies repeatedly show that women’s voices are most likely to be heard at the local level, since few women are allowed to participate at the higher levels of a hierarchical structure (Massolo 1994a, 1994b, 1998; Staudt 1998; Randall 1987; Young 1990). As elsewhere, women in Mexico are involved predominantly at the local level, albeit in informal political arenas (such as unions or cooperatives) rather than in formal political positions. They also share with women in other nations the perception that their work has historically been defined as public service or social work, as opposed to “politics.” Issues such as clean drinking 157

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water for their families are expected to motivate Mexican women to action quicker than, say, national issues such as the balance of payments. Since high-level political recruitment occurs predominantly from within the federal bureaucracy and other political circles in Mexico City, the presence of women at the local grassroots level has not led to their incorporation into political office. For example, the Casa de la Mujer (Women’s house) in Oaxaca is an organization that promotes reproductive health, protection of the environment, and general women’s issues. One of the leaders of this organization expressed in our interview that she would like to change her career path and begin working for the government because it was difficult for her to effect change and receive recognition for her work in a nongovernmental position. Yet relatively few women make the transition from local community organizations or municipal government positions to national positions in Mexico City. A glance at tables 4.4 and 4.5 corroborates the very low number of municipalities governed by women. In 1998, only 3.3 percent of Mexican municipalities were governed by women, but the figures for (unelected) city council members were somewhat better: 12 percent of the síndicos and regidores (city council members) were female (PRONAM 1999). While this figure may not be dramatically high, what is important about the number of women in city councils is that such positions often represent their first step in learning and experiencing formal participation in the exercise of government.8 By way of contrast, in the United States, comprehensive data for women’s share of local-level offices show that in 2000, women held 17.5 percent of mayoral offices, or 192 mayoral offices out of approximately 1,100 U.S. cities with populations over 30,000. In early 2000, according to the United States Conference of Mayors, there were about 450 female mayors nationally, and fully 10 percent of those women governed cities with populations over 100,000. Of the 85 women mayors in Mexico in 1996, 30 governed municipalities with populations of 30,000 and fewer; 11 governed municipalities with populations between 50,000 and 100,000; and only two governed municipalities with populations of more than 200,000 (and these happened not to be large or important cities: Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and Uruapan, Michoacán) (Massolo 1998: 199). Having seen in this section the numerical representation of women at different levels of government in Mexico and in other countries, we now turn to assessing the performance and accomplishments of women in office. Traditionally, the career paths of women who have succeeded 158

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TABLE 4 . 4

Municipalities Governed by Women, by Party and State, 1998 number governed by women

state Aguascalientes Baja California Baja California Sur Campeche Chiapas Chihuahua Coahuila Colima Durango Guanajuato Guerrero Hidalgo Jalisco México Michoacán Morelos Nayarit Nuevo León Oaxaca Puebla Querétaro Quintana Roo San Luis Potosí Sinaloa Sonora Tabasco Tamaulipas Tlaxcala Veracruz Yucatán Zacatecas Total

total number of municipalities pri 11 5 5 9 111 67 38 10 39 46 76 84 124 122 113 22 20 51 570 217 18 8 58 18 70 17 43 60 207 106 56

pan

prd

pfcrn

1 1 2 3 5 1 6 2

2,401

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

3 4 8 2

1

1

1

1

2

2 2 4 3 7 6 1

1 1 1 1

1

64

11

6

1

1

Source: Victoria E. Rodríguez, ed. 1998. Women’s Participation in Mexican Political Life. Boulder: Westview Press 201. Based on data compiled from Centro de Desarrollo Municipal (cedemun), Secretaría de Gobernación, Mexico City.

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TABLE 4 . 5

Municipalities Governed by Women, 1990 –1998

Total Number of Municipalities Number of Municipalities Governed by Women As a Percentage of Total

1990

1993

1995

1998

2,373

2,388

2,395

2,418

51

68

94

79

2.1

2.8

3.9

3.3

Source: Data compiled from Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Municipal con Mujeres. 1999. Secretaría de Gobernación, Mexico City. (Data do not correspond exactly to those on table 4.4 due to the electoral cycle of 1998 and the different months of measurement.)

have differed from those of successful men. Let us now see how these differences manifest themselves. THE BEHAVIOR OF WOMEN IN PUBLIC OFFICE

Until very recently, political science and gender politics literature had devoted little attention to the subject of how women behave in public office. This is not particularly surprising, considering the low number of women who have, historically, attained political office in governments worldwide. Since women have so rarely been among the political elite, few gender-specific studies delved into this topic. In the absence of thorough research and empirical evidence, it was often assumed that male patterns of behavior extended to women as well. However, assumptions regarding the behavior of women in office are sometimes deceiving, and therefore greater attention must be paid to how women officeholders actually behave. Clearly this matter is of increasing importance, as women are running for and winning a greater share of public offices than ever before. It was not until the 1970s that the study of women officeholders began to grow substantially, beginning with Jeane Kirkpatrick’s groundbreaking book Political Woman (1974). In the widely read How Women Legislate, Sue Thomas (1994a) offers two explanations as to why research on this matter has been so scant. First, gender politics has only recently been added to the range of topics studied by political scientists. It was the rise of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s that inspired

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scholars “to investigate how bringing women into the political system had an impact on the people within the system and the institutions themselves” (Thomas 1994a: 29). Second, as Thomas points out, prior to the 1970s there were not enough women in legislative bodies to make analytical comparisons between men and women or among women themselves possible. Some biographical studies of women officeholders were made before this time, but no general conclusions regarding the behavior of women as a group could be drawn. As the numbers of women in office have increased, so the scholarly literature in the field has blossomed. In Mexico, as in the United States, gender politics is a recent addition to the topics Mexicanist scholars study (see, for example, Fernández Poncela 1995b; Hierro, Parada, and Careaga 1995; Martínez 1995; Massolo 1994b; Rodríguez 1998b; Tarrés 1992), because only since the early 1980s have there been significant numbers of women officeholders in Mexico. The sections that follow assess some of the different ways of looking at the behavior of women in office, in particular in the Mexican context. Leadership Styles

Studies of how women in political life go about exercising power often ask whether distinct “male” and “female” styles of leadership exist.9 Following the lead of other analysts, Michael Genovese and Seth Thompson ask, “Is the dominant, assertive, competitive approach a male style, and a relationship-oriented approach to leading a feminine style?” (Genovese and Thompson 1993: 10). Stereotypes abound when it comes to describing the different ways in which men and women lead. Men are often characterized as exercising a hard style of leadership— one that stresses the importance of hierarchy, assertiveness, dominance, and order. An extension of this view is the perception that men are more likely than women to become obsessed with power, which in turn may lead to corruption and dishonesty. A common perception regarding women is that by nature they are more inclined to be compassionate, nurturing, and honest than men. Stereotypically, it is thought that they exert a softer style of political leadership, one that is characterized by “cooperation, influence, and empowerment” (Genovese 1993: 214). How far do perceptions such as these go in actually portraying the leadership styles of men and women in political life? While it was not

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among the aims of this research project to examine the behavior of men in Mexican political life, many of the women interviewed concurred that the stereotypical image of male politicians as corrupt, dishonest, and obsessed with power is an accurate one. Not all of the women who participated in the project felt that all or even most male politicians fit this image, but for many of the interviewees, male politicians tended to evoke highly negative connotations. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that several of the women interviewed saw female politicians the same way they saw men, that is, in a very negative fashion. There is no consensus of opinion about how women in political life exercise power and leadership. Although much of the popular literature on female leadership states that women and men lead differently (e.g., Helgesen 1990; Astin and Leland 1991) and that women are by nature better leaders, Klenke (1996) and other scholars argue that gender is not a significant determinant of leadership style. Klenke’s research shows that the context and the culture of leadership—including factors such as power, race, and ethnicity—are more relevant than gender. According to Klenke, there are very few differences between the leadership styles of men and women, and more profound differences within each sex than between the sexes. As Genovese concludes: No one would ever accuse Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, of exercising a ‘soft’ style of leadership, nor could such a thing be said of Golda Meir. On the other hand, Violeta Chamorro and Corazón Aquino are often criticized as being weak or soft. When examining the styles of leadership exercised by the women who have headed governments, no clear pattern (certainly no distinctive ‘feminine’ leadership style) emerges. (1993: 215) The responses of the women interviewed confirm that there are indeed more differences in leadership style between groups of women than there are between men and women. Some respondents were eager to praise the leadership style of female officeholders, noting that they promote cooperation and friendly relations among themselves and with their male colleagues and are eager to open the doors of opportunity for other women. Others maintained that female leaders often tend to forget about the women who are still struggling to attain positions of political power. They perceived female politicians as obsessed with their own power, and frequently likened their behavior to that of male politicians. Moreover, several of the women went so far as to portray female 162

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officeholders as competitive “cat-fighters” who prevent women from becoming a unified and forceful bloc. Predictably, some of the women interviewed in this study who displayed negative views of how women in office behave were also quick to assert that their own case was an exception. Overall, female politicians in Mexico clearly believe—and are eager to point out—that they are opening up doors for younger generations of women who aspire to enter political office, and the evidence for this claim is convincing. Many of the women in political office feel a responsibility to serve as role models because young girls now see them in positions of political power and grow accustomed to the idea that they too can aspire to such positions. For example, during the 1995 Austin conference that was part of this study, Cecilia Soto commented that when she had been a presidential candidate she had received many letters from young girls, some only seven or eight years old, saying that they admired her and that they, too, aspired to run for the presidency some day. In addition, many of the women emphasized the belief that if they work hard and perform their duties well today, future generations of both males and females will be inclined to elect more women into office. For these female officeholders, mentoring plays a key role: it provides a way for women leaders to break through the glass ceiling and reach the top positions. Morrison, White, and Van Velsor (1992) claim that women need advice to reach the top, and that mentors are the ones to provide such advice. Klenke (1996) sees many benefits in mentoring: enhanced career progress, higher motivation, better job performance, and higher retention rates. The Mexican women interviewed in this study stressed that they are actively creating more space for women in political life by supporting, advising, appointing, and helping to elect other women. However, not only is there a shortage of potential female mentors for women, but women are often seen as lacking the power to mentor. Moreover, some women may not be willing to mentor. It is clear, then, that although female officeholders in Mexico overall appear to have a positive image of their own behavior as role models and mentors, especially of their impact on other women who may want to enter political life, several barriers still stand in the way. There is also some speculation that mentoring may take on a different meaning after the 2000 election and Fox’s victory, as political careers are now developing along unprecedented paths and moving away from the political networks system of yesteryear. In contrast to the female politicians in the study, the interviewees 163

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outside of government and the political parties had rather negative perceptions of female leadership styles. From their point of view, women in government and in parties are power hungry, jealous, and overly competitive. According to these respondents, such women do not make any effort to open doors for other women; on the contrary, like many of their male counterparts, they close the windows of opportunity to women in order to hoard the power to themselves. It is through this lens that female politicians are seen as ignoring or losing their distinctly “feminine” qualities, such as the abilities to share and to cooperate. This view of how women behave once in office is compounded by the popular perception that such women often do not maintain good relations among themselves. Female officeholders may fight and compete with one another, even when they belong to the same party or organization. In this view, jealousy and competitiveness preclude any unity or cooperation among women. Cecilia Romero, a senior member of the PAN and a senator, underscored this point when she noted in interview that often the worst enemies of female politicians are other women in politics. Furthermore, female officeholders are sometimes perceived as much more friendly and cooperative with their male colleagues than with their female colleagues. As Consuelo Botello, a former federal deputy from the PAN, asserted, female politicians are often more willing to help out and build alliances with their compañeros than their compañeras. This tendency cuts across party lines. Before the 1994 election, the women candidates of the PRD put together a debate with other female candidates from the PRI and the PAN (no male candidates were included). The PRD candidates, feeling that they were the most qualified, wanted a chance to debate the competition and show the electorate that they were the best choice. The PRD women commented afterwards, during our interviews, that they felt more threatened by the women candidates from the other parties because they were women, rather than because they were candidates from opposing parties. One of the most widely publicized instances of political strife between women in political office in Mexico is the discord that took place in 1992 –1993 between the governor of Yucatán, Dulce María Sauri, and the mayor of the state’s capital city (Mérida), Ana Rosa Payán. The conflict between Governor Sauri, a member of the PRI, and Mayor Payán, a member of the PAN, received national attention. Although both women were altogether diplomatic when talking about each other, the underlying clash between them was widely known.10

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The disagreements between the two women polarized Yucatán society and had adverse consequences for Mérida’s progress. Sauri made improvements to the city without the prior approval of the mayor, blocked funding for the mayor’s projects, and bypassed her in major decisions affecting the state’s capital. Payán, at the same time, failed to consult the governor on projects supported by state funds and openly criticized her policies (López Vargas, Proceso, 3 January 1993). After she took over as governor in 1991, Sauri attended events in the capital city without inviting the mayor. During her first state of the state address, Sauri was booed by a crowd of panista militants in Mérida’s main plaza and was forced to retreat to the governor’s mansion. The incident was repeated in Mexico City at an event commemorating Yucatán Week. Both Sauri and Payán were present, and as Sauri approached the podium, hundreds of panistas began to shout Ana Rosa’s name in unison (Aguirre, Proceso, 10 May 1993). The conflict reached a climax in the 1993 state elections in Yucatán. Payán was the gubernatorial candidate for the PAN, running against the PRI’s Federico Granja Ricalde. On the night of the vote, a mysterious power failure occurred as votes were being counted. The PRI claimed victory for every office in the state, but the PAN contested the results. The disagreement caused a scandal in Yucatán and an embarrassment for President Salinas and the PRI. Sauri had no choice but to resign the governorship; fifteen state cabinet members resigned with her (Robertson, Washington Post, 3 December 1993). The conflict between Sauri and Payán exemplifies how party politics override the bond some might expect between women. Rather than support each other as two outstanding, talented women in a men’s world, they became adversaries and undermined each other. Even today, both justify their actions. Payán claims that Sauri was handed the governor’s post, while she was legitimately elected by the people of Mérida. Sauri claims that she was unpopular from the beginning because the PAN saw her as an obstacle to their taking over the state. Their disagreements, however, have evidently not harmed either woman: Sauri went on to become a federal deputy, general director of the National Women’s Program (Programa Nacional de la Mujer, PRONAM), and of course, president of the PRI; Payán became a state deputy in Yucatán, head of the PAN in that state, and a senator. More recently, in early 2002, there was yet another very public clash between two powerful women, this time made more dramatic by the

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fact that they are from the same party, the PRI. As the PRI struggled to make the party more democratic, internal elections were called to choose new party leadership. Up to then, there had been great speculation that the ideal person to “rescue” the party was Beatriz Paredes, because of her seniority and her widely admired political acumen (see Thompson, NYT, 1 November 2001). Two slates were proposed with candidates for president and secretary general of the party: Roberto Madrazo and Elba Esther Gordillo on the one hand, and Beatriz Paredes and Javier Guerrero García on the other. As the political battle between Madrazo and Paredes heated up and began to include remarks about character and personality, a more personalized battle between Paredes and Gordillo ensued. Gordillo accused Paredes of developing her political career thanks to the erstwhile presidential dedazo: 11 “Beatriz was leader of the CNC because a president put here there. She was gubernatorial candidate because a president wished so. Everything she has accomplished is a result of her friendships. She was a very close friend of Salinas and she let everyone know that” (Guarneros, Camacho, and Almazán, El Universal, 22 February 2002). Gordillo further accused Paredes of placing hurdles along the way for Gordillo since they met early in their careers. The fight was bitter in every respect; for example, both women accused each other of corruption involving the personal purchase of pricey real estate (see, for example, Guarneros, Camacho, and Almazán, El Universal, 22 February 2002). Gordillo also accused Paredes and other PRI women of treating her as an outsider and never allowing her to become a part of their inner circle, referring to them disparagingly as machinas (the female equivalent of macho). Madrazo and Gordillo won the party leadership, and the fight between the two women became somewhat more subdued. Paredes returned to her leadership post in Congress, from which she had taken a leave, and thus both women now hold key positions that will continue to make their disagreements public and visible. An alternative and contrasting view held by some Mexican women is that the presence of women promotes cooperation and civility in the political arena. This perception of female officeholders is not one of envious and competitive women who are disloyal to other women. Instead, in this view, women are eager to cross party lines and bridge their differences with other female officeholders in a manner seemingly unknown to their male counterparts. In this way they can become a for-

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midable bloc, capable of negotiating and forming alliances to achieve policy and legislative goals. In the United States, the camaraderie forged among the (unprecedented) thirteen women entering the Senate in 2001 was described thus: The women of the Senate have forged their own alliances, making a point of having dinner once every six weeks, getting together for ‘power coffees.’ . . . “We check our party hats at the door and really work on civility,” Senator Mikulski said. Typically, they put the interests of their states first, as do most senators, but the women also say most of them came to the job with a different sensibility. . . . “My experience has been that women tend to be better at working across the aisles and are more pragmatic and result oriented,” Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said. “Given the 50-50 split we have, those qualities are going to be particularly important.” (alvarez, NYT, 7 December 2000) In Mexico, former senator María Elena Chapa (PRI) said in our interview that a definite solidarity exists among female senators, regardless of their party affiliations. While she admitted that there was some rivalry and competition among them, she asserted that their generally positive relationships meant that they could vote together on laws regarding women’s issues, such as sexual harassment and violence. Female officeholders were able to enact legislation that benefits all women because they succeeded in negotiating, making concessions, and ultimately coming to an agreement among themselves. Camarillas and other Networks

What are the formal and informal structures for political advancement in Mexico? Traditionally, informal rules and procedures have been critically important in the Mexican political system. The most typical example of an informal structure in Mexico is the camarilla (political network).12 Camarillas have been formed by men who ascend the political ladder as part of a group, rather than individually. Although camarillas are not necessarily for men only, they tend to be homogenous groups led by and composed of elite men. My research indicates that while no well-functioning female camarillas per se exist in Mexico, women have formed some very solid networks. The evidence also indicates that in many instances women have successfully participated in predominantly male camarillas.

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María de los Angeles Moreno, for example, has developed her political career with the help of her involvement with the “right” men’s groups. She worked closely with Carlos Salinas de Gortari while he was secretary of programming and budget, and after she had held a series of topranking administrative positions, Salinas appointed her to a cabinet post during his presidential administration. Her links with Salinas also served her well when she was selected as the first female president of the PRI. (Conversely, of course, these links were politically costly when Salinas fell from public grace at the end of his administration.) The broad point to underscore here is not the lack of female-led camarillas, but rather that the most successful political women have been camarilla members. Camp, for example, has found in his studies that many successful women politicians have followed career paths similar to Moreno’s. The male leadership of their camarillas echoes the mentoring many women received early in their careers from a politically active father or other male relative or professor. This may no longer be true among the younger generation, as informal political rules have begun to change since Fox’s election. According to Camp (1998, 1999), the principal differences between male and female politicians are found in the methods of political recruitment, from which networks and camarillas evolve. In addition to family connections, education seems to be the most important indicator of political success. Politicians in Mexico typically facilitate their careers through universities both in Mexico and abroad. Although trends have been changing in recent times, the National University of Mexico (UNAM) has been the seat of a great deal of political recruitment (a fact that also reflects the traditional centralization of Mexican politics and the importance of being in Mexico City for launching a career). Not only do students develop relationships with one another at the university, but professors are often instrumental in identifying potential leaders and encouraging them to pursue careers in public life. Often students are offered internships or part-time jobs in the federal bureaucracy that turn into full-time careers upon graduation (Camp 1999). While politicians have traditionally attended UNAM and studied law, the demographic trends of the political elite in Mexico are now changing (Centeno 1994; Centeno and Maxfield 1992; Camp 1999). More politicians are beginning to emerge from private universities, and the rise of the technocrat in the last four presidential administrations has shifted the focus away from law as the main area of study. Many women fit this new

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political profile. They are represented in higher numbers at the private universities both in and outside of Mexico City, and they study a wide variety of subjects, including economics and engineering (see chapter 1). In general, the opening of the political process to individuals from all professions has allowed women more access to political power and to the formation of gender-specific networks. I have found it striking that most of the women who are politically active in Mexico know one another, sometimes rather well. Although this finding speaks to the existence of a women’s network, the relationships are not formalized and have not translated into a dramatic increase in the number of women recruited or placed in government positions. Given that some women who have risen to the top have often made a point of supporting other women, it is intriguing that they have not developed a camarilla of their own. One explanation for this lack of female leadership in camarillas might well be that a politician, male or female, would find little advantage in latching on to a female-led camarilla when statistically their chances would be better with a male-led group. The goal is upward mobility, and women’s networks do not have the proven history of fostering this mobility. At the risk of overgeneralizing, one might infer that political women in Mexico appear more concerned with using their positions to improve the socioeconomic status of women than with advancing their own careers. This is not unusual; as several studies have shown, successful women tend to exhibit high levels of concern for others (Astin and Leland 1991; Klenke 1996). Moreover, this concern for people leads to the empowering and participatory approach women often take with leadership, rather than to a controlling approach. This is especially true for women in NGOs and in popular movements in general, where women organizers have rarely used their political prominence to advance their personal ambitions. This situation is beginning to change, however, as women become more politically aggressive. One clear indicator of this shift is the formation of gender-specific political organizations whose principal objective is to get more women into public office. Building Alliances: The Parlamento de Mujeres and the Comisión de Equidad y Género

Women have a history of involvement in the formation of both formal and informal networks, albeit not along the Mexican camarilla lines. As

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Klenke (1996) suggests, women, more than men, are portrayed as networking and relationship-building. Helgesen (1990) claims that women have been able to reach top positions in their work because of their networking abilities. Astin and Leland (1991) suggest that a strong network is also important to women leaders because it provides the support and encouragement women need in both their work and their personal lives. In the early days of the women’s movement in the United States, for example, women formed small, cohesive groups through personal interactions like Tupperware parties and bridge clubs (Astin and Leland 1991). These groups served to facilitate the exchange of information as well as to raise women’s consciousness both about the movement and about social injustices to women. How have networking and relationship building enabled women to achieve political results? In Mexico, the first instance of a multiparty women’s alliance having a dramatic impact on legislation occurred in 1990. Under the leadership of then federal deputy Amalia García, both men and women united to draft and pass major reforms to the penal code regarding sexual violence against women. In 1991, the Convención Nacional de Mujeres por la Democracia (National Convention of Women for Democracy) took place. The convention brought together women from different NGOs and some political parties—PRT, PT, PRD—mostly from the Left. Their objective was to promote women to be nominated as candidates from these parties and to support their runs for office. They hoped to place a critical group of women in public office who would be committed to defending women’s rights in Congress. Thirty-nine women from the PRT, the PT, and the PRD were nominated as candidates for the 1991 election. None of them won, because they were in the bottom slots of their parties’ candidate lists. The outcome of the convention taught women that in order to win higher slots on the lists, they needed to produce an effective discourse that was appealing to the political parties. They had been talking at cross-purposes. While the parties asked, “How many votes will you bring me?” the women were seeking to place gender issues on the policy agendas. This realization was the beginning of a growing awareness and strength among women, independent of partisanship, that led in 1992 to the formation of the campaign Ganando Espacios (Gaining Spaces). It was the first step in the efforts to establish a quota for women in public office. The campaign’s clearly stated objective was to attain a

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given percentage of women both in decision-making positions in the parties’ executive bodies and particularly in the candidate lists. In 1993 the Plan de Igualdad (Plan for Equality) was presented to Congress. It proposed to obligate all parties to have a minimum of 30 percent women in their candidate lists. Congress made a “recommendation” that the COFIPE (Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales), the main electoral law, should press political parties to include more women in their candidate lists. It was not until 1996 that the federal electoral code incorporated this “recommendation” for all parties to include at least 30 percent women in their candidate lists—but it did not make it mandatory. Also in 1996, the Asamblea de Mujeres para la Transición Democrática (Women’s Assembly for the Democratic Transition) took place. At that meeting, the top item on the agenda was to strategize on how to increase the number of women in public office. The year 1997 was a good one for women in Mexico. With the electoral victories of the opposition in the 1997 midterm elections, the partisan composition of the Congress changed. The momentum from the efforts to promote more women to office led to the creation of the first Comisión de Equidad y Género (Committee on Gender and Equity) in the Chamber of Deputies, albeit as a “special” committee, not one with regular standing. The committee was composed of fourteen deputies from the PRI, seven from the PAN, one from the PVEM, and one from the PT. The chair rotated every six months among them.13 Also in 1997, the very important Ley de Violencia Intrafamiliar (Family Violence Law) was passed. And in June of that year, Diversa (a feminist political organization) organized the multiparty “Avancemos un Trecho” (Let’s Move Forward a Stretch) conference. At the conference, representatives of eight political parties made commitments to support women’s concerns through their respective congressional representatives. The year 1998 also saw some important advancements. On 8 March, International Women’s Day, the Parlamento de Mujeres de México (Mexican Women’s Parliament) was formed, bringing together women leaders from both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The main stated objective of the Parlamento was to ensure that women’s voices and needs were included in the legislative agenda, in public policy, and in the budgeting of public funds. The 1,300 women attending the two-day meeting discussed and reached agreements in a number of policy arenas, including violence against women, health and reproductive choices, financial credit, education, and programs specifically designed for women

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in the countryside. They also agreed to continue pressing for a quota system to increase the number of women in public office.14 The first achievement of the Parlamento was to establish a bicameral Committee on Gender and Equity, which was formally instituted in August 1998, comprised of nine senators (three for each of the three principal parties) and ten deputies (again, three from each of the main parties, plus one from the PT). The committee’s policy agenda seeks better gender balance in the overall agenda of legislative proposals, including attention to issues of targeted resources in public budgets, labor law, a quota law for more women in politics, health, education, family violence, mass media, and peasant and indigenous women. The bicameral Parlamento also made one of its first priorities the creation of Comisiones de Equidad y Género in the state congresses. These committees now operate in almost every state, although naturally some are more effective than others. And to celebrate the Parlamento’s first year, the members met in March 1999 at a forum entitled “Women’s Rights to Labor, Education, and Health,” where once again women leaders from all political parties, NGOs, and other organized women’s groups came together and discussed the progress in their policy agenda. Of the fifteen proposals they had submitted for congressional consideration during their first year, only one had been passed; introduced to Congress by Deputies Patria Jiménez and Carolina O’Farril, it added a further set of reforms to the penal code regarding sex crimes. In May 1999, after the Parlamento’s second forum, a critical piece of legislation was approved reforming the Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo) as it pertains to women in the workplace. Women can no longer be denied employment on the basis of pregnancy or marital status; there are further provisions regarding sexual harassment in the workplace; and there is more protection for pregnant women at work. In November 1998 a proposal had been submitted to make the Gender and Equity Committee a regular standing committee in the Chamber of Deputies. Also in 1998, the Gender and Equity Committee presented a proposal to reform the federal electoral law so that instead of “recommending” that parties include at least 30 percent women in their candidate lists, the quota would be obligatory. They proposed that every block of three candidates must include a woman, and that the minimum percentage should apply equally to candidates and to alternates (suplentes). The PRD had used such a quota system since 1991, and the PRI incorporated one in 1997. The PAN has refused to institute a quota sys-

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tem but has agreed to have some women in the first fifteen slots of its candidate lists. In 1999, three important women’s groups became officially registered as political organizations (agrupación política nacional, APN): Diversa, Mujeres y Punto (Women, Period), and Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia. The impact of these groups in the public arena, as well as their internal dynamics, are discussed in chapter 5. The formation of these groups indicates that, in preparation for the 2000 election, women were acting strategically to consolidate their agendas and solidify their networks—at least as far as their own groups were concerned. However, women have not capitalized on these networks to present themselves as a unified bloc that promotes a commonly shared agenda for Mexican women. QUOTAS: BUILDING STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

Before I proceed with a discussion of the issues surrounding a quota law for women in public office and the experiences of various countries, it will be useful to clarify exactly what the terms “affirmative action” and “positive discrimination” mean in the context of gender and politics. Lovenduski (1993: 8) defines “affirmative action” as those strategies by which special training is offered to potential female candidates, targets are set for the inclusion of women, and financial assistance is sometimes given to enable women to put themselves forward as candidates. “Positive discrimination” includes such strategies as reserving places for women in decision-making bodies, on candidate slates, and on shortlists, and creating special women’s committees parallel to or within existing decision-making bodies in political parties. Quotas are thus a strategy of positive discrimination, although they are sometimes mislabeled as a type of affirmative action. In Mexico, for example, it is often assumed that “acción afirmativa” means “quotas.” Targets or objectives, which are not compulsory, are sometimes confused with quotas, which may or may not be compulsory. Moreover, even mandatory quotas are no different than targets if compliance rules are not implemented or enforced. In many instances, even if a political party has a quota law requiring a minimum of 30 percent women’s representation in its internal decision-making bodies, there is no guarantee that such a level of representation will be achieved. Clearly, enforcement of so-called mandatory quotas is important, regardless of the type of quota in place. Several distinctions can be made among different types of quotas in

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addition to their designation as compulsory or noncompulsory. First, quotas may be embodied in the constitutional or electoral law, or they may be included solely in a political party’s statutes. Also, a quota may be introduced in a political party simply as an internal directive. Second, a quota may define the percentage of women candidates in an electoral slate, or it may establish the number of seats that must be occupied by women after the vote. In the first instance, the quota is applied to the election, and in the second case, it is applied to the result of the election (Kelber 1994). Third, as mentioned above, quotas can be applied to internal party decision-making bodies, to public offices, or to both, and the level of the quota can vary. Frequently quotas for women are set at a minimum of 20 to 30 percent, but in some instances they are as high as 40 or 50 percent. As we have already seen, in an attempt to build alliances and to increase political representation, politically active women in Mexico have made concerted efforts to institutionalize a quota system within government and in the organizational structures and candidate lists of political parties. As is well documented in the literature, affirmative action and positive discrimination efforts have been enormously successful in Scandinavian countries (see Jaquette 1997; Staudt 1998; Craske 1998), have led to a doubling in the representation of women in Britain’s House of Commons with the sweeping Labour Party victory in 1996 (Lyall, NYT, 22 December 1997), and are being debated and adopted throughout Latin America (see Htun and Jones 2000, 2002; Jones and Navia 1999). This move to promote larger numbers of women in politics has been fostered by worldwide networking among women’s groups, especially during the Beijing conference in 1995, as well as by the growing focus on women’s issues in international development organizations (for example, the Inter-American Development Bank’s PROLEAD [Program for the Support of Women’s Leadership and Representation], which is also supported by funding from UNIFEM, UNDP, OAS, and UNICEF). Mexico, Beijing, and the International Arena

At the United Nations–sponsored Fourth World Conference on Women—held in Beijing in September 1995 with the purpose of addressing the growing concerns about women’s human rights worldwide—the issue of underrepresentation of women in public office surfaced as one of the primary areas in need of attention. Attendance was 174

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the largest ever at a women’s conference: 189 delegates represented member nations, and over 30,000 NGOs participated in the parallel forum in Huairou. The delegates presented country reports addressing the issues of greatest concern for their respective nations.15 Naturally, these issues differed substantially across regions, but participants found that there were common problems that needed to be addressed worldwide. One of these was the inequality between men and women in positions of power and decision-making authority at all levels. After much discussion and debate, the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action were adopted by consensus. While the declaration did not outline specific priorities, the platform did identify goals and called on governments, NGOs, and civil society in general to change their current practices to be more favorable to women. Specifically, one of the platform’s goals was to increase women’s participation and representation in government, and the proposed strategy for achieving this objective was the implementation of quota systems. As we observed in chapter 3, international forums have often played a key role in the development of both national and international networks among women.16 For women in contemporary Mexico, a turning point had been the 1975 UN meeting held in Mexico City, twenty years before Beijing. It was the 1975 meeting that galvanized women’s mobilization and energized the feminist movement. One concrete outcome for Mexican women that resulted from their participation in the Beijing conference was that they formally engaged with international advocacy networks to campaign for the adoption of a quota system, but success has been elusive. The Beijing-Plus-Five meeting held in New York in June 2000 17 concluded that the goal of adequate representation is far from achieved, and the theme continues to dominate international discussions pertaining to the representation of women in government. For example, France’s announcement in March 2000 that a 50/50 gender representation was now decreed by law sent shock waves around the world; French women had never before had “Parité” in politics.18 And Argentina once again took the lead in the Americas by seeking to raise its current minimum of 30 percent representation in the lower house of Congress to a full 50 percent in the Senate. As a result, future elections look very promising for women in both France and Argentina. Many nations have employed their own versions of quotas, with the Scandinavian countries providing the most successful examples. Staudt (1998) shows that Norway began with a mandatory quota of 30 percent female representation in the legislative body. Gradually, as voters be175

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came accustomed to electing women and women’s participation climbed higher than 30 percent, the quota became unnecessary. Presently, with its parliament nearly 50 percent female, Norway has the highest percentage of women in a national legislature worldwide. The success of Norway and other Scandinavian countries is a strong argument for the quota system in other nations, including Mexico. Also, as a result of these Scandinavian achievements, the United Nations has set 30 percent as the standard goal for women’s political participation worldwide (see figure 4.2). As Staudt conclusively demonstrates, numbers do make a difference.19 Following the lead of the Scandinavian countries, the first country to institute a formal quota system in Latin America was Argentina, in 1991. The Ley de Cupos (Quota Law) required all political parties to have at least 30 percent women in their electoral slates and showed impressive results in the first election following its enactment. Women’s representation in Congress soared from 5 percent in 1991 to 21 percent in the 1993 election, and then to 28 percent in 1995 ( Jones 1996: 76). Impressed by these results, Latin American women discussing the issue of quotas at Beijing became determined to establish quotas in their own countries. The first country to follow suit was Brazil, which in 1995 adopted a law requiring all parties to have at least 20 percent women in all their slates for the 1996 municipal elections. Brazil has now formally extended the law to assign 30 percent of national seats to women. Under the quota system followed in the 1997 congressional elections, the presence of female legislators increased by nearly 40 percent. In 1997, Ecuador passed a quota law requiring a minimum of 20 percent women in every electoral slate; Bolivia required 30 percent in the same year, and Peru, 25 percent. In 1998, Venezuela passed a 30 percent quota law (see Htun and Jones 2000). Other Latin American nations also encourage political parties to nominate more women in their candidate lists but provide little enforcement. Mexico and Panama have both passed legislation encouraging parties to promote more women to public office, but they have failed to include effective enforcement mechanisms. For example, Article 41 of the PRI’s statutes says “se promoverá” (will be promoted); and Article 1 of the COFIPE only says “se considerarán” (will be considered). In addition to the vague language, there is no mention of enforcement, and as Satudt indicates, “good will and promises alone rarely foster change. . . . Such goals are useless unless enforced” (1998: 38). In other Latin American countries where no quotas exist, individual par176

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ties are making the effort on their own. The Sandinista Front in Nicaragua and the National Liberation Front in El Salvador both have internal quotas for their parties’ leadership. The lack of institutionalization and enforcement mechanisms presents a significant obstacle for Mexican women. The success of the Argentine Ley de Cupos and France’s Parité rests in the fact that they are prescribed by law. The Ley de Cupos obliges parties not only to have at least 30 percent women in their candidate lists but to place them in electable positions—that is, every third candidate on the list, in order, must be a woman (i.e., third, sixth, ninth, etc.). Parité obliges French political parties to fill 50 percent of their candidacies with women or lose a corresponding share of their campaign finance, which the state provides (Kramer 2000). With the exception of the PRD, Mexican political parties have been reluctant to formalize and fully incorporate quota systems that would give women a real opportunity to advance politically. In the 2000 election, for instance, while all parties did comply with a 30 percent quota, the majority of female candidates—well over half—appeared as suplente (alternate) candidates on the ballot.20 Still, there is hope that Mexican political parties and institutions might be pressed to adopt meaningful quotas, if only for political expediency. To date, political parties have limited themselves to adopting vague language that merely gives the appearance that they are making an effort to increase the number of women in their candidate lists and in party leadership. But now that Mexico has attracted so much attention from the international media and other observers and is keen to make a good impression— especially with regard to the advancement of its democracy—women might well have an opportunity to use international commitments to pressure for the adoption of quotas at home. The Beijing conference and postconference activities have tied governments to international obligations—including that of increasing women’s representation in government—and one would imagine that Mexico wants to be in compliance, especially as it presses its case to belong to the “First World Club.” As Craske (1998: 51) suggests, the reasons for a government (like Mexico) signing an international agreement on quotas “may have less to do with ideas of promoting the advancement of women and more to do with the relationship with the international community (particularly if a country is seeking external legitimacy).” Moreover, the international advocacy networks to which Mexican women are now connected serve as watchdogs in this regard, since they can publicize government violations of international agreements and obligations.21 177

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The Debates about Quotas

The efforts to implement affirmative action through a quota system have proven to be a contentious and controversial issue everywhere. For example, in March 2000, the attempt to institute a quota system in Switzerland to ensure that women would hold a certain percentage of parliamentary seats and other public offices was flatly rejected; the proposal received only 17 percent of the national vote (NYT, 13 March 2000). The discussion about quotas has also been divisive for Mexican women. Some argue for quotas as the only effective mechanism for reaching the critical mass that women need in order to gain political strength. This argument follows the line that a minimum of 30 percent women in government and political parties will give women enough leverage to maintain their rightful political place and to have their demands met. According to this view, quotas are the only way to guarantee women access to power (Staudt 1998). As Jaquette puts it, the surest way to achieve an increased number of women in national legislatures is to adopt a quota system that requires a certain percentage of women to be nominated or elected. . . . If the trend continues, quotas will soon produce a quantum leap in women’s political power. For the first time, women will form a “critical mass” of legislators in many countries, able to set new agendas and perhaps create new styles of leadership. (1997: 32, 34) Supporters of the quota system in Mexico maintain that women are historically and institutionally disadvantaged by their lack of political participation in the past. As we have seen, their exclusion from the primary venues of political recruitment hinders them from competing equally with men. Given that social and cultural restraints still affect their ability to become active in politics, a system of safeguards must be implemented to assure women the right to representation. The quota of 30 percent is designed to counteract the effects of institutional disadvantages and make certain they receive some official representation. Some proponents suggest a quota of 50 percent, but most would be satisfied for now with 30 percent.22 The PRD has overcome structural obstacles to implement a quota system that stipulates that 30 percent of all PRD candidates and members of the party executive committee must be women. The PRD was instru-

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mental in bringing to the Mexican Congress the proposal to implement the quota as a national requirement for all parties (the 1993 Plan de Igualdad mentioned above), and although the measure failed, it was successful in stimulating a debate among women of the other parties about the quota issue. However, quota systems also have detractors, who claim that quotas are discriminatory, devalue the political abilities of women, promote underqualified women, and are unnecessary because women who are qualified will rise on their own merits anyway. Moreover, in their view, having a set number of women in government and political parties does not assure that they will promote and support women’s causes or other women. The number of women in government is not important; what matters is their commitment to gender issues and to advancing the position of women in society. Many prominent women from both the PRI and the PAN are opposed to the 30 percent quota. They want to see women increase their numbers in political office, but they fear the quota system will only hurt women politicians in the end. Their major concern is that a quota system would encourage unqualified women to run for office. If parties are forced to find enough women to fill up 30 percent of their nominations, women will run who are not really attracted to or qualified for public office. It might even be in the best interest of a party to recruit a woman who is not particularly interested in politics, for once she is elected, the party can have more control over her. During my interviews, several women from the PRD agreed that, unfortunately, some of the women chosen as candidates had little or no interest in holding office and were largely manipulated by the party once elected. Opponents of the quota system feel that political participation must be deliberate and that candidates must be judged by their skills and merits, not their gender. They believe women should compete equally with men and not rely on the “special treatment” of a quota system to guarantee them nominations they have not earned. Mobilizing Quotas in Mexico

At both the 1995 and 1996 Austin conferences, the quota system was a primary topic of discussion (so much so that the title of the 1996 conference was “Women in Contemporary Mexican Politics: Participation and Affirmative Action”) (see Rodríguez et al. 1996). The debate cov-

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ered the arguments outlined above, with some discussion of exploring the implications of a quota system further (see Rodríguez et al. 1995, 1996, for summaries of the discussions at both meetings). Members from the PRD were strong advocates of the quota system. Rosario Robles and Amalia García both detailed the importance of this measure for increasing women’s representation in the Chamber of Deputies. Women from the PRI and the PAN were mixed in their responses, but most felt that women and men should be treated equally and that this measure gave female candidates “special treatment.” Ana Rosa Payán, who argued for the PAN’s position against quotas, agreed that she had not done enough research on the issue. Although in principle she disagreed with it, she said she would make it her responsibility to look into the proposal once she returned to Mexico, in order to see if it was truly a workable solution. Also at the conference, Lorena Martínez, former federal deputy and vice president of the PRI’s women’s caucus, made a comment typical of her party: “The PRI now has a new strategy for increasing women’s participation and redefining the party’s goals. This starts with María de los Angeles Moreno [then the party president] and goes down to the municipal level, where women are just as important” (Rodríguez et al. 1995: 44). Opponents of quotas also raised the question of where the partitioning will end. Should other historically marginalized groups, such as indigenous populations, also be given a portion of nominations? But the figures and evidence on the Scandinavian countries, which Kathleen Staudt presented at the 1995 conference, were difficult to dispute, and some of the hesitant women indicated that they were open to further discussions on the quota system. In broad terms, the institutionalization of quotas is favored by the PRD and the PRI and opposed by the PAN (see Rodríguez et al. 1996). As already mentioned, of the three major political parties, the first one to formally and explicitly institute a quota system in both its internal party structure and its candidate lists was the PRD. The PRI followed suit in 1997, after a rather hushed debate during the party’s annual assembly in 1996, and then sent shock waves when in the 2001 assembly it proposed a full 50 percent quota for candidate lists. The PAN continues to oppose quotas, although it stands by its commitment to include several women in the first fifteen slots in its candidate lists. Although the results of the quota system in the PRD are far from glowing—indeed, the party has never really reached its 30 percent quota—the numbers of women in government and parties continue to

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grow. In the 1997 midterm election, in addition to the scores of women who won seats in Congress, women won 26 percent of the seats in Mexico City’s legislative assembly. This number, which includes women from all political parties, is the highest ever in that body. And there is further hope. Former senator María Elena Chapa (PRI) hopes to achieve parity in government by the year 2005, and PRD president Amalia García had hoped that a 50/50 goal would be realized both in parties and in government for the 2000 election. In fact, as becomes apparent in table 4.1 above, the data consistently show that in recent years, women fare better in presidential elections than in midterm elections. For example, the number of women deputies increased from 42 to 59 in the 1988 election (a presidential election), dropped to 44 in 1991 (a midterm election), then rose to 70 in 1994 (a presidential election). Two recent exceptions may prove this rule: the number of women in the Chamber of Deputies actually increased to 87 in the 1997 midterm election. Indeed, this showing raised expectations for the election of 2000, a presidential one, but in this case, the number of women dropped to 80. These zigzagging electoral results indicate that the increase in the number of women in elected office is not only inconsistent but is not likely to lead to the 50/50 goal García and others had hoped for, at least not in the near future. Political Parties as Gatekeepers

Women are far from satisfied with the idea of quotas and remain critical of the way they have been implemented. The biggest complaints are women’s placements on the candidate lists and the districts for which they are nominated. In Mexico, three hundred seats in the Chamber of Deputies are decided by first-past-the-post direct elections, while two hundred are earmarked for segmented proportional representation to be distributed among parties (up to a maximum ceiling) depending on their overall percentages of the electoral vote polled. The Senate and other elected bodies—state congresses and cabildos (legislative bodies at the local level)—also use a split direct and indirect election mechanism. The issue, of course, is that female proportional representation candidates are placed so low on the lists that it is impossible for them to get in through this route. Moreover, female candidates for direct election are often nominated for districts where the party knows it has no possibility of winning.23 Even worse, some parties (notably the PRI) nominate many

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of the required 30 percent women as alternates (suplentes). As Patricia Espinosa of the PAN put it, referring to the 1997 election and to her party, “one has to see the places occupied by women: the large majority, the ‘fat’ list, was in unwinnable districts” (Enfoque, 10 August 1997). María Elena Chapa had a similar assessment of the PRI: “Yes, I will open the door to you, but only to municipalities that don’t mean much to my party. . . . I’m testing you. Go, woman” (Enfoque, 10 August 1997). However, the quota efforts appear to have had a positive effect at least for the female candidates of the PRI, since that party had the highest proportion of women candidates winning in the seats contested. The issue, as Amalia García from the PRD stated, is deeper: “The challenge of the minimum percentage is not its application as obligatory, but rather to transform the collective conscience, the culture of both men and women” (Enfoque 10 August 1997). The most important point that emerges from the data in table 4.1 is that in a tight election, political parties will be less willing to have female candidates because they are seen as posing too much of a risk for the party. The 1991 midterm election and the 2000 presidential election both saw noticeable drops in the number of women gaining office. The 1991 midterm election was key to the PRI, since it was desperate to recover from the fiasco of the 1988 presidential election, which had given Carlos Salinas de Gortari a rather cloudy victory. In 1991, under the leadership of then party president Luis Donaldo Colosio, the PRI was making concerted efforts to regain some of the legitimacy and credibility it needed so badly. The newly installed IFE (Instituto Federal Electoral, Federal Electoral Institute) had made significant progress in cleaning up the electoral process, and therefore the PRI stood a reasonable chance to win credibly. Indeed, the PRI won handsomely in that particular election, partly reversing the steady gains the opposition had been making. Because so much was at stake for all parties, there were very few women candidates on all lists. The same logic applies to the 2000 presidential election, when once again the number of women elected to office dropped. With the open possibility of winning the presidency and a larger number of seats in Congress, all parties were reluctant to gamble on women candidates. Although parties made a semblance of complying with the demand for 30 percent women on the candidate lists, the overwhelming majority of women on these lists appeared as suplentes. Of the seventy women who won positions in the election, only thirtyfive were directly elected! All the rest entered either through propor-

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tional representation or after their elections were contested. And more than one-third of the states (twelve out of thirty-two) did not elect a single woman to Congress (Hernández, Reforma, 9 July 2000b). Thus, it is clear that the most significant structural barriers to women’s political participation at the institutional level have been the political parties themselves. Political parties in Mexico are rarely friendly to women or their interests, and they continue to act as the gatekeepers, controlling the flow of women and gender issues between the portals of their ideologies and practices. Even the PRD, which includes gender diversity and other women’s concerns in its platform, fails to equitably distribute formal power to women, at least in legislative positions. Without the direct participation of women in public life and the legislative process, the PRD asserts, equality is unattainable. Yet as we have seen— and in spite of the relentless efforts of the party’s former president, Amalia García—the PRD’s discourse reaches further than its actions, leaving gender equity unachieved. Only in the government of the Federal District has the PRD made a concerted effort to ensure gender equity in appointments. The PRI has fared even worse, despite the work of that party’s former president, Dulce María Sauri. And the PAN continues to struggle. In March 2001, over one thousand panista women gathered in Guadalajara for the party’s Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres (National Meeting of Women) to demand a larger space within the party leadership and more representation in public life. María Elena Alvarez, perhaps the most senior woman in the PAN, boldly referred to her party as “un partido machista” (a macho party). She stated in her speech that feminism—a word seldom used publicly by women of the PAN— calls for equality of participation of men and women in decision-making positions. Yet, citing the declining number of panista women in Congress, she argued that in the PAN they had gone backwards (“en el PAN lejos de avanzar hemos retrocedido” [Núñez, Reforma, 24 March 2001]). At the same gathering, Margarita Zavala, who is in charge of the PAN’s women’s sector, and other female luminaries of the party such as Blanca Alvarez, Luisa María Calderón, and Teresa García de Madero, all found subtle ways to condemn the exclusionary attitudes within their party, and to present themselves as the exceptional cases of women in the PAN who had achieved some prominence. In short, they claimed that they were the exceptions that proved the rule. In response to these complaints, the party president, Luis Felipe Bravo Mena, took a first step by inviting women to start preparing to run for office in 2003, when the

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Congress will be renewed, and by offering to begin grooming those women who could potentially become the first female panista governor. However, he tempered his words with caution, clarifying that he did not wish to encourage “overflowing ambitions” among women (“Yo no quiero con esto estar mandando una señal de que se despierten ambiciones desbordadas, no se trata de eso” [Núñez, Reforma, 24 March 2001]). In other words, “Women, don’t get too excited.” THE POLICY AGENDAS OF MEXIC AN WOMEN: IS THE PERSONAL POLITIC AL?

In chapter 3 I observed that the discourse on women and gender has become institutionalized in all three political parties and that some progress is being made to incorporate this discourse into government programs and agencies. Here I look at how women in all areas of public life in Mexico react to this discourse, how they describe their personal agendas, and by extension, how these personal agendas are translated into their public or professional agendas.24 The key issue is to explore whether these women see themselves as responsible for promoting and protecting the interests of other women. Studies have repeatedly shown that, by and large, it is women who look after the interests of women. Referring to the United States, Thomas writes: Women officeholders are more likely than men to consider representing the interests of women to be very important and to take pride in accomplishments that further the status of women. . . . Women politicians . . . tend, more often than their male peers, to be supportive of issues relevant to women, including funding for domestic violence shelters, funding for medical research on women’s health issues, and child support enforcement. (1998: 10) Specifically, this section focuses on the personal agendas of the women in this study and their perceptions of the agenda of Mexican women in general. Often there is a conflict between the two, and women are confronted with the dilemma of whether to pursue their own personal career objectives or to fulfill their obligations as public officials to protect the interests of other women. Most of the women interviewed desire to improve the lives of all Mexican women, but they differ on how to proceed, depending on their areas of expertise and of political activity. For

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many women, however, it appears that personal agendas do fall in line with public agendas. Women in Political Parties and Government

The women in political parties and government work within very defined professional structures that have specific agendas already in place, and because they have chosen to work in these areas, the main thrust of their work is to promote the already established agendas of their organizations (whether these agendas are specific party agendas, overarching government agendas, or the agendas of a specific sector/organ of the government). It is also very likely that while being interviewed for this study, many women in political parties and government would have been hesitant to express any personal agenda because they were representing their organizations. Thus, it is hard to pinpoint whether there are differences between their personal and professional agendas, since most of these women are required to spend the bulk of their time promoting a public agenda rather than a personal one. Women in political parties and in government—that is, elected and appointed officials, and women who work within the party organizations—seem to support several different agendas at the same time. As members of political parties, these women must remain loyal to the specific party agendas and support the party rhetoric in whatever form it takes. But, because each of the major parties (PRI, PAN, and PRD) has a specific “women’s” agenda that is usually funneled through the party’s women’s sectors, the women are also responsible for publicly promoting the specific agendas that parties have developed for women, even if they are not in line with their own priorities (for example, some panistas are supportive of reproductive choice). Even though these women operate within a male-dominated political system, they invariably seem to find ways of including their personal agendas along with the different public agendas they need to promote. Women in the PRD seem to have personal agendas that are most inclusive of women’s issues. Many perredistas described how they had to push the party establishment to more stringently implement and enforce the party’s gender agenda. When the party was founded, a large contingent of perredistas, led primarily by Amalia García and Rosario Robles, worked hard to persuade their party leaders to provide for 30 percent female representation and to include more gender issues (such as com-

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parable worth) in the main party platform. As we already saw earlier in this chapter, the PRD has been at the vanguard among the three major parties in supporting women. Women in the PRI have also been instrumental in improving the women’s caucus within their own party, as well as in helping other female priístas’ campaigns. Although the priístas are less apt to criticize the party for its reluctance to tackle issues that are important to women, priísta women nonetheless seem to have an active network in place, especially at the congressional level. The reluctance of many priístas to openly support gender issues stems in part from the party’s bureaucratic structure. Specifically, many priístas feel that there are at least two existing organs that are run by women and speak directly to women’s issues—namely, the party’s Congreso de Mujeres por el Cambio and the Consejo para la Integración de la Mujer—and that these are the places where women who wish to engage in gender issues ought to work. Women in the PAN usually stick to the party’s status quo—that is, the party’s conviction that women should have representation within the party structure even though a woman’s primary responsibility is not as a public servant but as a mother and wife, the keeper of the hearth and home. In this context, it is interesting to note the apparent contradiction within the PAN’s agenda with regard to women. Although the PAN asserts that it has always had female representation and that it has openly encouraged women to participate in party ranks and to seek electoral positions, the PAN’s conservative platform often makes it difficult for women to succeed within the party structure. The exceptions are exemplified by Ana Rosa Payán, who has been mayor of Mérida, president of the PAN in Yucatán, and a senator. In describing her ascent through the party ranks at the 1995 Austin conference, she noted that although she never felt discriminated against by the party, she did feel that it was easier for single women, like herself, to succeed, and that her climb to the top was based on sheer personal determination. An interesting similarity among the women in the different parties is that even though they may not profess a gender agenda per se, they do seem to practice one, often by encouraging other women to become politically involved. For example, many women in the political parties and in government employ other women to work for them in their offices. Also, some generational differences surfaced in all three parties in terms of the ways in which women respond to their respective parties’ discourses. The older, more established female politicians and government officials (especially those of the PRI and the PAN) keep more in 186

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line with the official party discourses. The younger generation of female politicians are more critical and less hesitant to admit that the obstacles that women face in entering political life are indeed an issue and that their political parties do little—if anything at all—to help them overcome these obstacles. As a final point, many women in the political parties have personal agendas that are less than philanthropic in nature—that is, their main goals are neither to help other women nor to become public servants. They simply want to rise in the party ranks and develop political careers. As several women in this study noted, many women in public life are there because they love power, not because they want to serve others. Consuelo Botello, a panista and former deputy, commented in interview, “It’s not so important if women or men are in power if they aren’t true public servants. It doesn’t matter if women assume power, if they follow the old system.” Women in Nongovernmental Organizations and Feminist Organizations

The majority of the women sampled in the NGO and feminist categories did not state an affiliation with any specific party, although several did mention that they sympathized with or had actually participated in the activities of the more left-wing parties, such as the PRD, the PCM, and the PT. The personal agendas of the women in this category appear to be consistent with their professional agendas. Indeed, many of the women opted to join smaller, grassroots organizations instead of political parties or the government precisely because they consider it a relatively easier environment in which to advance their own agendas. The professional agendas of NGO women reflect their organizations’ agendas, usually revolving around economic issues, assistance to the less fortunate, or indigenous rights. On the personal level, they may have more feminist leanings. Of all the categories in our analysis, the women in feminist groups seemed the most open and receptive to speaking about their personal agendas. Also, like the women in NGOs, most feminists work in specific sectors in order to further their personal agendas. For instance, Marta Lamas noted that in her own career she had made a conscious effort to focus on specific issues and to move away from spending her organizational efforts on a generalized, multifaceted agenda. The women who work specifically within feminist organizations have personal agendas that are inherently and overtly feminist. They are adamant in pro187

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moting a feminist agenda, although that feminist agenda is not necessarily an all-inclusive, monolithic entity, as discussed in chapter 3. But wherever these women fall on the feminist spectrum, they share some basic feminist principles that they promote on a daily basis, such as equality between the sexes, comparable worth, reorganization of the Mexican daily work schedule, and reproductive rights. Although the feminists who have succeeded in NGOs and grassroots organizations do not always have the means, the will, or the opportunity to promote a feminist agenda within their organizations, our findings suggest that they have often been able to effectively influence and sway policy by extending these feminist ideals. Examples of such successes range from giving more funding to female artist collectives to pushing for more female representation on congressional committees. More relevant still is the way in which many of the leading feminists have taken their advocacy and lobbying to higher levels. Patricia Mercado, for instance, commented to me that people in Congress thought she was a federal deputy because she was there all the time, promoting her (and GIRE’s) agenda for reproductive choice. The Agenda of Mexican Women

Is there such a thing as a “common” agenda that unites Mexican women? Virtually every woman interviewed, regardless of her professional career and area of political activism, concluded that it is difficult to speak of a collective Mexican women’s agenda, mostly because of the vast educational, regional, cultural, economic, and racial diversity among women. There are times when women do exert strong collective power, as witnessed in the 1994 elections, when women tended to vote as a bloc and disproportionately supported the PRI. But the women in this study generally expressed concern that women lack a singular, collective voice. Feminists and women in NGOs argued that despite the varied backgrounds of Mexican women, they all must contend with issues of discrimination, economic disparity, and infringement on their reproductive rights. One would think these obstacles would make it easier for women to reach consensus on a common agenda, but clearly that is not the case. The policy agendas of the women in this study appeared to be swayed not only by professional differences but by regional differences as well. The most striking divergences in policy agendas existed between women who worked in the north of the country and women who worked in the south. The policy agendas of women from the northern 188

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areas of Monterrey and Chihuahua seemed to revolve more around issues that affect affluent constituencies. Many of the women in these regions spoke during interview of the importance of effective and efficient management (including Total Quality Management) and of getting more traffic lights, more parking spaces, more green areas, and the like. By contrast, the women who worked in the poorer southern regions (Oaxaca and Chiapas) were devoted to an agenda focused on antipoverty issues, indigenous rights, health, and educational reform. As is true for women in public office elsewhere, many Mexicans assume that women in politics, especially those in government, will automatically support and promote women’s causes. While this may be accurate in some cases, the majority of women in Mexican politics tend to concentrate their efforts on other matters. With the exception of feminist groups and those NGOs that are devoted exclusively to promoting women’s issues (e.g., reproductive rights, violence against women), the bulk of women’s political activism tends to concentrate on fighting for public goods and services (at the informal level), and on supporting specific pieces of legislation and government programs related to social policy (at the formal level). There are some notable exceptions, however, especially for those women who are able to bridge the informal and the formal spheres of politics and to sustain their struggle for women’s rights. In the 1997–2000 Congress, for example, the first step of a group of feminist legislators was to prepare strategies to convince their fellow legislators that the budget needed to be revised to provide better for women’s health care, job training, and access to credit for businesses. And Patria Jiménez, who in July 1997 became the first openly gay person (man or woman) to be elected to Congress, also had a firm gender agenda. As leader of a lesbian group, El Closet de Sor Juana, she has devoted her political activities to fighting for women’s rights and gay liberation in Mexico. Her policy agenda as she entered Congress firmly centered on better health care for women, reproductive rights, and tighter laws to ban discrimination against women seeking credit and protection of their property rights. But generally, gender concerns come in second in the policy agendas of most female officeholders, trailing behind whatever their principal policy priories may be (labor, human rights, transportation, education, social welfare, health, etc.). Yet most of the women who are politically active seek to support and promote women’s causes when they can fit them in alongside their main goals. Women in government have been a critical force in passing legislation targeted at women, ranging from rape 189

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laws to education programs to child care facilities. Outside of government, organized groups have benefited women in a variety of ways, from providing training programs and health care facilities to unionizing domestic servants. Not one of the politically active women I interviewed indicated that she was not interested in women and gender issues. Only a handful seemed to dismiss the importance of such issues, but even they felt that if support for a particular program would benefit women, so much the better. Still, some women categorically stated that gender issues were critically important to them, but that their agendas were so full that these had to come in second, if at all. This situation was clearly confronted by María de los Angeles Moreno when she was head of her party, the PRI. Having received leadership of the party as it was beginning to seriously crumble, she was faced with the daunting task of putting the PRI back together and regaining some legitimacy for it. But since she was the highest-ranking woman in the country’s political system, all women’s eyes turned to her. They expected her to pursue an allinclusive gender agenda, but with her hands tied with party affairs, she had little time for promoting women’s causes and was criticized rather harshly by her feminist colleagues for her failure in this regard. Ironically, she is an avowed feminist, and since leaving the party presidency she has become increasingly involved with women’s groups both within and outside government. Altogether, very few women in politics concentrate single-mindedly on gender issues. The social and economic needs in Mexico are so many and so pressing that gender inevitably still takes a back seat. I also have the clear sense that women feel it is in their best professional interest to be identified not as women working on women but rather as policymakers working on a broader-based agenda. However, because there are still relatively few women who are politically visible and even fewer yet who carry real political weight, I also have a distinct impression that over the last half decade or so, women have developed a sense of solidarity that cuts across party lines, political ideologies, and areas of activity. This first emerged when women of all parties and ideological positions united in support of the passage of the rape law in the early 1990s under the leadership of Amalia García, then a federal deputy for the prd. But women’s political loyalties, first and foremost, rest with the political parties or organizations to which they belong. Gender loyalty is seen as less important. Even among women of

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the same party, it is noticeable that solidarity and loyalty rest with policies and programs, political patrons and mentors, career plans and ambitions—not with the other women in the party. Still, the women in the study were quick to point out that if some (additional) gender solidarity could be developed, then so much the better. Indeed, when the pressure is really on (as is the case, for example, during elections), women tend to show greater unity. As an illustration, on 23 June 1997, two weeks before the midterm elections, a coalition of women from all political parties put aside their ideological differences and signed an agreement to seek certain reforms to protect women. Among their priorities were better laws to make fathers responsible for their children and to ban discrimination in employment and salaries. Through this nonpartisan accord, the coalition of women also sought to outlaw a controversial practice that has united women of all ideological persuasions: forced pregnancy testing of women applying for jobs. But there are some issues, such as abortion, on which compromise is out of the question. The PAN follows an immovable antiabortion philosophy, while the PRD advocates abortion rights and a national referendum on decriminalizing abortion. The PRI is split down the middle. In preparation for the 2000 election, women pressed the presidential candidates to include gender issues in their platforms. However, it appears that women have found it easier to organize their demands around clearly defined policy areas such as health, education, labor, and other welfare issues, rather than around a nebulous “gender”— or worse, “feminist”— agenda. Such a strategy may allow women to effectively address their needs without falling into a distracting battle over labels. When women in politics unite over these issues, the future of Mexican women can only improve. WOME N MAKING POLICY FOR WOMEN

The goal for women in Mexican politics is to reach the critical mass that will allow them to advance their position and that of all women in Mexican society. As we have seen, building alliances with other women across party lines and areas of activity, regardless of whether they are feminists or not, is the one opportunity for women to improve their political position and gain influence in the policy-making process. In this final section I analyze a policy initiative promoted and supported by women policymakers that illustrates the impact they are having in Mexican politics and how this allows them to protect and improve the lives of all women.

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Sex Crimes and Violence against Women

The first time an initiative was presented to Congress to reform the penal code to protect women against violence and sexual crimes was in the 1960s, but the measure had little success. The issue resurfaced in the early 1980s, mostly as a result of the UN’s international conferences on women in Mexico City in 1975 and in Copenhagen in 1980. In 1981 a new feminist organization emerged in Mexico called Network Against Violence Towards Women, which immediately attracted attention to itself and its cause by collecting data that quantified and demonstrated the violence against women that occurred on a daily basis. The urgency of dealing with this problem was irrefutable, yet this group and various others were unsuccessful in getting the issue on the congressional policy agenda. In 1988 a new proposal to reform the penal code on sex crimes was presented to Congress. Significantly, at the time, the number of women in the legislature had jumped from 42 to 59 (see table 4.1), a higher number than ever before. Hilda Anderson, a PRI deputy, presented a proposal to recognize sexual harassment as a crime.25 The day after she presented her bill, the newly inaugurated Salinas administration presented to Congress one of its very first proposals: to reform the penal code on sex crimes. Not surprisingly, Anderson’s proposal was overridden by the one from the executive. Although the presidential measure was helpful in overcoming the male deputies’ biases against such legislation, it embraced only a minor part of the much more profound reforms proposed by a multiparty coalition of female legislators, or of those demanded by feminists. The presidential initiative changed the penalty for rape from eight years to fourteen but did little to protect the rights of victims. Women legislators and feminists worked tirelessly to keep the issue of sex crimes on the policy agenda but met with little success, even though they collected and presented alarming statistics. While the presidential initiative was being debated in congressional committees, the women pushing for more stringent reforms organized in the Chamber of Deputies a forum on sex crimes. Experts from a number of fields concentrated on the need to care for the victims, not to stiffen the penalties for the crimes. But the women were getting nowhere. Then, in 1989, everything suddenly changed: nineteen young rape victims in southern Mexico City decided to press charges against their attackers. The issue was widely publicized and promptly boosted support for the 192

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more progressive proposal sitting in Congress. Not only were these young women from middle-class families, but more significantly, the perpetrators were all members of the judicial police. The mobilization in support of the legislation was astonishing. In addition to the fact that many Mexicans despised the judicial police for their violence and corruption, the media played a key role in publicizing the issue and giving Mexican society a wake-up call. Feminists and human rights groups demanded justice, frustrated with the attempts of the government to cover up and protect the federal police. As Lovera (Doble Jornada, 6 February 1990) documents, the cases were almost closed due to “inconclusive evidence,” but the victims and their supporters pressed on to raise public awareness of the issue of violence against women and the impunity of the police. In the end, four of the perpetrators were sent to prison. In February 1990, women behind a revised, more comprehensive proposal—led by Amalia García and Sara Lovera—held a series of meetings with the attorney general of the Federal District to find ways to make state agencies more accountable and responsive to victims of sex crimes. In May of that year the next set of reforms were presented in the Chamber of Deputies by the women deputies, but this time with widespread support from both women legislators and feminist and human rights groups. The reforms passed in July 1990, with 377 votes in favor and 0 against. As Stevenson remarks, “this was a euphoric moment for the women who had worked on the issue for so many years” (1998: 8). In December 1990, the Senate passed the reforms of the legal code into law. Yet, as both Amalia García and Sara Lovera mentioned in their interviews, passage of the new law was extremely difficult because of resistance from certain male legislators. That same year, two new agencies opened in the Federal District to deal with sex crimes, and they were vastly different from their predecessors. As Stevenson describes, formerly the victim had to go to a predominantly male police station, where she risked further sexual abuse by corrupt police officials; if she wanted social support, she had to go to another office, and finally to a third office to press charges—all in completely different parts of the city (1998: 8). In the new agencies, the victims (95 percent of whom are women) are tended by all female personnel—social workers, therapists, legal advisors. Three other agencies were also soon created: the Center for Support of Missing Persons, the Center for Attention to Domestic Violence, and the Center for Therapy to Support Victims of Sex Crimes. 193

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Yet the creation of these agencies has hardly alleviated the problem. An April 2000 report presents the dark facts: The report by the National Statistics Institute (INEGI), released on Wednesday, showed that emotional abuse including insults, humiliation, silent treatment, withholding food and unreasonable prohibitions accounted for close to 90 percent of abuse. Sexual abuse occurs in 1.1 percent of homes that suffer domestic abuse, while physical violence including punches, slaps, kicks, and choking shows up in 11.2 percent of homes. Measuring abuse is difficult, the report said, because shame, guilt and strong beliefs that abuse is a private matter lead Mexicans to minimise the problem. According to the investigation, based on a survey of 6,000 families in this city of about 10 million people, only 14 percent of domestic abuse victims seek help. About a third of those who do seek aid go to psychologists or psychiatrists, while others go to religious counsellors. But very few people go to the police to report abuse. (feminists against violence network 2000) Altogether, no systematic data regarding the true dimension of violence against women in Mexico is available, in particular because the number of reported cases does not even begin to represent the actual number of cases of abuse taking place. A government agency study showed that in Mexico City alone, domestic abuse plagues one in three homes (Makeig, Houston Chronicle, 28 September 1997).26 The situation is even worse outside Mexico City. Half of the states have no agencies or centers for victims, and women in the rural areas have even less access to any sort of help in cases of abuse. In April 2000, the rape of a fifteen-year-old girl in Baja California caused a national outcry. The girl became pregnant, unleashing a heated discussion on the abortion rights of women in cases of rape, and on reproductive rights in general.27 Although the victim was entitled to an abortion under state law, the panista state government intervened and did not permit the girl to have an abortion. Rather than contesting the government’s interference, she was persuaded by the Catholic Church and anti-choice groups to have the baby instead. No case of violence against women at the local level, however, has caused more of a national and international outcry than the unsolved murders of over 350 young women in the border area of Ciudad Juárez. The decomposed bodies of the victims (who are strikingly similar— 194

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young, slim maquiladora workers with long dark hair) have been found partially buried in the Chihuahua desert since 1993. International coalitions and human rights groups, as well as groups formed in Mexico of women and activists, have loudly protested the ritualistic, sadistic deaths. But despite this outcry, and investigative efforts that have led to some arrests, the murders have continued. More troubling is the fact that Mexican authorities have hesitated to become involved and take firm steps to stop the violence. The compelling documentary by Mexican filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, “Señorita Extraviada,” related the story in chilling detail, focusing both on the victims’ families and on the lack of decisive action by the authorities. The passage of the Ley de Violencia Intrafamiliar in November 1997 has done little to effectively address the problem of violence against women nationwide. What is important and significant about the passage of this law, however, is that the proposal emanated from within civil society by way of the Grupo Plural Pro-Víctimas (Pro-Victims Plural Group), whose members worked tirelessly for three years lobbying public officials, organizing public forums around the country, and mobilizing any resources they could. Also significant is that women legislators in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate once again crossed party lines and united in support of the proposal. Passage, however, was not easy: the panista delegation in the Chamber of Deputies objected to a section on rape of a spouse, arguing that the penalty for the offender was too stiff (see Crónica Legislativa 1997–1998). Although eventually the proposal was approved, the experience serves to highlight, once again, two important factors in women’s political experience: one, the resistance to policies that affect women in distinctive ways; and two, the ability of women to unite when a matter that affects women of all walks of life is on the line. CONCLUSION

We have seen in this chapter that although women are active in many public spheres—from grassroots organizations and NGOs to political parties and the bureaucracy—their representation in government is still low. Yet in spite of their small numbers, women are becoming increasingly visible. As Amalia García put it at the 1995 Austin conference: “Parece que las mujeres vienen del continente del silencio—pero ahora estamos recuperando espacio” (It seems as though women come from the continent of silence, but now we are finding a space). Most of these women know one another and have worked together on such issues as 195

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increasing the number of women candidates, pressing for women’s concerns during elections, changing the penal code to protect women against sex crimes, and pressing for a government agency devoted to improving the status of women. While women in the United States may be “changing the way government works, how politics is conducted, and reshaping the public agenda” (Bates et al. 1995: 512), many of our interviewees questioned whether the same is true in Mexico. Some maintained a pessimistic view of the way women in political office behave; in their opinion, female officeholders do everything they can just to fit in instead of making an effort to bring about change. However, many others believed that women in office do make a difference, and that this difference may be observed as women work collectively across party lines to achieve certain goals. Even those women who tended to place party loyalty above gender issues noted the need to build cross-party alliances for the promotion of women’s causes. In either case, their participation and policy concerns are influenced both by their own personal ideologies and by the organizations with which they are affiliated. There is little doubt that the growing numbers of women in office at the federal level, in addition to the scores of women elected to state congresses and other offices at the local level, have placed women in a position to become much more important as political actors in the new millennium. It is very telling that in the year 2000, two of the three major political parties were headed by women and there was an official government agency focused on women and gender. Also significant was the 1998 appointment of Rosario Green as secretary of foreign relations (she had just won a seat in the Senate in the 1997 election). For the first time in history, a woman was at the helm of one of the highest-ranking ministries. But for the majority of Mexican political women, the playing field is far from level, and there is still considerable negative societal and cultural baggage attached to being a woman in politics and to promoting women’s causes.

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CHAPTER FIVE

Women and the Electoral Process SHIFTING GEARS IN THE MEXICAN POLITICAL MACHINE

WOME N I N M E X I CO have had less than fifty years’ experience in the political sphere as candidates and voters. As described in chapter 3, women were allowed to vote in municipal elections in 1947 but were not granted national suffrage and the right to hold elective office until 1953. Prior to that year, it was left to individual states to grant women the vote, and only a handful did so. Only in 1953 did Mexican legislators recognize equality for all Mexicans (mentioned in Articles 34 and 35 of the 1917 Constitution), thereby overriding Article 37, which had given the franchise exclusively to men (Nelson and Chowdhury 1994; Cano 1991). This chapter analyzes women’s involvement in various aspects of the electoral process in Mexico. In the first section I provide an overview of the political change occurring in Mexico during the last fifteen years, focusing specifically on the rise of opposition parties and the numerous electoral reforms that have enabled both the opposition parties and other actors, including women, to participate in the political process. In

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the second section I discuss the role women play as voters, focusing on their voting patterns and preferences and on the issues that appeal to them as members of the electorate. In the third section the analysis centers on specific electoral strategies women have pursued, especially in preparation for the 2000 presidential election; here I focus on a distinctive type of organization, the Agrupación Política Nacional (APN). In the fourth and final section I discuss the general theme of women as candidates, focusing particularly on how women must deal with the glass ceiling within Mexico’s political parties when seeking nomination, and how they fare in the grueling campaign process. THE RISE OF THE OPPOSITION AND ELECTOR AL REFORMS

For both men and women in Mexico, the process of running for public office in its current form is a new institution that has been brought about by a series of electoral reforms resulting from increasing openness and competition in the political system. Until the late 1970s, the ruling PRI had a firm grasp on political power at all levels of government throughout the nation, but since then the electoral landscape has changed dramatically. In every election since the mid-1980s, opposition parties have made substantial gains at both the state and municipal levels. The pace of these victories has been such that on the eve of the 2000 presidential election, over half of the Mexican population was governed by a party other than the PRI. The election of Vicente Fox to the presidency in 2000, of course, broke the PRI’s stranglehold completely. Here I discuss in some detail both the rise of the opposition and the electoral reforms that have made those gains easier, in order to provide a framework for assessing whether women have benefited from this more open and plural system. The Growing Presence of the Opposition at the State and Local Levels

Beginning in 1982, opposition parties started winning control of significant numbers of city governments. The de la Madrid administration took the first steps in loosening the PRI’s grip in 1983 when it recognized several outright opposition victories at the municipal level, including some in major cities. No fewer than five of these were state capitals (Chihuahua, Durango, Hermosillo, Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosí), and another was a large border city (Ciudad Juárez). Both the PRI and the government hoped that this political opening would allevi198

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ate some of the frustrations caused by the economic crisis. But for many, particularly within the party itself, giving in to the opposition seemed too high a price, and those initial moves toward greater pluralism were subsequently reversed, often by means of electoral fraud (see Rodríguez and Ward 1995). The contradictions and tensions caused by liberalization on the one hand, and the retention of absolute political control on the other, resurfaced with a vengeance in the midterm elections of 1986. In that year there is little doubt that the opposition, specifically the PAN, won major victories in many municipalities and even perhaps in state elections such as that in Chihuahua. The PRI, however, resorted to its timeworn practices of intimidation, vote rigging, and ballot stuffing to contrive victories in these electoral districts (Cornelius, Gentleman, and Smith 1989), even though these electoral irregularities were widely condemned at home and abroad, especially in the United States. Beginning with the presidential election of 1988, opposition victories have multiplied in every election. At the state level, the first major breakthrough was the PAN’s victory in the 1989 gubernatorial election in Baja California. Indeed, it was suggested that Salinas might have deliberately let the opposition win in this northern state— or at least let the PRI lose—as part of his own political liberalization project. Significantly, the PRI candidate who was in effect sacrificed was a woman. However, the PAN’s subsequent victory in the 1992 gubernatorial election in Chihuahua appeared less suspect. As of 1994, Baja California and Chihuahua were the only two states to have been won by the opposition in the history of contemporary Mexico.1 But after the economic crisis of 1994 –1995, a major wave of opposition victories at the state level brought the PAN the governorships of Jalisco and Guanajuato and, perhaps even more significant, the governorship of Baja California for a second time. In the 1997 midterm elections, of the six governorships up for grabs, the PAN won two, and the PRI, four. But what is critically important to note is that the two PAN victories occurred in key states, Nuevo León and Querétaro, extending considerably the territory governed by the PAN. By the end of 1999, the PAN held the governorships of six states—Aguascalientes, Baja California, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Nuevo León and Querétaro. Latterly, too, the PRD had begun to make substantial inroads, often in alliance with locally strong leftist parties, and on occasion with the PAN and dissafected PRI supporters. Come 1998, the PRD governed in Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Tlaxcala, and Za199

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catecas, in addition to the Federal District. Although the PAN lost Chihuahua in 1998, at the end of 2000, twelve states and the Federal District were in the hands of opposition parties. Yet another major victory at the state level came to the PRD in 2001, when it won the governorship of Michoacán. The winning candidate, incidentally, was Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, grandson of the former president Lázaro Cárdenas and son of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, both of whom had also been governors of that state. The number of municipal governments controlled by the opposition has also grown considerably (see Rodríguez 1997, 1999a; Rodríguez and Ward 1995). In 1994, 238 municipalities were governed by opposition parties, and although this number may seem relatively small (there were 2,392 municipalities in Mexico at that time), many were important cities, not small rural communities. By 1996, 449 municipalities were governed by a party other than the PRI; the PAN alone controlled 225 municipalities, and the PRD, 181. In the 1997 and 1998 elections, these numbers kept growing: in 1998, 248 municipalities were governed by the PAN and 294 by the PRD, in addition to 405 municipalities under the usos y costumbres system (Rodríguez 1999a: 123). Thus, key cities such as Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mérida, Durango, and Morelia have at various times in the past ten years been governed by the opposition— not to mention that the country’s second and third most important cities, Guadalajara and Monterrey, as well as a host of state capitals, have now also been governed by the PAN. In the 1997 midterm elections, state capitals were almost invariably won by the PAN (even when the PRI won the governorships), along with a large number of other urban municipalities. The PRD also managed to capture many municipalities, although most of them continued to be rural. Locally, no election has been more important than the one in the Federal District in 1997. With the stunning victory of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in the Mexico City mayoral race, the PRD placed itself in a prime position to contend as a principal actor in coming state and municipal elections. In addition, the PRD won thirty-eight of the forty direct-election seats in the representative assembly of the Federal District (the other two were won by the PAN). These elections were also more gender inclusive: of the sixty-six total seats in the assembly, fifteen were held by women (22.7 percent), and of the sixteen delegaciones (districts) in the Federal District, five were led by women prior to the 2000 election (after which delegados are to be elected rather than appointed). Altogether, the PRD dominated in almost all congressional 200

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district and assembly elections held in 1997 in the Mexico City metropolitan area. In 2000, although Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the PRD were expected to win handily in the Federal District, the final vote was much closer than had been anticipated. López Obrador won a relatively narrow victory over the PAN candidate, but the legislative assembly was split equally between the two parties, with twenty-five seats apiece. The remaining sixteen seats went to the PRI on the basis of proportional representation. Within this distribution, seven of the twentyfive perredistas were women, all of whom were elected directly and all of whom, except one, had female suplentes. Five of the twenty-five PAN/Green Party seats were held by women, four of whom were elected directly; and four of the PRI’s sixteen asambleístas were women (all of whom were elected by proportional representation, of course). Significant, too, is the fact that the party leaders in the assembly for both the PAN and the PRI were women (Patricia Garduño and María de los Angeles Moreno, respectively). Furthermore, in the first election for delegados, five of the sixteen delegaciones were won by the PAN, and the remaining eleven went to the PRD. The PRI won none. As mentioned in the previous chapter, five of the new delegados were women. While this growing presence of the opposition is indeed a persuasive sign that Mexico’s system has become genuinely plural, the nagging question remains: Where are the women? Thus far, there have only been three female governors in Mexico’s history. In 1991, only two percent of the country’s municipalities were governed by women, and by 1998 this percentage had increased only slightly, to 3.4 percent (PRONAM 1999). Thus, while not wishing to discredit in any way the significance of the victories of the opposition at both the state and local levels, one cannot help but be struck by the absence of women in these electoral victories. In the string of opposition mayors elected to state capitals and other large urban municipalities, women are glaringly absent. In my view, this single fact diminishes significantly the opposition parties’ claims to be more open, representative, and democratic than the PRI. While basking in the glory of sustained victories and increased power, both the PAN and the PRD have done little to include more women in their new political domains. Their refusal to select women as candidates for mayoralties in the larger, more visible, and more important municipalities (not to mention state governorships) is reflective of the traditional sexist patterns of candidate selection. There are, naturally, some outstanding exceptions that only serve to 201

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prove the rule, perhaps the most notable being Ana Rosa Payán of the PAN, who was mayor of the Yucatán capital, Mérida, from 1991 to 1994. As described in chapter 4, her mayoralty attracted a great deal of attention. Also, San Pedro Garza García, a panista stronghold adjacent to Monterrey widely regarded as the wealthiest municipality in Mexico (see Rodríguez and Ward 1996), was run by Teresa García de Madero from 1997 to 2000. García de Madero comes from a panista family of great tradition, is a key political figure in the Monterrey metropolitan area, and is an accomplished politician. Not only has she served her party well but she has proved to be a highly popular mayor. Earlier, in the 1994 –1997 administration in the city of Monterrey, she served as council member (regidora) under a PRI municipal president and was highly active and respected in city government. The third stellar exception is Rosario Robles, who stepped in to fill Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas’s unexpired term as head of the Federal District when he became the PRD candidate for the presidency (her appointment by Cárdenas was confirmed by the representative assembly). Robles’s approval rating and popularity soared way above those of Cárdenas: at the end of 1999, her rating was 6.6 on a scale of 1 to 10, compared to Cárdenas’s highest ever of 5.5 (Preston, NYT, 28 February 2000; Ward and Durden 2002). “Firm government with a soft hand” was her motto. The Gradual Institutionalization of Political Reforms

Electoral reform initiatives were undertaken first in 1963 and were extended in 1973 and 1977, again in 1986, and most recently in 1993 and 1994. The most important achievement of the reforms of the 1960s was the establishment of the system of proportional representation.2 Significantly, this reform process was always referred to as apertura política (political opening) but never as apertura democrática (democratic opening)—perhaps, unwittingly, because although there may have been a willingness to make space for the opposition, the PRI’s intention was never to allow it to become too powerful. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the opposition averaged about 17 percent of the seats in the lower congressional house, the Chamber of Deputies (Camp 1993: 147). The 1973 reform allowed for a wider range of political parties, particularly those on the Left (including the Communist Party). Most important of all was the 1977 Ley de Organizaciones Políticas y Procesos Electorales (Law of Political Organizations and Electoral Processes, LOPPE). This law set aside one202

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quarter of all seats in the lower house to be divided among the opposition parties on the basis of proportional representation.3 Thus, although their legislative power remained highly constrained, especially since the PRI never let its internal divisions carry over into split votes, opposition parties now had their foot in the door.4 Both the amount and the quality of debate in the Chamber of Deputies improved, and deputies no longer blindly supported legislation initiated by the PRI or the president (Middlebrook 1986). The important point to recognize is that the fundamental purpose of the reform at this time was not to weaken the authority or the role of the PRI but, rather, to enhance and sustain it. In essence, the political reforms of 1977 were introduced as a necessary change in the existing political system. As Middlebrook (1986) and others have argued, these reforms were a regime-sponsored effort to retain stability and counteract declining support for the system. Reduced support of the regime and its lessened political legitimacy, which were exposed by the Tlatelolco massacre of students in 1968, had become steadily more evident in public opinion polls, in the decline in voter participation, and in the emergence of several new opposition parties. Perhaps more important, it was clear that the decline in the PRI’s fortunes meant a growing incapacity to fulfill its primary functions of delivering the vote and achieving social control over the poorest segments of the population (Ward 1986; Bailey 1988). Briefly, the objective of the reforms was to strengthen the PRI by encouraging a more credible (but carefully constrained) opposition. However, although the initiation of a plurinominal deputy system did much to encourage opposition parties, their percentage in the Chamber of Deputies between 1979 and 1985 remained roughly stable, suggesting that, in Congress at least, there was little opposition growth (Camp 1993: 148). Moreover, the reforms turned out to be problematic not only because they failed to give the opposition a real opportunity to participate but also because they were opposed by many state governors and local political bosses who believed that their own power depended on the PRI’s total domination of state and local government. In 1986, President de la Madrid introduced a further reform intended to expand the opposition’s opportunities for representation in Congress. While this reform prevented the winning or majority party from holding more than 70 percent of the seats in the lower chamber, it increased the number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies to 500, with 300 of those reserved for deputies elected by relative majority in their congressional districts, and 200 allotted for proportional representation. 203

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The party winning the greatest number of the 300 majority seats (in effect, the PRI) also received some additional proportional representation seats, ensuring that one political party (the PRI) would gain an overall majority in the Chamber of Deputies. (It also continued to sweep the board in the Senate’s 64 direct election seats at that time.) Once again, what should be underscored here is that the increased opposition party presence was contrived by the government rather than won outright by those parties, and that the PRI was willing to make space for the opposition only because the reforms did not threaten its own majority position in the Chamber of Deputies. The 1988 elections were historic not only because the PRI presidential candidate’s victory was dubious but also because for the first time, opposition parties acquired sufficient strength in the lower house to begin to shape the policy-making process, particularly since a two-thirds majority vote was required to change the Constitution. With PRI directly elected representation down to a bare majority, and well below the 66 percent majority required for constitutional changes, the ruling party had to seek coalition partners for any constitutional amendments. This does not mean, however, that opposition parties were satisfied with their gains, particularly in light of the PRI’s significant electoral success in the 1991 midterm elections (Colosio 1993). But their progress did allow them to press for significant electoral reform through the Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales (Federal Code for Electoral Procedures and Institutions, COFIPE).5 In 1989 the Instituto Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Institute, IFE) was created as an independent entity to organize and monitor elections in a manner that would, it was hoped, be above suspicion. The credibility of the IFE’s predecessor, the Federal Electoral Commission, was suspect at best. Since its creation, the IFE has concentrated its efforts on developing a reputation as an autonomous and transparent institution. It has bent over backwards to accommodate the demands of all political parties, especially opposition parties. As it prepared for the 1994 presidential election, the IFE boasted of having one of the more accurate voter registration lists (the padrón electoral) in the world (47.5 million registered out of 50 million qualified to vote) and opened it to audit and inspection by both national and international organizations. Also in preparation for this election, the IFE spent over U.S. $730 million to update and revise the voter registration lists and to produce voter identification cards that had more antitampering devices than, as an IFE official put it to me, “the ID of a NASA engineer wishing to board a space shuttle.” 204

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But in spite of the expenditure of so much money and effort on the 1994 election, there were still allegations of fraud and complaints about electoral procedures. The final verdict was that the election, overall, was clean but not fair.6 The fraud, many contend, was committed by the PRI before the actual election, through its unfair access to campaign finance resources, virtually unlimited access to the media, and so on. Irregularities were also reported throughout the country, such as running out of ballots early in the voting at the casillas especiales (voting places set up at the border so that Mexicans living in the United States could vote there). Reported irregularities led to the contestation of results in some cases— for example, in the election for the municipal presidency of Monterrey, where the (probably legitimate) PRI victory was overturned in favor of the PAN. In the year before the 1994 election, congressional debate about electoral reform had threatened to reach a stalemate, and although the PRI could easily have built the necessary two-thirds majority to push through some innocuous reforms, it was reluctant to do so. President Salinas wanted the latest versions of the COFIPE passed with the support of at least the PAN in order to provide greater legitimacy for the 1994 elections. In effect, this meant that the COFIPE reforms had to be passed by August 1993. At the last minute, in order to win panista support, the PRI offered major concessions. The most important of these was that after 1994 each state would have four senators, three of whom would be elected directly and the fourth allocated to the party coming in second. Other concessions related to greater equity of access to the media during campaigns; the imposition of campaign spending limits; the removal of the so-called governability clause, which had ensured a working majority in Congress for the PRI since 1989; and the turning over to local electoral councils and to the IFE of the process whereby incoming Congresses voted to approve their own election (autocalificación). Also, the voter registration list was to be verified by an independent body. The opposition was unsuccessful in two other significant goals: first, that there be limits on the direct participation of public functionaries in campaigns; and second, that no party be allowed to use the colors of the national flag as its own.7 Even so, a last-minute reform in May 1994 changed the composition of the IFE itself, turning over voting membership solely to nonpartisan citizen counselors. Finally, in 1996, the IFE became fully independent when it was removed from the leadership of the secretary of Gobernación. The electoral reforms of the past thirty years, while setting the prece205

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dent of creating a plurality, also kept this plurality heavily constrained and ultimately assured the PRI’s dominance. All this changed dramatically in the midterm elections of 1997, when the PRI suffered its greatest loss since the party was created in its initial form in 1929. For the first time in seventy years of almost unchallenged one-party rule, the PRI lost its majority in the Chamber of Deputies. In the congressional vote, the PRI won 39 percent, the PRD 27 percent, and the PAN 26 percent. The remaining votes were distributed among several small parties, of which the most significant has become the PVEM (the Green Party). In terms of seats, of the 500 total (300 allocated on the basis of direct election and 200 on the basis of proportional representation), there were 239 for the PRI, 125 for the PRD, 122 for the PAN, 8 for the PVEM, and 6 for the PT. This loss of overall majority in the Chamber of Deputies was a huge blow to the PRI. Although the PRI continued to be the largest single party in the Chamber of Deputies and held a sizeable majority in the Senate, the opposition parties formed a pact in the lower house to ensure that power would be shared among them. Despite their smaller individual sizes relative to the PRI, the opposition parties, combined, played a highly visible and polemical role in the 1997–2000 legislature. Although the final three years prior to the 2000 elections saw no major changes to the COFIPE or to the structure of the IFE itself, the period was a crucial one for the emergence and credibility of electoral institutions. One major reform was the integration of the appeals tribunal (Tribunal Electoral) into the judiciary. Otherwise, the IFE has concentrated on the vexed issue of equity in elections, most notably on campaign finance and access to the media. Here is not the place to discuss these changes in detail; suffice it to say that strict campaign spending limits are now in place (although the ceilings remain very high), and media coverage (quantity and quality) of candidates and parties is closely monitored and scrutinized by a special team within the IFE (Estévez 2000; Solís 2000). As the 2000 election approached, most observers were confident that the scene was set for the cleanest and fairest elections in Mexican history. The loss of the PRI and the election of Vicente Fox as president proved them correct. Women and the IFE

The impact of the political opening brought about by these reforms on the levels of female participation is mixed. Many of the women interviewed for this study argued that increasing the degree of representative 206

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democracy in Mexico inherently benefits women, since until recently they have been largely left out of the equation and are now slowly being incorporated (together with other traditionally marginalized groups, such as indigenous populations). Others, however, argue that the obstacles are far from removed. For example, for the 1997 midterm elections, after all the reforms mentioned above were in place, only one of the twenty-two members of the general council of the IFE was a woman, and of the representatives of the political parties to the council, only one was a woman (from the PVEM, the Green Party). At the state level, only one woman presided over one of the IFE’s thirty-two state councils, and only three held number-two slots as secretaries. The larger participation of women was as consejeros electorales (electoral counselors), of which 17.7 percent were women; also, 22.4 percent of the alternate counselors were women. Of the 2,333 electoral counselors with a right to vote at federal, state, and municipal levels in the 1997 elections, 491 (21 percent) were women (PRONAM 1999). As discussed in chapter 4, the demand for more spaces for women is what has led to affirmative action initiatives and to proposals for legislating quotas for women in elected office. It has also led women to forge other strategies, such as the organization of civic groups with clearly established political agendas. As gears in the political machine shift with electoral reforms, the rules of the game change for everyone in Mexican politics, and all politicians—men and women alike—must simultaneously learn new strategies for gaining access to public office. The changes in the rules of the political game could potentially give women equal access to the system that has eluded them until now—provided, that is, that attitudes towards women in politics become more open and embracing of change. WOME N AS VOTERS

As we saw in chapter 3, the road to suffrage for Mexican women was long and difficult. But the right to vote gave women more than the status of full-fledged citizens. As Dulce María Sauri eloquently states, “Politics is where women can first express their freedom from male domination. . . . Even 20 years ago, the man would carry his wife’s voting credential, and she could not vote without his permission. For many women, the voter card was their first piece of individual identification” (Sandoval, Knight Ridder, 25 March 2000). Yet in spite of their relatively recent entrance into politics, women 207

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play an important role in the Mexican electoral process. According to the 1994 and 2000 federal registries of voters, women comprise slightly over 52 percent of the electorate in Mexico. In addition to constituting the majority of the electorate, and therefore being in a position to swing electoral results in favor of one candidate or party, women have also been traditionally regarded as having a considerable influence on how members of their families will vote. This has been noted, in particular, in regard to their children, who appear to be especially influenced by the mother’s political preferences. A top-ranking party official in Mexico bluntly said to me that it is in the best interest of all parties to court the women’s vote because, ultimately, “ellas deciden cómo vota la familia” (they decide how the family votes). The data also corroborate that a large percentage of this female electorate is interested in politics, specifically in voting. Polls taken before the 1994 presidential election showed that voting was of interest to women almost as much as it was to men (table 5.1). This interest was sustained through the midterm 1997 elections, and preelectoral polling data for the 2000 presidential election showed that the interest not only was maintained but actually increased. Surveys and other polling data also show that not only are women keenly interested, but they actively participate in the elections and turn out to vote in considerable numbers.8 However, they continue to be outnumbered by men, in spite of constituting a larger percentage of the voting population. The preelectoral data for the 1994 presidential election showed that a larger percentage of men than women planned to vote—89 percent and 84 percent, respectively. Men discussed the coming elections more often than women (30 percent of men discussed the elections daily, as opposed to 23 percent of women). Interestingly, men were more confident that the elections would be clean (25 percent of men, 22 percent of women) and that the vote would be respected (a whopping 52 percent of men, versus 20 percent of women) (Mori de México, Excélsior, 12 August 1994; Fernández Poncela 1995a: 153). Thus, despite the fact that the data in table 5.1 show only a small difference between the interest levels of men and women, there do appear to be some significant differences between the sexes, particularly in regard to their perspectives on the cleanliness of the electoral process. Overall, the arguments that claim that women typically are less interested in politics than men (Camp 1999: 92; Fernández Poncela and Fournier 2000) do seem to be somewhat at odds with the data. Yet one cannot overlook the strength of these arguments: 208

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Women’s and Men’s Perceptions on the Importance of the Vote, 1994 TABLE 5 . 1

sex degree of importance

men

women

High Average Low None

69.0% 18.9% 7.5% 4.4%

63.4% 20.4% 10.8% 5.2%

Source: Adapted from Anna M. Fernández Poncela. 1995. “Comportamiento electoral y acceso de las mujeres a la élite política.” Política y Cultura. Year 3 (5) 153. Based on data from Gabinete de Estudios de Opinión, “Séptima encuesta nacional preelectoral, 1994.”

The 1990 –1993 World Values survey data clearly demonstrate that women share less interest in discussing politics than men. On the other hand, Mexicans generally, and Mexican women specifically, report higher levels of frequency in such discussions than occurs in many other countries, among them Italy, France, and Britain. Mexican women are almost exactly on par with those in the United States in terms of the frequency with which they discuss politics. But when queried specifically about their level of interest in politics, only three out of ten women show somewhat or strong interest, two-thirds the level of Mexican men. More significantly, among citizens who responded to the question: “How important is politics in your life?,” only 35 percent of Mexican women compared to 46 percent for men deemed it important. That response still placed Mexican women above French and Italian women but well below U.S. women. (camp 1998: 167–168) Also relevant in this vein is my own analysis of gender differences from a major survey of political attitudes in Mexico and the United States (in the latter comparing Mexican-born residents, Mexican Americans, and Anglos) directed by Roderic Camp and conducted in the fall of 2000 with over four thousand respondents (tables 5.2 to 5.4).9 Although here we are interested in men and women in Mexico, I have retained the U.S. data for comparative purposes. As table 5.2 demon209

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TABLE 5 . 2

Membership in Organizations, by Gender neighsports religious unions borhood

MEXICO Men Women U.S. Men Women

political

ptas

39% 14%

31% 37%

14% 5%

13% 8%

10% 4%

18% 15%

56% 36%

67% 75%

31% 25%

50% 55%

31% 29%

35% 50%

Source: Compiled by author using data from Roderic Ai Camp (principal investigator). “Democracy through U.S. and Mexican Lenses.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Grant #2000-4406.

strates, women are less likely to participate in formal organizations in Mexico, with the single exception of religious involvement (37 percent, versus 31 percent for men). The biggest contrast in participation comes in sports, where men are almost three times as likely to be involved as women—a much larger differential than one finds in the United States. Counterintuitively, women appear to be less involved in neighborhood organizations than do men, although this finding may result from the distinction between formal and informal involvement. Generally, though, participation in organizations is much higher in the United States than in Mexico. Turning to political participation and democratic perceptions, both societies show low levels of activism, although signing a protest letter is apparently fairly common among both men and women in the United States. Generally, in Mexico both men and women participate little; however, sizeable numbers suggested they might become involved in the future (table 5.3). Overall, women are less participatory than men. Attitudes towards democracy and institutions have traditionally been highly cynical in Mexico, but recent evidence suggests that this tendency has begun to change significantly since 1995. Men and women in the United States continue to have greater confidence in their democratic system than do their counterparts in Mexico, but interesting in the latter case are the apparent gender differences (table 5.4). Women in Mexico are more likely than men to believe that the country is democratic (17 percent versus 12 percent). Furthermore, a significantly higher

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TABLE 5 . 3

Participation in Political Activities, by Gender

ask a sign a attend join occupy particip. favor of a protest demon- unofficial buildin a politician letter strations strikes ings boycott MEXICO Men 11%) (43%) Women 7%) (41%) U.S. Men 14%) (38%) Women 13%) (32%)

7%) (45%) 5%) (38%)

8%) (33%) 6%) (27%)

2%) (19%) 2%) (13%)

1%) (12%) 1%) (10%)

1%) (11%) 0%) (7%)

42%) (42%) 42%) (39%)

21%) (39%) 18%) (33%)

10%) (25%) 5%) (24%)

11%) (23%) 12%) (15%)

21%) (45%) 21%) (35%)

Source: Compiled by author using data from Roderic Ai Camp (principal investigator). “Democracy through U.S. and Mexican Lenses.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Grant #2000-4406. Note: Parentheses  Might become involved.

percentage of women (43 percent versus 34 percent of men) felt that a strong president was important for democracy to work well, and more women also felt that the main task of democracy was to combat crime (31 percent versus 22 percent of men). Men, in contrast, felt that the most important task was to elect officials (table 5.4). For Whom Do Mexican Women Vote?

According to various nonpartisan political analysts, women tend to vote for the status quo (i.e., more conservatively than men) and are more resistant than men to supporting opposition parties.10 As with the general electorate, the prevailing logic among women voters in the 1994 election seemed to be “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.” This pattern appears to have changed in the midterm 1997 election, with the surprising victories of the opposition described above. However, it is important to note that electoral outcomes tend to vary depending on whether the election is a midterm or a presidential election, and that by and large, people tend to vote more conservatively in

211

Perceptions about Democracy and Its Tasks for Mexican and U.S. Populations, by Gender country democratic?

what important for democracy to work well?

yes, very ( very or good good somewhat) president leg.

main tasks of democracy?

good combat judges crime

elect protect offi- minor- redis. cials ities wealth

satisfied with the way democracy works?

very

neither some- satisfied what nor diss.

MEXICO Men 12% (46%) Women 17% (46%)

34% 43%

15% 9%

18% 18%

22% 31%

28% 21%

19% 15%

22% 22%

6% 5%

30% 21%

14% 16%

U.S. Men Women

13% 19%

36% 36%

10% 8%

15% 19%

40% 35%

11% 12%

16% 15%

24% 20%

41% 46%

4% 5%

41% (83%) 40% (87%)

Source: Compiled by author using data from Roderic Ai Camp (principal investigator). “Democracy through U.S. and Mexican Lenses.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Grant #2000-4406.

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TABLE 5 . 4

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presidential elections. Roderic Camp also comments that more women than men tend to be uncommitted or to support centrist views, and that very few seem to identify with leftist political ideologies (1999: 92). Ifigenia Martínez, a founding member of the PRD, commented during interview that women have more faith in government and lose hope less quickly than men, thus giving an inherent advantage to the PRI. Overall the primary and continuing beneficiary of the female vote has tended to be the PRI. In preelectoral polls for the 1994 presidential elections, 50 percent of the women surveyed said they preferred the PRI to other parties, as opposed to 42 percent of men. More men, on the contrary, said they would vote for the PAN (22 percent of men as opposed to 16 percent of women) or for the PRD (10 percent of men, 8 percent of women) (Belden & Russonello and Ciencia Aplicada, November 1994: 4). Other polls showed similar results: 42 percent of women said they would vote for the PRI as opposed to 37.8 of men; 26.1 percent of men and 23.6 of women said they would vote for the PAN; and 13.6 of men and 8.3 of women said they would vote for the PRD (Gabinete de Estudios de Opinión, cited in Fernández Poncela 1995a: 155 –156. See also Covarrubias y Asociados 1994 for results of a postelectoral poll broken down by gender and reasons for party preference). A later poll in March 1997 confirmed that the PRI does better than the PRD among female voters and that the PAN was split down the middle: 55 percent of the women polled said they preferred the PRI, 46 percent said they would vote for the PRD, and a flat 50 percent favored the PAN (Reforma, 9 March 1997). A poll conducted by the newspaper Reforma in June 1997, just before the midterm elections, produced results similar to those of 1994. In the responses to the question “Si hoy hubiera elecciones para Presidente de la República por cuál partido votaría usted?” (If today there were elections for president, for which party would you vote?), the gender breakdown was clear: 29 percent of men and 35 percent of women said they would vote for the PRI; 23 percent of men and 18 percent of women said they would vote for the PAN; and 16 percent of men and 14 percent of women said they would vote for the PRD. Of the overall sample, 32 percent declared a preference for the PRI; 20 percent, the PAN; 15 percent, the PRD; three percent, other; and 30 percent chose “none/don’t know.” The preelectoral polling data for the 2000 presidential election, as of March 2000, sustained the historical gender breakdown. In the responses to the question “Si hoy hubiera elecciones para Presidente de 213

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la República por quién votaría usted?” (If today there were elections for president, for whom would you vote?),11 the PRI was again ahead: 36 percent of men and 41 percent of women favored Labastida; 32 percent of men and 31 percent of women favored Fox; 14 percent of men and 9 percent of women favored Cárdenas (the PRD candidate); 1 percent of men and 2 percent of women said they would support other candidates; and a balanced 17 percent of men and 17 percent of women said they were still undecided (Reforma, 17–20 March 2000). Another poll also conducted in March 2000, by Covarrubias y Asociados, showed that the potential victory of each of the candidates would depend on a specific set of voters: Cárdenas’s on middle-class men; Labastida’s on lowerclass women; and Fox’s on younger, more educated, higher-income, urban voters. As the election drew closer, however, an interesting shift began to emerge: although middle-aged and professional women appeared to continue to favor the PRI, younger women, especially those attending universities, began to show signs of supporting the opposition, specifically Vicente Fox. This was a trend, however, that seemed to apply to younger people in general, who were eager to vote “por el cambio” (for change). Since the other opposition candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, appeared increasingly unlikely to win, those looking for change were leaning toward Fox. Despite the significant differences between men and women noted above, polling data in Mexico pay little attention to gender. While polling has come to play an increasingly important role in Mexico’s electoral scene, only a handful of sources break down their information on political participation and political perspectives by sex of voter.12 Though polling data in Mexico are sophisticated, and the amount of detail in many polls is impressive—with breakdowns by party, age, religion, region of the country, urban versus rural, level of education, and so on— there remains next to nothing on gender. Some analysts, however, argue that every poll gathers data by gender, but that this is not reported in the analyses—not because of prejudice but because on policy-related questions and issues there rarely exists a statistically significant difference between men and women(Camp et al. forthcoming). Yet the limited data available do show gender distinctions, so one feels compelled to ask why, since women make up over half the electorate in Mexico, their views are not incorporated more assiduously in polling data. Although there has been some attention paid to the fact that “el voto tiene rostro de mujer” (votes have women’s faces), newspaper headlines echoing this sentiment, 214

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common in other parts of the world (not least in the 2000 Gore/Bush race in the United States), are less readily apparent in Mexico.13 Issues and Platforms

Among the issues cited during our interviews as being important to Mexican women voters were the traditional concerns associated with women voters elsewhere, such as family, health, and education, as well as the more general issues of democratization and decentralization. Education was especially emphasized, as lack of education is seen as one of the greatest barriers to female (and male) economic and social advancement. Other issues, such as reproductive rights, are also considered important but receive differing degrees of emphasis depending on political ideology and socioeconomic status. Women’s family priorities were clearly in Ernesto Zedillo’s mind when he campaigned for the presidency in 1994 under the motto “Bienestar para tu familia” (Well-being for your family), a line that was obviously targeted at women. Also, the instability created by Chiapas and Colosio’s assassination was played up in PRI propaganda, creating a “fear vote” (voto de miedo) that, it was felt, would move more women to stick with the status quo. Because women are the first to feel the impact of economic austerity measures on the household budget, the single most important issue to women in the wake of the 1994 presidential election was undoubtedly the devaluation of the peso and the Mexican economic crisis of December 1994. While the economic crisis remained critical in the minds of the electorate for the 1997 midterm election, other matters, such as democratization and decentralization, took center stage, especially in light of the gains of the opposition at the state and local levels. On the eve of the 2000 presidential election, the issues women were supporting dealt with a series of general social problems that affect women in special ways: poverty, delinquency, kidnappings, assassinations, family violence, drug trafficking, single motherhood, and suicide among youth. This situation is not dissimilar to that in the United States, where, for example, gun control became a “women’s issue” in the recent presidential election, one that occupied much of the time and agendas of candidates Gore and Bush. In Mexico, all presidential candidates in the 2000 election made open and direct overtures to women, with most of their campaign promises focusing on social welfare. Perhaps the most common theme endorsed by all candidates was that of domestic violence. 215

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On 8 March 2000, International Women’s Day, all presidential candidates displayed their support for women’s causes, and each of them approached women in ways that were somewhat distinctive of both their parties and their own personalities. The PRI had a two-day international forum (Mujeres 2000), inaugurated by the party’s candidate, Francisco Labastida; Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the PRD had a luncheon for his female supporters; Vicente Fox of the PAN organized a rally in front of the Monumento a la Madre (Monument to Motherhood); and Gilberto Rincón Gallardo of the PDS (Partido Democracia Social, Social Democracy Party) had an “Encuentro con la Rosa” (Meeting with the Roses). As one report put it, “they offered everything, from roses to legalizing abortion” (para ofrecer desde rosas hasta la despenalización del aborto [CIMAC 2000]). Their messages were overwhelmingly directed to the needs of women who are poor and illiterate and have few alternatives. As Labastida put it, poverty in Mexico “has a face, the face of a peasant, but particularly of a peasant woman. . . . [I]t has the face of indigenous women. . . . [Poverty] is concentrated on those who have less strength and resources to defend themselves, less education, less culture” (tiene un rostro, tiene el rostro de los campesinos, pero particularmente de la mujer campesina. . . . [T]iene el rostro de las mujeres indígenas. . . . [La pobreza] se concentra en quienes tienen menos fuerzas y elementos para defenderse, menos educación, menos cultura [CIMAC 2000]). The candidates’ policy proposals differed little, mostly focusing on what seemed to be a consensual platform reached by agreement among all candidates. They all offered to do away with pregnancy tests in the workplace, all made statements about domestic violence, and all offered health, education, and employment programs, as well as support for maternity-related matters (many of these promises echoed strongly in the U.S. presidential race). While some may view these positions as representing a commitment to moving women’s agendas forward, there is also without question a strong dose of electoral strategizing involved. What leads one to conclude that this may well be a consensual platform among the candidates is that there is little or no discussion of reproductive rights; it is such a divisive issue among both parties and women themselves that it is safer, politically, to ignore and sidestep the issue altogether. Clearly, the PAN could never support abortion. Vicente Fox, indeed, made a series of television campaign ads in which he spoke about adoption as an alternative; since he is the father of four adopted children, the point was well taken. Only Rincón Gallardo of the PDS spoke out in favor of legalizing abortion, but he already had no 216

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chance of victory. Any candidate who chose to declare himself in support of legalizing abortion was likely to alienate large numbers of both men and women voters. After all, Mexico is a country where over 90 percent of the population is nominally Catholic, the patron saint is the Virgin of Guadalupe, and women are especially religious. The most noteworthy proposals that came from the PRI’s candidate, Labastida, were three: (1) to assign separate lines in the budgets of government agencies specifically to support women’s programs (the socalled recursos etiquetados, or targeted resources), particularly in the area of family support (maternity leave, day care, etc.); (2) equal pay for equal work; and (3) the creation of the Instituto Nacional de la Mujer. PAN candidate Fox also supported the creation of this institute, and both emphasized its importance. The institute would replace the Programa Nacional de la Mujer, housed in Gobernación, whose director was appointed by the president. The new institute would enjoy autonomy from both Gobernación and the presidency, its director would be elected by consensus among women leaders, and it would have its own budget.14 Cárdenas emphatically stated that “la democracia debe tener rostro y mirada de mujer” (democracy must have the face and the look of a woman) and proposed to increase significantly the percentage of women in high and middle levels of public administration, although he failed to give an exact figure. In spite of what might be considered a rather clear set of proposals— especially considering the vagueness of what had been offered in the past—women took these promises with a grain of salt and acted strategically when choosing which candidates to support. Undoubtedly there were high hopes and expectations for the 2000 election: as a Mexican leader put it to me in 1999, “ahora sí van a cambiar las cosas, ahora sí van a tener su lugar las mujeres” (this time things will change, this time women will be given their proper place), and as Eli Bartra commented regarding the election, “The century of women is about to begin” (Interpress Service, 30 December 1999). But more than ever, women appeared to be scrutinizing candidates carefully and offering to support only those who showed a genuine concern for women and their causes. ELECTOR AL STR ATEGIES FOR THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: THE APNS

In preparation for the 2000 presidential election, several civic organizations evolved into political organizations that were labeled Agrupación 217

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Política Nacional (national political group, APN). APNS can become officially certified as political organizations by registering with the IFE. According to COFIPE regulations, a civic group can obtain IFE registration as an APN when it meets certain criteria: the collection of seven thousand members’ signatures in at least ten states; presentation of a program of action; and presentation of the organization’s internal rules and regulations, including those governing the election of its president and other officers. Each APN receives modest funding from the IFE (approximately U.S. $5,000 per month), and all of these resources are clearly earmarked. However, because the IFE has a limited amount of resources to distribute among all APNS, it is in the interest of existing APNS to keep newer organizations from obtaining IFE certification. This helps explain why numerous civic organizations have been frustrated in their efforts to officially become APNS. An important characteristic of all APNS is that they must not be affiliated with any political party. Indeed, given that independents cannot stand for election in Mexico (unless they tie themselves to a party), APNS offer an alternative to political parties for those people interested in participating in the political process who do not wish to belong to any party in particular. In this way, also, APNS can maintain their autonomy from the parties. As of the summer of 2000 there were forty-two nationally registered APNS, and about half were located in Mexico City. Three APNS are currently devoted exclusively to promoting women’s interests: Diversa, Mujeres y Punto, and Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia.15 There is a fourth APN, Causa Ciudadana, that also has a strong interest in women and gender issues, but this is primarily because its head is Cecilia Loría, a leading feminist. The group’s official agenda is more broadly focused on political change. Each of the forty-two APNS pursues reform of the state, democratization, and political change in one way or another. Specifically, one of the principal goals of the APNS is to impact the selection of candidates for Congress and for state and local races. To this end, leaders of the various APNS have met regularly with leaders of the three principal political parties to press for candidates who are closer to their own agendas. In the summer of 1999, each of the three women-focused APNS met with all three likely presidential candidates, as well as with leaders of the three parties, to present them with their goals and priorities and to ask that these be included in the candidates’ platforms. The women who belong to these APNS are very similar in back218

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ground to those who belong to NGOS, as described in chapters 1 and 2 —so much so that some analysts have posed the question of whether APNS are really just a different type of NGO. Although I will not take up that question here, it is true that the women belonging to APNS and NGOS share a common set of socioeconomic characteristics, invariably have early political experience dating from the late 1960s, and enjoy similar social and political networks. All of their leaders have long political trajectories and are savvy when it comes to understanding and taking advantage of structural changes that open new political opportunities. The women in the three women-oriented APNS are from the urban middle class, with levels of education higher than the national average. They are also women who share a common set of contradictory influences: on the one hand, they are expected to fulfill the traditional roles of caregivers, mothers, and homemakers; and on the other, because of their socioeconomic status, they wish to pursue professional careers and to become engaged in the political process. In addition, these women belong to social networks built through previous experiences of collective action, particularly in the social mobilization of the late 1960s. And although many of these networks were built for political or professional reasons, over time the relationships have often evolved into personal friendships that strengthen solidarity within the group. The international context has also played a key role in the evolution of both NGOS and APNS, as Mexico seeks to demonstrate to the world that women are fully engaged and are active participants in all aspects of the country’s social and political life. Forums such as the Beijing conference have been crucial in cementing these political organizations at home in Mexico. Diversa

Diversa is the only APN that has an explicitly feminist agenda. The thematic areas covered in its documents range from federalism to employment protection for women, but the emphasis is on securing social, political, and economic equality for women and men. Indeed, the feminist orientation of this APN is what makes it attractive to the public and politicians alike, particularly those who consider themselves feminist. It is qualitatively very different from other APNS, and for this reason, Diversa has garnered wide support among leaders of the feminist movement, such as Marta Lamas and others. The head of the organization is Patricia Mercado, who has had a long trajectory in the feminist move219

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ment. Indeed, there was considerable speculation that she would be nominated as a presidential candidate in 2000 for the newly created Partido Democracia Social (PDS) and that eventually that party would evolve into a feminist party. In the end, however, a male candidate was selected in her stead (Gilberto Rincón Gallardo). Women account for 90 percent of the 12,775 members of Diversa (Hernández Monzoy 2000). One state in which Diversa has high membership and is especially active is Sonora, Mercado’s native state. Both Mercado and Elena Tapia, the other principal leader of the organization, are from this northern progressive state, and their frequent visits and renown have served to strengthen their leadership and networks significantly in the northwest. One of the more visible events organized by Diversa was “Avancemos un Trecho: Por un compromiso de los partidos políticos a favor de las mujeres” (Let’s Move Forward a Stretch: For a Commitment of Political Parties to Women), a conference that took place in June 1997 and brought together leaders of the eight registered parties and 150 prominent women from different sectors—intellectuals, journalists, artists, union organizers—to promote legislative reforms focused on five basic themes: discrimination; clarity in the regulations pertaining to family rights and responsibilities; termination of employment because of pregnancy and forced pregnancy tests; day care; and domestic violence.16 Through this conference, Diversa clarified and strengthened its purpose of participating actively in electoral politics to promote the goals that the feminist movement has pursued for the last twenty-five years (see chapter 3). Diversa attracted the attention of the international media in January 1999 when its members convened to “demolish the walls around the macho world of politics,” demanding “that the male-dominated political groups respond to their demands or they [would] start their own political party” (Off Our Backs, electronic mail message, 1999). Patricia Mercado’s name was the one most prominently cited. Mujeres y Punto

Contrary to Diversa, Mujeres y Punto emphasizes that it is not a feminist organization. This APN refers to itself as a “women’s group.” Originally formed by a group of politically interested middle- and uppermiddle-class women, most of them housewives with grown children and high levels of education, Mujeres y Punto is more concerned with broader issues that affect women’s daily lives, from self-esteem, to health, 220

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to family life, to community leadership. The organization has held numerous workshops throughout the country, and it actively disseminates information through the radio and especially through the Web. Its motto is “La política al servicio de la vida” (Politics serving life). The leader of this APN is Laura Carrera, who has a strong presence among women and feminist groups in Mexico (she does refer to herself personally as a feminist). She is also well known in political circles, in part for having worked closely for many years with Luis Donaldo Colosio and other top PRI leaders, and latterly for moving into the Fox camp, gaining a top position within the Fox administration, and joining the ranks of the PAN. Mujeres y Punto was originally organized in 1994 around the presidential candidacy of Colosio, under the name Red Nacional de Amas de Casa (National Network of Housewives).17 Later the group decided to change its name because many of the members did not wish to be identified as housewives. Contrary to Diversa—which faces as one of its principal challenges the internal tensions among various feminist tendencies—Mujeres y Punto does not have a problem with group coherence. It does continue to struggle, however, to escape the priísta label attached to it. Part of the strength of Mujeres y Punto resides in the fact that many of it members enjoy the relative comforts and leisure time available to the middle and upper-middle classes. The members’ socioeconomic conditions also facilitate the formation and furtherance of networks, through everything from the women’s children’s schools, to their aerobics classes, to their country clubs—and of course, through their social/political acquaintances and friends. The members also emphasize family life and family involvement and indeed frequently embrace within their activities both their children and their husbands. Moreover, the leaders and members support the organization’s functions and activities, including its daily operations, with their own resources: the office, telephone, and fax machine of Mujeres y Punto belong to the consulting business of Carolina Nieto, one of the group’s leaders. Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia

Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia (MLD) is the oldest of the three women-focused APNS. MLD was originally formed in the wake of the 1988 presidential election by a group of women in the state of Morelos who vehemently protested the electoral fraud that, they argued, gave 221

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Salinas the presidential victory in spite of the fact that (at least in that state) Cárdenas received four times as many votes as Salinas did. The clear leader of MLD at that time was Ana Lilia Cepeda, who over the last decade has consolidated her leadership in the organization. One of the earlier visible activities of MLD was “El Plan de Todas” (The Plan of All of Us), which was an intensive set of meetings throughout the country aimed at compiling the demands and proposals of Mexican women around two general themes: democracy and gender. MLD then presented these demands to the various parties and government agencies in the 1994 –2000 administration. MLD also participated very visibly at the Beijing conference in 1995. From 1997 until mid-1999, when MLD officially became registered as an APN, the activities of the group focused on two broad areas: political action and political training. The purpose of the first was to give MLD more clout for bargaining with parties and with the government, while the second sought to train women to exercise leadership in decision-making positions. In 1997, MLD founded the Centro de Capacitación Política de la Mujer (Center for Women’s Political Training) in Cuernavaca, which trained women in everything from campaign strategies, to dealing with the media, to self-esteem. MLD’s purpose in becoming an APN was to consolidate its political presence by giving it more legitimacy in dealing with the political parties. Today its general objectives continue to focus on action and training. The majority of MLD’s members are, once again, middle- and upper-middle-class women whose level of education is higher than the national average. The bulk of the membership comes from Cuernavaca, in the state of Morelos, which is Cepeda’s home. An important difference between MLD and both Diversa and Mujeres y Punto is that many of the women of MLD are active militants in the political parties (in particular the PRD). This circumstance is not surprising, considering that one of the principal goals of MLD is to promote more women to run for office, and running for office requires a party affiliation. Cepeda has sought to ensure that she will continue to hold a firm grip on the leadership of MLD, and this has caused tension within the organization. Partido de la Mujer Mexicana y la Familia

A fourth group that failed to obtain registration as an APN was a women’s group that in June 1998 declared its intention to become the first women’s party in Mexico, labeled Partido de la Mujer Mexicana y la 222

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Familia (Party of the Mexican Woman and Family). The group announced that it counted with seventy-five thousand members and that its goal was to form a nationalist, antifeminist party that brought to politics those qualities that only women possess, such as “sacrifice and good administration” (Hernández Monzoy 2000: 69). In spite of its selfdeclared large membership, the group fell far short of the requirements for becoming a political party, so they chose to seek APN status instead. Once again the group insisted on not being feminist; indeed, even before the IFE made its decision, the group had decided to change its name to Asociación Mexicana de la Familia (Mexican Association of the Family), eliminating the word “woman” so that no one would be led to believe that this implied a feminist bent. The IFE denied the group registration; according to members, their application failed not because they didn’t have the necessary number of signatures (they claimed they had eight thousand) but because they could not prove that these came from at least ten states, as the IFE requires. Although they argued that they had fulfilled all of the IFE’s requirements, they also acknowledged, to their embarrassment, that on their way to the IFE office they had left behind in a taxi “several boxes” of signatures (Hernández Monzoy 2000: 70). The Role and Impact of APNs

Altogether, the success of APNS as an electoral strategy for women is doubtful. The principal objective of the APNs described above is to promote more women to run for office and to put more women into decision-making posts. But in order to achieve this, these women need to run for office under the banner of a specific party, since independent candidates are not allowed in Mexico. Thus, when an APN begins courting the various parties in an effort to persuade them to include the APN’s members on their candidate lists, the APN appears to have all to gain and the parties all to lose. Now that the party system is more consolidated and all candidacies are so fiercely competitive, a party must question why it would be in its best interest to give one of its slots to someone who does not belong to the party and, moreover, whose professed allegiance is with the APN, not with the party. This situation results from IFE regulations, whereby an APN is supposed to be nonpartisan and therefore cannot offer loyalty to any political party. Thus, from the point of view of the party, in exchange for a place in the party’s candidate list the APN does not have much to offer (such as support or endorsement). So as each 223

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APN makes the rounds of political parties looking for candidacy opportunities for its members, to a certain extent the group ends up losing ground instead of gaining it. As one Mexican analyst said to me, “it is like a mother showing her daughters around to see who will marry them.” Ultimately, also, the APN women who do become candidates tend to find slots much more on the basis of their own political reputations and the networks they have developed over the years, than on the basis of their connections with APNs. As mentioned earlier, many of the women in APNs (particularly the leaders) are women who have been very active and politically visible since the 1970s. It is also highly likely that these women’s loyalties will ultimately reside with the parties they choose, rather than with their APNS. This does not mean, however, that their commitments to feminism or to women’s causes will necessarily be compromised. Many of these women, indeed, have maintained true loyalty to their causes over the years. Thus, it seems that perhaps APNS have more to gain by promoting their thematic goals through working directly with society, and even lobbying, than by seeking to have their objectives incorporated into party platforms and their members included as party candidates. WOMEN RUNNING FOR OFFICE

An important issue that arises with regard to the direct participation of women in the Mexican political process is that although for many years women have helped with campaigns and been involved in political life through social movements and a variety of other activities, there are still very few women who run for public office. Women have participated in various forms of popular protest and have been, by all accounts, very active behind the scenes in promoting candidates and drumming up support for their parties in the electoral base. Nonetheless, despite various indications of improvement, Mexico still has a low representation of women in office, and women are partly responsible for this shortfall. As Blanca Alvarez, a senior and prominent member of the PAN, said to me, “it’s all partly our fault. We’re the best at supporting our party and our [male] candidates during the campaigns, doing everything from marching to making enchiladas; but then when our candidate wins, we go back home—instead of demanding a position within the new administration or some political compensation for all our hard work.”

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Some of the women interviewed for this study suggested that women hesitate to run for office primarily because the number of women who have successfully gone before them is so low, and because the costs of running for office (both financial and emotional) are so high. In addition to the political difficulties of obtaining a party’s nomination, women often see campaigning, in particular, as a prohibitive part of the election process. The following sections discuss the obstacles women in Mexico face as they become directly involved in the electoral process as candidates: obtaining a party’s nomination, seeking the vote of other women, and campaign strategizing. Finally, I will address the role played by the wives of politicians and their often overlooked campaign contributions. Political Selection Within the Political Parties: The Glass Ceiling

The glass-ceiling effect—whereby one can see through a barrier but not penetrate it—is a serious problem for women in Mexican politics, particularly in matters pertaining to political recruitment (see Camp 1998). Although the specific details of internal selection of candidates differ by party, interviewees from all three major parties reported instances of the glass-ceiling effect for women. Of course, discrimination against women within political parties is not unique to Mexico. In their study of women in politics worldwide, Nelson and Chowdhury (1994) found that “the culture and processes of formal political institutions— especially parties, their affiliated labor or employee groups, their youth wings, and even their women’s auxiliaries—are major barriers to women’s equal participation in institutional politics” (16). Fox (1997: 127) also found evidence of gender bias within the parties in the United States. The major problem for women seeking a party’s nomination, in Mexico and elsewhere, is that parties will only support female candidates they believe to be credible and to have a real chance of winning. If female candidates appear vulnerable, then the political parties will be less likely to support their candidacies. The barriers to the election of women, as Zimmerman points out, are multiple: “the dominant political culture, unequal education and employment opportunities, unfavorable electoral systems, incumbents’ advantages in seeking reelection to office, inadequate campaign funds for women and minority candidates, and election laws making it difficult for potential candidates or new parties to have their names included

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on the ballot” (1994: 4). Moreover, although Mexico’s electoral system includes partial proportional representation, as described earlier in this chapter, it continues to be “woman-unfriendly,” to borrow Wilma Rule’s term (1994: 15). Indeed, as Rule argues, “favorable election procedures offer women the most opportunity for election to office, but they do not ensure election” (1994: 16). Yet Mexico’s proportional representation is indeed more “woman-friendly” than other systems: “Experience with the single-member district system (known as the firstpast-the-post system in the United Kingdom) reveals that it generally favors the election of candidates of the majority group in each district, with the exception of women,” who tend to lose even in districts where their parties have the majority (Zimmerman 1994: 6). Competition between Mexican men and women for party nominations is common (and increasingly fierce), but many times women are passed over in favor of male candidates, or not considered at all, mainly because they are female and are considered less likely to win. This largely explains why the three major Mexican political parties, when they do select women candidates, time and again promote the most established women within their parties, and therefore why the same names appear in almost every election (e.g., Beatriz Paredes in the PRI, Amalia García in the PRD, María Elena Alvarez in the PAN). Some of the women interviewed affirmed emphatically that they had experienced discrimination within their parties because they were women. As electoral competition has stiffened and as parties have had more at stake in every election, Mexican parties appear to be making it increasingly difficult for women to obtain nominations. One woman said during our interview that several party members became upset over her candidacy because she was a woman, expressing the view that a woman candidate, particularly from an opposition party like hers (the PRD), had no chance of winning. She even received phone calls and appeals from other women who requested that she withdraw her nomination for the sake of the party. But she stood firm—and won the election. The difficulty that women face in earning nominations is one of the primary reasons that the whole issue of quotas has been so widely appealing to women. Although a quota law has not materialized for a variety of reasons (as discussed in chapter 4), what is important to highlight here is that the quota law is also aimed at increasing the representation of women in the executive bodies of the three main political parties. Notwithstanding the fact that just before the 2000 federal elections

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two of the three parties were headed by women—Dulce María Sauri in the PRI and Amalia García in the PRD—the representation of women at the highest party levels still leaves much to be desired. The mechanisms used to select candidates have not favored women, either. In the PRI, these mechanisms have typically been closed. Until recently, candidates were chosen by a small circle of party leaders, with voters and rank-and-file members of the party having little say. While this was particularly true for presidential candidates, it applied to legislative and local candidate selection as well.18 Even though both the PAN and the PRD have exercised more democratic means of selecting their candidates, their internal processes of candidate selection have also been criticized as undemocratic and discriminatory. Because many participants (including women) are adversely affected by these selection procedures, and now that local name recognition and reputation are becoming increasingly important in winning the popular vote, political parties are beginning to recognize the process as a handicap and to consider implementing structures to correct the situation, such as the 30 percent quota for women.19 One of the more significant changes is the emergence of primary-type elections for candidate selection. The PRI has used this practice most forcefully, experimenting with a number of statewide primaries for gubernatorial candidates since 1998 and holding a primary for the 1999 selection of its presidential candidate. It will be interesting to see how women fare as primary elections become more of a norm across parties. The irony is that to the extent that primary elections require substantial financing and campaigning, this democratic opening within parties may actually pose a serious disadvantage for women. As the political landscape has changed in Mexico and opposition parties have become viable alternative routes to elected office, both male and female politicians have learned to use political parties as vehicles for career advancement. A particularly noteworthy strategy is the choice that some women, like men, have made to align themselves temporarily with a given party out of convenience rather than out of commitment to the party’s ideals.20 Some of these are women who do not adhere strictly to any party’s doctrine. In fact, many have their own political agendas, which at times are more or less acceptable to the parties. For example, one woman who has used the party structure to pursue her own career goals is Cecilia Soto. In 1985 Soto became a member of the PARM (Partido Auténtico de la Revolución Mexicana,

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Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution), and in 1991 she was elected federal deputy for that party; in 1993, she aligned herself with the Workers’ Party (PT) to run as that party’s candidate for president. But despite the fact that she has been both a PARM member and a PT presidential candidate, Soto strongly and repeatedly emphasized her nonpartisan status. Another case in point is Leticia Calzada, who served as campaign coordinator for the PAN’s Vicente Fox in his run for the governorship of Guanajuato in 1991 and later became federal deputy for the PRD in the 1994 –1997 Congress. She went on to be a part of Cárdenas’s PRD team when he became mayor of Mexico City in 1997, and then went back to Fox when he won the presidency. Calzada also emphasizes her nonpartisan inclinations. A point that remains to be investigated in the Mexican case is the extent to which women benefit from or are hurt by the influence of party identification at the voting booth—that is, when voters choose a candidate solely on the basis of party label irrespective of the candidates’ qualifications or stances on particular issues (or, in this case, gender). Whereas this area of voting behavior has been thoroughly analyzed in the United States—with clear patterns emerging that show how a voter is likely to vote when all the information he or she has is the candidate’s name and party identification— corresponding literature remains to be developed in Mexico. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, polling is relatively new in Mexico, and a systematic study of exit polls analyzing the extent to which women candidates are affected by party identification has not yet been conducted. Women Voting for Women

However, as also noted earlier in this chapter, the limited data and analyses available do seem to indicate that women who are not actively engaged in the political process apart from voting tend to vote according to party allegiance. Without question, their primary allegiance is not defined by gender. Women voters do not tend to favor women candidates. Survey data from the 1994 presidential election showed that only 2 percent of women surveyed thought Cecilia Soto was the best candidate running for the presidency. In her study of voter preferences for women candidates in the United States, Elizabeth Cook reached the same conclusion: “partisanship is a better predictor of votes in races featuring a woman candidate than the sex of the voter. Most voters,

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women and men alike, support the candidate of their party, regardless of the sex of the candidates” (1998: 69 –70). While some Mexican women interviewed thought female candidates appeared more trustworthy and honest, and thus more attractive to female voters, other women claimed that being female was a liability. Generally speaking, it appears that many female as well as male voters believe that women are not tough or effective enough to fight in the political trenches, and see the woman’s place as in the home and not on the campaign trail. This impression seems to fit in with Mexico’s traditionally conservative and male-oriented society. However, such machismo clearly transcends borders; referring to women candidates in the United States, Cook writes: Survey data show that as many as one in five of voters agree that women are less well suited to politics than men. Experimental data show that many potential voters want candidates to display ‘masculine’ traits such as toughness and assertiveness, and that at least some men are less likely to support candidates with ‘feminine’ traits such as empathy and compassion. Further, some voters will attribute masculine traits to male candidates and feminine ones to female candidates. Because many voters use gender role stereotypes as heuristic devices to help them assess candidates, women are clearly disadvantaged among some voters. (1998: 71) Our research showed that despite the inherent discrimination against women (especially as candidates) in all three parties in Mexico, a few women feel they do receive adequate respect from their male colleagues. In their view, once a woman proves herself, her male colleagues will accord her the recognition she has earned. Even if the men maintain the attitude that women are generally not fit for politics, they will allow a handful of their female colleagues to be the exception to this assumption. Campaign Strategies and Issues

Women throughout the world face multiple obstacles in pursuing political careers. Campaigning, in particular, tends to be considered one of the toughest, as it requires a great deal of free time, know-how, and experience, as well as many social and business contacts. Women deciding to run for office must also decide how to deal with what Jamieson (1995)

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refers to as the “double bind”—that is, how to fulfill the socially constructed roles of mother and caretaker of the family as well as that of an extraordinarily competent public official. Although Jamieson’s theory of the “double bind” is drawn from the experiences of women in the United States, the experiences of women in Mexico are no different; if anything, the “double bind” is more pronounced. Mexican women in the public realm often are confronted with not only a double but a triple bind—the triple jornada of motherhood, a career, and political activism. Commenting on women running for office in the United States, Fox assesses the campaign trail thus: First, women have to be perceived as successful in more social roles than their male counterparts, which makes it more difficult for women to compete effectively. In essence . . . women have to be better at more of the qualities necessary for running for office. . . . Second, the increased challenges facing women may have the effect of turning away many well-qualified female candidates who choose not to be encumbered by the unfair burden that women must endure when they enter public life. (1997: 18) Other crucial elements of campaigning, such as fundraising, are often also much more difficult for women than for men. Mexican women are not accustomed to fundraising for their own campaigns, but they may soon have to do so in order to comply with the new electoral reforms. In the United States, male politicians tend to seek campaign funds from business and community leaders who are interested in backing candidates as a way of establishing future access to them, but women face difficulties in finding backers who see possible benefits in their election (Bates et al. 1995: 512 –513). Until the recent electoral reforms and the successes of opposition parties, fundraising and campaigning had been less important in Mexico than establishing support within a political party. But women politicians in Mexico are rapidly learning that they will have to make the transition to a competitive electoral process simultaneously with men, and therefore the gender-related institutional barriers of campaigning might be as significant for them as for their counterparts in the United States and elsewhere. Women candidates in Mexico use a variety of campaign strategies that conform to their “comfort levels” and previous political experi-

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ences. The women we interviewed preferred more personal forms of campaigning, such as door-to-door interactions, to larger functions like rallies or meetings. This tendency correlates with our finding that, in general, Mexican women candidates enter the political arena after experience in some form of grassroots organization, including work “in the base” of political parties, with nongovernmental organizations, and with popular movements. The kinds of skills and experience they acquire from grassroots-level involvement translate better and more naturally into their preferred campaign style: working at the local level, canvassing small areas, and talking directly with voters. However, women candidates also mentioned the limitations of the door-to-door campaign strategy. If a particular neighborhood was thought to be unsafe, for instance, women said they campaigned with supporters or avoided planned campaign events after dark. These findings about a more personalized campaigning style clearly echo those of Dodson and Carroll (1991) and of Fox (1997: 35) in their respective studies of women running for office in the United States. According to our findings, the issues that most women candidates promote in their campaigns do not generally differ from those promoted by men, a situation that appears to give the impression that there is no gender gap in Mexico. However, the women interviewed made an implicit distinction between general issues that pertain to women— “practical” issues such as well-being of the family, health care, education, and the like (which many men also support)—and actual “women’s” or “strategic” issues, such as employment practices, domestic violence, and reproductive rights. According to the interviews conducted among women from the different political parties, there are few men or women who talk about “strategic” gender issues in their campaigns. The feminists interviewed were particularly cynical about the representation of women’s issues, claiming that only if these issues were “fashionable” would they be part of a candidate’s platform. They pointed to the case of the emphasis placed on domestic violence by the three presidential candidates in the 2000 election. As the candidates portrayed it, this appeared to be a recently discovered policy issue, even though the feminist movement and women’s groups have put it at the forefront of their agendas for over twenty-five years. As one might expect, gender issues do not take precedence or figure prominently in the platforms of political parties in Mexico. This situation appears to be changing somewhat, though, as the competition for

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the female vote has tightened and as parties have come to see that women voters may hold the key to the outcome of elections. But apart from acknowledgments of the need to seek the female vote, references to women and gender seem to stem more from political correctness than from genuine commitment. Even some of the female politicians interviewed suggested that they felt a special responsibility to address gender issues in their campaigns, although they emphasized that these issues were always seen as distinct from the party platform. This is an interesting difference between women running for office in Mexico and in the United States. Whereas Mexican women tend to skate around what are traditionally considered women’s and gender issues in their political agendas, women in the United States often emphasize these issues. As Kahn (1996) and many others have argued, women in the United States often concentrate in traditional women’s areas, such as education and health, whereas male candidates often focus on “hard” issues, such as the economy and defense policy. Political Spouses

With the notable exception of Argentina’s Eva Perón, the longstanding political tradition throughout Latin America has been that “political wives may be seen but not heard” (Miller 1991: 133). Female spouses of Mexican politicians were generally not active in their husbands’ campaigns until the debt crisis of the 1980s, when issues pertaining to women (such as the family and health care) became central campaign issues. When political spouses first appeared publicly on the campaign trail with their husbands, other politicians and society in general saw their participation as acceptable because it was a contribution to the husband’s career and to the family in general. As Sara Sefchovich (1999) documents in her study of Mexican first ladies, these women have been invisible in Mexican history, and their contributions have been ignored.21 Tracing in painstaking historical detail the presence of the Mexican primera dama from the Conquest to the late 1990s, Sefchovich argues that although these women are not elected to their positions and indeed do not occupy these positions of their own free will, and although they are not paid salaries, they are held responsible for fulfilling a series of roles and duties. As she puts it, “la suerte de la consorte” (the consort’s fortune) is also “el yugo de la cónyuge” (the conjugal yoke). In some recent cases, however, their husbands’ involvement in poli-

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tics became points of departure for these women and their own activities in public life. For example, some of the wives we interviewed described how their experiences as heads of the local DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia) chapters while their husbands were in office served as starting points for developing their own careers. Clara Scherer, wife of former governor of Oaxaca Diódoro Carrasco, is a prominent feminist (something highly unusual for a governor’s wife) who has gone on to develop her own career after her husband left the governorship of Oaxaca and became secretary of Gobernación in the last months of the Zedillo administration. When we interviewed her while she was first lady of Oaxaca, she spoke of the many projects she had created and promoted to assist indigenous women in the state; when she and her husband moved to Mexico City, she became a key player in the Programa Nacional de la Mujer, still heavily promoting programs for indigenous women. Another case is that of Maricarmen Ramírez, wife of Tlaxcala governor Alfonso Sánchez Anaya. Ramírez ran for the Senate in 2000 and was referred to as the Hillary Rodham Clinton of Mexico. A Christian Science Monitor article reported, with surprise, that she was “the first wife of a Mexican governor to step out of a largely decorative and supportive role and seek high political office” (LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, 7 March 2000). The same article further commented that “Ramírez has faced some of the same criticism that Mrs. Clinton has encountered in her bid for a Senate seat from New York: that she is using her husband’s position to elevate herself.” The majority of the political wives interviewed described direct involvement in their husband’s political careers. One woman commented that she was seen as the social arm of her husband’s team, representing him in the district when he was away. Another woman said that she actively campaigned for the female vote for her husband, attending political functions either with or without her husband. Yet another woman, who first became a political spouse at age seventeen, went on to run the local headquarters (home office) for her brother, who was a senator. She continues to be active in politics because she hopes to run for office herself in the near future. Although such cases are rare, some widows of distinguished politicians have followed in the footsteps of their deceased husbands by embarking on political careers. The path breaker in this regard was Amalia Castillo Ledón, the widow of Nayarit governor Luis Castillo Ledón (1879 –1944). She was the first woman to be appointed to the president’s

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cabinet as an undersecretary. As we saw earlier, she also founded the Mexican Alliance for Women and played a key role in securing women’s suffrage in 1953. Two contemporary cases are relevant here: María Elena Alvarez de Vicencio, the widow of Abel Vicencio Tovar, and Conchita Nava, the widow of Dr. Salvador Nava. Abel Vicencio was one of the key figures in the PAN from its early stages and played an important role in the party as it gained prominence and began to win elections at the local level in the 1980s. With him, María Elena became an active player in the party and soon established herself as one of the leading panista women. But it was not until after her husband’s unexpected death in 1993 that her political career took off (prior to that she had been more committed to academia). She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1994, to the Senate in 1997, and then again to the Chamber of Deputies in 2000. As described in various parts of this volume, she has also been instrumental in persuading her party to promote more women to public office and to the party leadership. Conchita Nava’s political career had a different outcome. As the wife of Dr. Salvador Nava, she had a strong presence while he established himself at the vanguard of the opposition beginning in the late 1950s in his native San Luis Potosí. Indeed, many credit Dr. Nava for actually starting the “opposition” movement in Mexico that would eventually lead to the fall of the PRI. Dr. Nava’s steadfast views and positions were so admired and respected that they led to the formation of a whole movement around him—navismo—that was instrumental in creating a new civic culture in Mexico in the early-to-mid-1990s, particularly in San Luis Potosí (see Bezdek 1995). After his passing in 1995, in an effort to sustain the momentum of navismo, his followers persuaded Conchita to run as candidate for governor of San Luis Potosí. Although the initial prognostics were quite good, her campaign flopped, and she was trounced by the carefully selected PRI candidate—her very own son-in-law, Horacio Sánchez Unzueta. After that, she disappeared from the public eye. How wives are “utilized” during campaigns has changed. In the not too distant past, wives seldom accompanied Mexican candidates at campaign functions, but now the practice is much more common. In the 2000 election, for example, PRI presidential candidate Francisco Labastida relied heavily on his wife, María Teresa Uriarte de Labastida, “to help infuse warmth and color into his image” (Thompson, NYT, 30 June 2000). A front-page story in the New York Times reported that “Mrs. Labastida is an expert on Mayan culture who moves as easily at

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indigenous ceremonies as she does among the Mexican elite. Pretty and poised, Mrs. Labastida often wraps her husband in bearhugs on stage and gladly complies when the crowds demand she give him a kiss. Her visibility and political self-assuredness have brought comparisons to Hillary Rodham Clinton” (Thompson, NYT, 30 June 2000; see also Turati, Reforma, 23 June 2000). In spite of the numerous comparisons to Hillary Clinton, the traditional pattern followed by Mexican political wives is entirely different from that familiar in the United States—that is, they have been mostly reduced to accompanying their husbands during official functions, doing charity work, and looking after their social engagements. In the vast majority of cases they were shut out of the political realm. However, wives have become more prominent in the public eye as Mexican politicians have borrowed political marketing strategies from the United States, where the presence of a wife and, even better, children, is meant to portray the candidate as a family man. Now there is even an unspoken rule that married male politicians should wear their wedding bands. In short, wives add legitimacy. This situation presented somewhat of a predicament for Vicente Fox when he became president, since he was divorced and had not remarried, but his two adopted daughters (the older one in particular) quickly stepped in to occupy the woman’s post and fulfill the duties traditionally assigned to the first lady. One year later, however, she was relieved of this role when Fox married his spokeswoman, Martha Sahagún. Many women in Mexico admire Sahagún, not least because they feel that for the first time Mexico has a first lady with a professional career. Also, some people believe that Fox’s marriage to her will help soften the conservative attitudes toward women that pervade many parts of his administration. The ways in which Mexican political wives have responded to their responsibilities as first ladies are also worthy of comment. For example, they have developed strong networks among themselves, especially along party lines, that become crucial when one of them decides to run for office or pursue a career of her own. They have also learned to develop their own skills, such as public speaking. For instance, wives often accompany campaigning men when they address women’s groups, and it is common for the husband to leave the wife to deliver a speech on her own. Political wives have also learned to be media-savvy. As the 2000 presidential campaign heated up—actually as much as a full year

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earlier—the potential first ladies were widely covered by the media (see Collado, Reforma/AM, 4 July 1999; Loaeza, Reforma/AM, 22 July 1999). They gladly cooperated and granted numerous interviews to the press. An interesting yet entirely unexplored issue is the role that male spouses play in their wives’ campaigns and, indeed, in their political careers. While it is assumed that the socially proscribed roles are different when the genders are reversed, many women in political life in Mexico describe their spouses and companions as very supportive, indicating perhaps a more direct involvement than is apparent. However, it is worth noting that some of the more prominent women have made a point of maintaining the privacy of their personal lives (including the roles of their companions). In this study we did not find a single case in which a man was actively campaigning in favor of his wife’s election. Candidate Images and the Media

Finally, another interesting point of comparison between women running for office in the United States and in Mexico pertains to the issue of image, and in particular of the images they wish to project both to voters and to the media.22 While this area is well documented in the United States, it has been less thoroughly researched in Mexico. Writing about women in the United States, Kahn notes: When appearing in their campaign commercials, [male] candidates often alternate between formal attire (e.g., business suit) and more informal apparel (e.g., jeans, sweaters). . . . Voters may view the professionally dressed candidate as professional and experienced, while the same candidate dressed more casually is likely to be viewed as warm and compassionate. While varying the candidate’s attire is a way of broadening their appeal, such a strategy is not open to women candidates who must convince voters of their legitimacy and professionalism. . . . [W]omen candidates feel a need to stress the seriousness of their candidacy by dressing in a professional manner. . . . Women wear professional attire, like business suits, in more than 90 percent of their ads, while men dress formally only 60 percent of the time. (1996: 31–33) Richard Fox also found that women are especially cognizant of the fine line between being perceived as “feminine” and being perceived as “professional.” He quotes some of the women in his study: 236

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My campaign manager told me to stop wearing floral dresses. She was worried that they made me appear too frilly and housewife-like, especially if we had a joint appearance with our opponent, who was always wearing a sharply pressed suit. . . . One weekend I was walking precincts, and I was dressed very casually . . . a skirt and a plain shirt . . . and one older woman voter told me that I did not look professional. I remember thinking at the time that she would have never said that about a male candidate. (1997: 39) Although my findings suggest some similarity in this regard between Mexico and the United States, the appearance of a female candidate is assessed somewhat differently in Mexico. Individuality seems to play an important role in Mexico, much more so than in the United States. For example, one of the more distinctive traits of Beatriz Paredes is her habit of appearing at public functions wearing ethnic dress. Rosario Robles refuses to stop wearing short skirts, in spite of numerous public comments about her wardrobe. Amalia García of the PRD invariably dresses casually, while many of the women of the PAN wear tailored suits and silk scarves. This individuality, however, does not in any way mean that appearance is not noted or that it is not important. When Cecilia Soto, a very attractive and elegant woman, was running for the presidency in 1994, not only was she referred to as “Cexilia” (a sexist play on words with her name), but on one particular occasion she was challenged by a reporter who demanded to know how she justified wearing expensive tailored suits when she was a candidate for the Workers’ Party. Clearly, for women in Mexico, Jamieson’s “double bind” expands to include the need to dress professionally to demonstrate toughness and competence, but also in a way that represents some sort of ideological commitment. Even after women are in office, there is little relief from these demands. Women politicians continue to be sexually stereotyped in terms of performance, role, comportment, dress, language, and so on. Many of the women interviewed for this study stated that women in the public domain can project both feminine and powerful personas simultaneously. Indeed, one woman went a step further and argued that women have to use their femininity to be successful; since men control the overall power structures, women must use their unique strengths in order to remain competitive. However, the viewpoint that women should use their femininity to their advantage was far from unanimous. Some women felt that women in power too often use femininity as a political weapon, thereby feeding the stereotype of women as little more 237

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than sexual objects who lack political credibility. For example, Irma Serrano (“La Tigresa”), who used her fame as an actress to become a senator for the state of Chiapas and a spokeswoman for indigenous causes, was often criticized (and sometimes ridiculed) by both men and women for tarnishing political discussions because so much more attention was paid to her extravagant makeup and attire than to her statements or causes. Moreover, it was well known that she had previously been a president’s mistress, a circumstance that fed the stereotype of women using sexual favors to reach the top. Cecilia Soto, on the other hand, provides a prime example of a woman who uses a feminine image to her advantage without attracting criticism. Both in interview and in her autobiography, she notes that a professional appearance is indispensable for women wanting to win electoral respect. However, although she clearly knows that she is beautiful and uses that beauty to her advantage, she also knows that good looks are not sufficient in the political arena and makes a point of demonstrating her intelligence and political talent as well. Most of the women interviewed said that because women start from a professional disadvantage, female politicians must be particularly strong and must demonstrate that they are competent. As one of the women interviewed succinctly put it, “la mujer política puede ser femenina, pero no puede ser débil” (a female politician can be feminine but can’t be weak). A point of view shared by many interviewees was that women in public life constantly need to combat the image of women as “the weaker sex” and to show that they can be powerful and competitive actors in political life. Some women went further by stating that in order to survive politically and to be taken seriously, women in politics sometimes need to act stronger and tougher than men. This demand often translates into acting “masculine” and presenting a stern, intimidating persona. To the casual observer, women in Mexican public life appear feminine, powerful, and professional, both in their dress and in their attitudes. Like professional women elsewhere, they often wear tailored clothing in vivid colors (emerald green, bright yellow, fire-engine red) to denote both power and elegance. However, as one of the women interviewed suggested, it is impossible to generalize about the images of women who make themselves public figures: some are plastic, some masculine, some feminine, some sexual. In sum, our analysis indicates that Mexican women in political life are using that which has histori-

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cally held them back—namely, their gender—to set themselves apart from their male counterparts and promote their own career achievements. However, the majority of the women interviewed criticized the way the media treat women’s activities and accomplishments. Women from government, NGOS, and feminist groups alike all agreed that they receive less attention and certainly less respect in the media than men do. Many female stereotypes continue to color the media’s coverage of women. Encumbered by the traditional cultural perspective that women belong in the private sphere, looking beautiful and running the household, the media are often critical and offer gratuitous comments about women based on their appearances or lack of housekeeping skills. For this reason, the women interviewed, regardless of their principal areas of political activity, emphasized the need to be well groomed and professional-looking at all times. Often, however, their efforts are for naught. One issue that stands out even in a cursory examination of news headlines in a variety of publications is the referral to women, including very prominent women, by first name only, with their last names mentioned only once or not at all. María de los Angeles Moreno, as president of the PRI, was commonly referred to as “María de los Angeles,” while her successor, Santiago Oñate, was never referred to publicly as “Santiago.” Indeed, the reverse is often true—that is, men are referred to by the last name alone. Thus, the headline of a cover story in Proceso (22 February 1993) read, “Elba Esther enjuicia a Zedillo” (Elba Esther prosecutes Zedillo)—Elba Esther (Gordillo) being then the head of the teacher’s union and (Ernesto) Zedillo the secretary of education.23 The rivalry between Dulce María Sauri and Ana Rosa Payán in Yucatán in the early 1990s gave reporters a field day; for example, one story in Proceso was entitled “Dulce María y Ana Rosa se ven las caras en México” (Dulce María and Ana Rosa meet face-to-face in Mexico City [10 May 1993]). And Cecilia Soto, as mentioned above, became “Cexilia.” In the opinion of many, referring to women by only their first names appears to imply to the readership that women are less worthy of respect than men. Although the practice has begun to change as more women have occupied prominent political positions—Sauri and García as party presidents, Robles as mayor of Mexico City, Green as secretary of foreign relations—there are still vestiges of this disparate treatment of women and men. For example, reporters jump at the opportunity of taking unflattering photographs of political women—say, as they are going up a staircase or getting out of a car.

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Nevertheless, the media do seem to provide better, more extensive coverage of those women in politics who have proved their staying power. According to Teresa García de Madero, a prominent figure in Nuevo León’s regional politics, the media will provide poor coverage for a woman considered an “estrella fugaz” (fleeting star), while those women who have worked hard, earned respect, and remained in politics over time (such as García de Madero herself ) receive more media coverage. This, of course, ties in with the universal media desire to cover winners. Several women commented on how the continued presentation of women in the traditional role of a housewife caring for the children reinforces the belief that women do not belong in the public sphere. Perhaps the most damaging agents in this respect are the telenovelas, the soap operas transmitted daily by television and watched by millions. Overwhelmingly, these programs perpetuate the stereotypical images of women to the extremes: helpless or scheming, sexy harlots or virginal wives. In interview, Sara Lovera condemned not only the effects telenovelas have on the public’s perceptions of women but also their broader political impact; in her opinion, they can be dangerous politically because they show the “social prostitution” of Mexico. It is worth noting, however, that this situation is beginning to change as telenovelas seek to tell stories that are closer to reality. El Candidato was a political telenovela aired during the 2000 election that made no attempts to hide how closely the story resembled the PRI. Another telenovela aired in the late 1990s challenged the stereotypical images of women. Mirada de Mujer (A woman’s glance), as it was called, had viewers glued to their sets every night as they followed the life of María Inés, a fifty-year-old woman whose husband of twenty-seven years leaves her for his mistress. The novelty came in the fact that rather than listening to her mother and children as they advise her to wait patiently for her husband to return, María Inés falls in love with a man seventeen years her junior. The series also included frank discussion of previously untouched topics such as sex, abortion, miscarriages, sexual harassment, alcoholism, and so on. In short, it told the story of “one woman’s triumph in bucking the macho society typical of Latin America. . . . In Mexico, that’s tantamount to a one-woman revolution” (Spagat, AAS, 11 January 1998). Our interviewees in general, but feminists and women in NGOS in particular, felt that the media continue to present women as sexual objects and to allocate less or marginal coverage to their actions. They were

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especially critical of the media for perpetuating female stereotypes and relegating women’s activities to the “Culture” and “Society” sections of the news.24 For example, Ana Lilia Cepeda, a former federal deputy, told us in interview the story of how the media were invited to one of the first major public meetings of Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia. Journalists attended the meeting and printed a long story on the event, but it appeared in the back pages of the “Culture” section. Gloria Brasdefer, a senior politician who has occupied a number of high-ranking positions, also stated that her accomplishments and the issues she addresses are frequently relegated to the “back of the newspaper,” the space traditionally allotted to culture and society articles. These topics always appear after the important international and national news sections, and even after sports. Ifigenia Martínez went a step further and suggested that the media are especially negative in their portrayal of divorced women. Others suggested that the male-dominated media have misrepresented women because men feel threatened by powerful women. Still others consider the media to be biased not only with regard to gender, but also with regard to age, experience, and party affiliation. And stories of personal squabbles with the media are abundant; Consuelo Botello, a panista federal deputy from Nuevo León, noted when interviewed that the influential Monterrey newspaper El Norte refused to cover her activities after an internal PAN battle with allies of the newspaper’s editorial staff. But despite all these reservations, it is interesting to note that most women in government underscored that they, personally, had been treated well by the press. One of the women interviewed even declared that the press covers men and women equally, although this viewpoint clearly was not common. Some interviewees made reference to journalists specifically, as distinct from the media in general. One of the women interviewed posited that an increase in female journalists would improve the media’s portrayal and coverage of women, while another explained that women in media are normally the ones who report on women’s activities and that what is needed are more male editors and journalists covering women in politics. The most notable example of a female journalist devoted to covering women’s issues and their presence in public life is Sara Lovera, who in addition to winning numerous journalistic prizes devoted much of her energy to the creation and fostering of Doble Jornada, a monthly supplement to La Jornada that deals exclusively with women and gender issues. Lovera now is the head of CIMAC (Centro

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de Información de Mujeres, Center for Information on Women), an organization that combines research and journalism and has a very wide network of dissemination, particularly via the Web and mass electronic mail. Altogether, even those most critical of the media conceded that women politicians are provoking change and recognized that the media treat women in power with considerably more respect than women in general. Still, most women overwhelmingly felt that the media overutilize stereotypes to devalue women and their accomplishments. Sexist cartoons, patronizing references, and splashy displays of pictures of beauty contestants in bathing suits and scantily dressed starlets all diminish the importance of women’s contributions to Mexican political life. While the media have progressed toward fairer and more equitable treatment of political women and their activities and achievements, the continued use of stereotypes, the practice of first-name referencing, and the limited coverage of women demonstrate the problems yet to be solved. One very telling example was the 1994 headline above a story and pictures depicting President Zedillo’s newly appointed cabinet, which included three women: “Los Hombres del Presidente” (The president’s men). CONCLUSION

As several of the women interviewed for this study commented, it is a great pity that Mexican women are not effectively organized to take advantage of their majority status as voters. As we have observed, the wellknown networks and camarillas of the Mexican political system, so common for men, do not exist for women. One of the first stumbling blocks for women interested in participating in formal politics is the difficulty of obtaining a party’s nomination and endorsement. Mexican women in general have very little political experience at the formal level and are thus unfamiliar with accessing the channels for change. This unfamiliarity, in turn, may cause women in Mexico to fear and avoid politics. One of the women interviewed expressed frustration with the fact that despite the presence of propaganda encouraging women to vote, there had been no education about the positive and negative ramifications of suffrage. Moreover, she argued that women as voters had been manipulated, citing the 1994 presidential election as an example. Immediately prior to that election, women in some regions were given

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milk for their children or free corn by the National Solidarity Program, which was closely associated with the PRI. Such actions, while not directly constituting election fraud, were not politically neutral or without effect on the female electorate. In that election especially, women voted overwhelmingly for the PRI. The voting patterns described in this chapter, however, can only be broad generalizations, since women are not a homogeneous group and the data are still inadequate to draw hard and fast conclusions. Many elements, such as education, socioeconomic status, and age, undoubtedly affect how women vote. Other important factors include whether a woman lives in an urban or a rural area, whether she has a job outside the home in the formal or the informal sector, whether she is engaged in the women’s movement or other forms of political activity, and so on. Also, the fact that the numbers of women showing up at the voting booth are lower than those for men should not be interpreted as evidence of a lack of political activism. It is true that for many women voting is the extent of political involvement; that in some cases they show less interest in politics than men; and that in spite of their participation in record numbers in social movements, fewer than half as many Mexican women as men have participated in some type of political protest (Camp 1999: 91). Still, these findings should not lead one to conclude that Mexican women are less politically active than men. As I have argued throughout this study, women often choose to participate outside formal institutional structures (such as the electoral system) because it is in the informal arena that they are more effective as agents of social change.

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CHAPTER SIX

Reframing Mexican Democracy WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR WOMEN?

MEXICO ’S EMERGING DEMOCR ACY is under the microscope, not least since the election of Vicente Fox to the presidency in July 2000. Analysts and citizens alike continue to evaluate the government’s performance and to wait impatiently for proof that the new administration will rise to the occasion and meet the challenges of a truly representative and participatory democracy. As outlined in chapter 1, one such challenge is the inclusion of various social groups in the formal institutional structures of government in an effort to move closer to so-called democratic consolidation. The most prominent group that continues to be underrepresented, as we have seen in this volume, is women. As more and more countries reach consolidation and engage in discussions of the advantages of representative and participatory government, it becomes ever more crucial to consider where women stand with regard to both their participation and their representation in institutional politics. We know women have been most effective in their

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mobilization at the grass roots, but we must now turn our attention to the relation of women and the formal institutions of politics. In this chapter I propose to revisit and tie up several of the principal arguments presented in previous chapters, as well as to offer a glimpse into what the future holds for Mexico’s female citizenry. THE TR ANSITION OPPORTUNIT Y

As I stated at the outset, the political opportunities for women are different during the period of transition than they are when democracies become more advanced or consolidated. For women to fully take advantage of the transition opportunity, they must make their mark on the formal institutions of politics, including political parties. In their study of women in politics worldwide, for example, Nelson and Chowdhury (1994) conclude that political parties are less likely to have strict control during periods of transition or chaos, thereby allowing women more influence on the changing political system. They write, “During periods of transition to democracy, parties lack the virtual monopoly of interest articulation that comes with political routinization” (17). If Mexico truly is in a period of transition to a more representative democracy, and if, as Nelson and Chowdhury assert, political disorder allows women to fill a void if they are organized and willing to act, then Mexican women arguably should already have had a great impact in creating positive outcomes of political representation. Since we know that that is not the case, what has gone wrong? Nelson and Chowdhury tell us that women can seize transitional moments when parties are weak, but that they must resist regression back toward the patriarchal party structures after the period of transition. In Mexico, as we have seen, these patriarchal structures are alive and well, and parties continue to act as gatekeepers. As Craske (1999: 87) suggests, referring to Latin America in general, “it appears that the consolidation of democratic rule is ‘normalization’, which in effect means the return of male-dominated political parties and gendered policies, and mass depoliticization of social movements with particular implications for women: in short, a remasculinization of politics.” Are Mexican women throwing away their golden opportunity? The literature on democratic transitions shows that these transitions present “rather narrow windows of opportunity for women to challenge fundamentally gender relations in the formal political sphere” (Franceschet

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2001: 211), yet they are the only moment women will have to effect change. In her analysis of the Venezuelan case, Elisabeth Friedman (1998) also found that the opportunities for women dissipate after the transition, and that therefore the moment must be grabbed. In Mexico in the twenty-first century, there are many who indeed argue that women’s successes have been ephemeral, a product of crisis mobilization, and who remain skeptical as to whether women (and the women’s movement, for that matter) will ever realistically be able to evolve from a force participating in opposition politics and strategies to one that will effectively compete in the male-dominated political arena. Although various expressions of the women’s movement in Mexico have proven successful and enduring, many analysts have come to the pessimistic conclusion that the boundaries of political debate appear to be narrowing, making less space for women’s demands: in short, this is the “remasculinization of politics” to which Craske alludes. There is little doubt in my mind that feminism and other expressions of women’s interests in Mexico have failed to be incorporated into formal political structures. This is a serious limitation, since change occurs most effectively when it takes place within established institutional structures. Because political parties are often unreliable organizations, women need to first organize themselves in groups outside of political parties. This allows them to subsequently exert pressure on those parties, as well as to be more effective in their support for party women who form the potential vanguard that will confront the structural and ideological barriers within the parties. Such organizations are crucial to women’s political power in Mexico and around the world, and fortunately we see them in the ever increasing numbers of women-oriented NGOs. As María Luisa Tarrés succintly puts it, “it is clear that in NGOs women find a public arena of personal fulfillment where their contributions are recognized, unlike what happens in political parties and other social organizations” (1998: 142). In a nutshell, “to the extent that parties are impervious to women’s demands, parties will remain a significant structural barrier to women’s political participation” (Nelson and Chowdhury 1994: 18). There is also the issue of alliance building. In Mexico, the problem for women’s advancement on a national level and for the development of a cohesive women’s movement is not a lack of organizations. The problem lies instead in the inability of these organizations to move beyond their respective arenas and to reach out and build alliances with

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women from other organizations. No formal coalition or overarching umbrella organization exists to combine the isolated efforts of countless women across Mexico. As documented throughout this volume, with very few exceptions, efforts to unite various groups and advance common issues above and beyond party or ideological differences have failed. Even groups that formed precisely with the purpose of effecting social and political change through formal political channels have failed. One case in point is De la A a la Z (From A to Z), an organization created in the early 1990s. This group of seven high-powered women— Laura Carrera, Amalia García, Teresa Incháustegui, Marta Lamas, Cecilia Loría, Patricia Mercado, and Rosario Robles—included both independent and partisan feminists who came together not only to demonstrate feminist solidarity but also to seek ways to insert gender issues into political and policy agendas. Even though at the time of the group’s formation all seven women recognized and accepted the differences among them, they respected and trusted one another sufficiently to hope to be able to mobilize their respective influences to advance their common cause. As Marta Lamas (1998) relates, however, they were not successful. She also deplores “the rigid machismo of the political class” (1998: 113) that did not even take notice of the group. The much admired and widely respected alliance formed by these women just a few years ago has eroded for a variety of personal and political reasons. Some of them remain friends and allies, but others have become adversaries and even undermined one another’s efforts. Although all of these seven women continue to occupy powerful and visible leadership roles, their experience with De la A a la Z serves to illustrate the difficulty of alliance building. Sectarianism and the absence of alliances do not bode well for the future of women in Mexican politics. Thus, not only are women forced to compete in structures shaped by generations of male politicians, but they have, so far at least, been unable to construct the alliances and networks that could change these structures. Such alliances and networks are key to succeeding in Mexican politics, as we have seen in Fox’s victory through his Alianza por el Cambio (Alliance for Change); in the election of scores of other candidates on the basis of alliances; and in the passing of legislation in Congress through the efforts of multiparty alliances. In chapter 1 of this book I posited that the acid test for women in contemporary Mexican politics would be to build the alliances that would allow them to capitalize on the gains made during the democratic transition of the past

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fifteen years and to push forward a common gender agenda. Both for reasons of their own making and for systemic reasons that are beyond their control, it seems that women have not scored very well. On the whole, Mexican women have been unable to unite and organize in order to maintain and transform the political space they gained during the transition. Women’s power in Mexico remains fragmented and unfocused. BACK TO THE FUTURE: T WO STEPS FORWARD FOR DEMOCR ACY, ONE STEP BACK FOR WOMEN

The changing discourse on women, gender, and feminism that we have observed in this study is part and parcel of the process of political transformation occurring in Mexico. Yet while the discourse has changed, attitudes have remained entrenched, resulting in a continuing low representation of women in public office. More damaging, perhaps, is the generalized conservative backlash against women that has occurred in conjunction with the Fox/PAN victory in 2000. As already discussed, that presidential election was the first to actually reduce the number of women in Congress. Moreover, the number of women in the Fox cabinet did not represent an increase over the previous administration, and the female cabinet members were mostly restricted to the lower-ranking ministries. A conservative wind seems to be blowing across the field of Mexican policymaking, at least at the national level. The signs of this conservative wind, scented as it is with religious overtones, came early in the Fox administration.1 On the very first day of his government, we watched the president visit the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, take communion, and in front of an audience of twenty thousand, receive a crucifix from his younger daughter at the National Auditorium. Months earlier, he had begun his campaign for the presidency with a march in which he waved a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe, imitating Father Miguel Hidalgo when he began the war for independence in 1810. The newly appointed secretary of labor, Carlos Abascal, is a devout Catholic who, in one of his first public acts, invoked the Virgin of Guadalupe as patron saint of all workers.2 Only a month after Fox was elected to the presidency, the PAN-dominated legislature of his home state, Guanajuato, tried to change the reproductive rights laws to eliminate a woman’s right to an abortion in case of rape. The legislators argued that “it opens the possibility of doing violence to

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the marvelous process of gestation, and the killing of an innocent” (AAS, 5 August 2000).3 These are just a handful of instances that are illustrative of the newfound public mixture of religion and politics in Mexico. Nevertheless, it appears that most Mexicans remain wary of religious intervention in politics (this wariness is a legacy of the reforms of the 1860s that cut back substantially on the once all powerful Roman Catholic Church and of the bloody Cristero rebellion of the 1920s, when the church fought against the government). Although during his presidential campaign Fox made an effort to alleviate fears about the PAN’s pro-church and conservative positions, as president he appears to be endorsing them. During the first few months of the Fox presidency, there was an unprecedented meeting between a committee of Catholic bishops and several cabinet members to discuss the administration’s fiscal reform initiative (Lindsay, The News [Mexico City], 5 May 2001), and the activist arms of the church— Opus Dei, Legionaires of Christ, and ProVida—have all heavily infiltrated the Fox administration. Some are referring to these religious activists in Fox’s cabinet as modern-day cristeros, and other commentators have noted a newly found cockiness among priests and bishops. This implicit overlap between religion and public policy, and the need to proselytize, are even embodied in Fox’s calls for national “crusades,” such as the Cruzada Nacional contra el Narcotráfico y el Crimen Organizado (National Crusade against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime) and the Cruzada Nacional por el Agua y el Bosque (National Crusade for Water and Forests)—both of which were reported as achievements of his first one hundred days in office. It is not yet clear what constitutes Fox’s Holy Grail as far as women are concerned. These trends pose serious concerns for women and gender issues. As Lamas (2001: 36) laments, “it will be hard to carry democratic change when the party in power is the PAN, whose positions on gender issues represent a chilling reversal of many of the advances made by women.” What is troubling to many Mexicans is that much of the electoral support that carried Fox to the presidency came from voters who would otherwise have voted for the Left, but who in this particular election decided to gamble on Fox as a way of ending the reign of the PRI. Indeed, picking up on the signs of things to come, shortly after the election feminists and left-leaning intellectuals demanded that Fox fulfill his campaign promises to keep religion out of education and culture, as well as to respect religious, political, and sexual diversity. The formal public

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statement issued by the feminist organization Diversa clearly makes the point: “The women and youth who voted overwhelmingly for change did so expecting a progressive stance” (Ramos Pérez, Reforma, 29 July 2000).4 The argument is that Fox’s strong electoral mandate is not a mandate for conservative, religious-based policies. Fox’s socially conservative bent “has elicited everything from distrust to indignation from the nation’s left-leaning intellectual community” (Lindsay, The News [Mexico City], 5 May 2001) as well as from other sectors of the population. At the time of the election it seemed more important to oust the PRI than to keep the Right out of power—but this choice has begun to prove harmful to women. An interesting parallel to what is happening in Mexico is visible in the United States. Indeed, perhaps the winds of conservatism that are blowing throughout Mexico are reflective of the same conservative ideology that we can see in the United States. Although George W. Bush campaigned heavily for the women’s vote (“W is for Women,” as he said), one only has to observe the first events of the Bush administration to form an idea of its stance with regard to women: the appointment of John Ashcroft, a vocal anti-choice advocate, as attorney general; the worldwide discontinuation of funding to all family planning clinics that provide abortion services; the closing of the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach, created by the Clinton administration as a conduit for women’s policy concerns; 5 the growing presence and influence of conservative women’s organizations such as the Independent Women’s Forum, a group made up of very prominent women (including Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and the vice president’s wife, Lynne Cheney) that champions a gendered laissez-faire brand of capitalism; 6 and the growing influence of born-again Christian fundamentalist Tom DeLay (the House majority whip who inside the Capitol is widely considered the most dominant force in Congress and de facto leader of the Right), who openly declares that he is trying to drive President Bush “toward building a more ‘God-centered’ nation whose government will promote prayer and worship and the teaching of values” (Perl, AAS, 3 June 2001). On a related front, in a commencement address at Notre Dame University (a Catholic school) in late May 2001, President Bush openly called on religious institutions to become involved in federally financed social work, referring to this as the new wave of the War on Poverty begun by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. “Bush aggressively courted Roman Catholics” and in the first

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thirty seconds of his speech mentioned that although he is a Methodist, his brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, is Catholic (Bruni, NYT, 21 May 2001). He concluded that “America has a long tradition of accommodating religious institutions when they pursue public goals” and called on the largest corporate givers in the country not to restrict or forbid donations to religious groups. Bush’s desire to let religious groups receive more federal money echoes the moves of his Mexican friend and counterpart, Vicente Fox. Like Fox, Bush has already been criticized for “dangerously blurring the line between church and state” (Bruni, NYT, 21 May 2001). The onslaught from the Right, however, is not exclusive to Mexico and the United States. Indeed, it dominated discussions at the 1995 Beijing conference, such that conservative groups successfully stalled initiatives relating to sexual and reproductive rights. At the Beijing-Plus-Five meeting in New York in June 2000, the Vatican and a group of Islamic countries once again strongly opposed objectives such as sexual and reproductive rights, adolescent sex education, and a more liberal definition of the family. The Vatican and conservative groups oppose any reference to nontraditional families, which they view as an implied approval of homosexual unions, single parenthood, and couples living together and raising families out of wedlock (Lederer, AAS, 4 June 2000). Moreover, women’s rights are still not recognized as human rights, in spite of all the debates surrounding the issue. A disappointed spokesperson from Amnesty International declared that the meeting was supposed to be Beijing plus five, not Beijing minus five (Khan, El Universal, 10 May 2000; my emphasis). Although negotiations carried on until 5:00 a.m. on the last day of the meeting, the final document is weak with regard to these areas. Virtually no progress was made on the most contentious issues, including access to safe abortion, sexual rights, sexual orientation, and equal rights of inheritance. On the positive side, the new document does include tougher measures to combat domestic violence and sex trafficking, and to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS on women (Lederer, AAS, 11 June 2000). The sharp turn to the Right also includes women’s groups, who have actively promoted conservative agendas throughout the world. In a newly emerging literature, numerous cases are analyzed and documented that show the activism of right-wing women. Bacchetta and Power (2002), for example, present cases from around the world that demonstrate how women participate in state building and agenda setting; at an-

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other level, they also include in their analysis how these women use motherhood as a strategy and their reactions to feminism. These conservative positions also seem to be coming to the forefront in Latin America, particularly in Argentina and Chile. This may seem paradoxical considering that these two countries are regarded as pioneers in the advancement of women in public life. Argentina, as we have seen, has led Latin America in the institutionalization of a quota system that has been emulated throughout the region, and the peaceful activism of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo has been emulated throughout the world. Chile is the only country in Latin America where the government agency for women—SERNAM—has the rank of a cabinet ministry, and where five of sixteen cabinet ministers are women. Yet conservatism continues to pervade these two societies. In Argentina, the clergy participates openly and actively in government policy decisions; in Chile, one of the principal issues on the policy agenda for women remains the legalization of divorce! In Mexico, perhaps no other incident in the early days of the Fox administration better illustrates a similar conservatism with regard to women than a speech written by Secretary of Labor Carlos Abascal. The speech, which was delivered by one of his undersecretaries (Rafael Estrada Sámano), at an event on 14 March 2001 commemorating International Women’s Day, takes a shockingly antiwoman stance and harshly criticizes feminism, blaming it for a number of social ills. Although Estrada Sámano chose to not read the speech in its entirety, the complete text, including Abascal’s handwritten notes in the margins, found its way to the media and was reproduced and distributed to all the female legislators in the Chamber of Deputies the following day. In the speech, Abascal states that his ideas are inspired by Pope John Paul II and emphasizes the important role of women in teaching their children the Catholic faith, referring to Mexico as an “atheist country that has banished God from public life and from education” (Melgar, Reforma, 22 March 2001).7 Abascal makes the very clear point that women’s primary responsibility is motherhood, and that work outside the home undermines this sacred duty: a woman, he says, “must recognize, love, and give herself fully to the profession of mother and heart of the home [and] must recognize the superiority of this mission above any other” (Ibid.).8 Moreover, Abascal considers feminism to be the cause of a moral and social disaster. Feminism, in his view, “has serious consequences on children, affects interpersonal relations, promotes so-called

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free love, homosexuality, prostitution, promiscuity, abortion, and the destruction of the family” (Ibid.).9 And finally, he says, “Marxist ideology” (he even refers to Lenin by name) is responsible for the lack of appreciation of the value of housework. Not surprisingly, women—including women from the PAN—were outraged. In the days that followed, the media was plastered with stories about women, highlighting their contributions to the Mexican economy, the increasing number of female-headed households (one in every five), and the inability of many families to survive without the income provided by the mother’s paid work. The Committee on Gender and Equity of the Chamber of Deputies sent a letter to all labor unions in the country alerting them to be on their guard in order to protect female employees’ rights (González, Reforma, 26 March 2001). The letter reminded women in Mexico’s labor force of the long struggle over their labor rights, including issues such as the much detested pregnancy tests, the risk of being fired if they became pregnant, and latterly the fight for day care and maternity leave. Female legislators from the PRI and the PRD demanded that Abascal be removed from his position or, at the very least, that he be officially reprimanded. When the proposal that he be officially reprimanded was voted upon in Congress, it was prevented from passing by the votes of PAN legislators, including several women. The PRI, PRD, PT, and PVEM collectively had 194 votes against the PAN’s 183, but the motion was defeated because it required a two-thirds majority. Although many PAN women and Fox officials found ways to distance themselves from Abascal, the damage was done. Fox himself commented that the speech represented Abascal’s personal views, not those of the administration, but there was little strength or conviction in his tone. Indeed, Fox actually reaped a benefit from the situation, in that panista women and men alike were quick to defend the president and to emphasize that in contrast with Abascal, Fox did have “visión de género” (a gendered vision) and was concerned about equality (Melgar, Salas, and Reyes, Reforma, 17 March 2001; González, Reforma, 27 March 2001). (However, nowhere does this supposed “visión de género” appear in his report of his first one hundred days in office. The report, which resembled a newspaper supplement and was distributed by the thousands, did not include a single reference to women [Mexico 2001].) Abascal did not make any public apologies.10 However, he did seek to undo the damage by “vindicating” women: two weeks after the disastrous speech was read, he delivered another speech (this time in per-

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son) stating that “women are the future of the country and deserve access to all spaces in public life” (Reyes, Reforma, 31 March 2001).11 The Abascal speech presented a dilemma for women in the PAN, revisiting as it did the old conflict of gender versus partisan loyalties. Their reaction in this case was twofold: on the one hand, they very clearly distanced themselves from him and went on to make important pronouncements about a woman’s place in the home and in the workforce; yet on the other, they refused to join the collective lynching of the secretary and opposed the reprimand in Congress, thereby sustaining party loyalty over gender loyalty. Not surprisingly, the clergy openly defended Abascal and accused feminists of distorting his words (Turati, Reforma, 2 April 2001). Patricia Espinosa, president of Inmujer, said she received a number of letters at the institute defending Abascal “the courageous” (el valiente), who dared say things that may have been politically incorrect but were deeply felt by many (González, Reforma 27 March 2001). Some panistas defended Abascal by arguing that the uproar was a PRI plot to discredit the PAN because the PRI was still sore over having lost the election. The panista delegation in the Veracruz state congress vehemently defended Abascal by publicly calling the feminist reaction a “neurotic battle” (lucha neurótica). Moreover, they stated that his speech touched upon many “implicit truths” (verdades implícitas), including that “there are women who make themselves useless and ignorant, who look for a husband to support them and pay for their education, who are dominant and controlling, who have a bunch of kids, who seek no self-improvement.” 12 In their view, these women contrast starkly with what women ought to be: loving mothers (madres amorosas [ Jiménez, Reforma 29 March 2001]). The alarming point in all this is not Abascal’s personal ideas—like anyone else, he is entitled to have personal views, and there are many men and women in Mexico who empathize and agree—but rather, the manner in which such personal views appear to be shaping public policy. The most worrisome aspect of this affair is Abascal’s position as a labor secretary who vilifies women when they work outside the home instead of staying at home to tend to their families and educate them in the Catholic faith. This takes us back to the point I made at the beginning of this book regarding the issue of representation: namely, what type of woman-friendly policies can women expect from male policymakers such as Abascal, who are not only unsympathetic to gender issues in general but are completely dismissive of women’s needs and re-

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alities? It is also alarming that Abascal had delivered a similar speech earlier at the International Labor Organization. There, in front of an international audience, Abascal spoke of the growing problem of broken families throughout the world “principally due to the absence of the mother from the heart of the home” and of the need to create better conditions so that women can devote themselves fully to “the profession of motherhood” (Salas, Reforma, 16 March 2001). In a broader context, since Abascal is a top member within the Fox administration, his positions are seen as “characteristic of a PAN-controlled government” (Lindsay, The News [Mexico City], 5 May 2001). And, at a time when Mexican democracy is struggling to wrest itself free from the dinosaurs of the past, such a political philosophy can only lead to a step backward for women. Abascal, in a nutshell, is the prototype dinosaur of the PAN. REFR AMING THE CONTEXT OF MEXIC AN DEMOCR ACY—WITHOUT WOME N?

Mexican women have demonstrated their inner strength and resilience at every step of the way on the long path to becoming recognized as citizens and political actors: their participation in the Revolution of 1910; the battle for suffrage that finally gave them the vote in 1953; the emergence of a distinctively Mexican feminist movement beginning in the 1970s; their indispensable contributions to social movements beginning in the 1980s; their growing presence in the labor force, both formal and informal, and the positive consequences for family life as more women have become heads of households and economically independent; the ever larger number of young women in higher education; and last, but by no means least, their increased visibility in the political world as leaders, officeholders, policymakers, and grassroots activists. But the accomplishments that have resulted from the long and hard battles for inclusion that women have endured for the better part of the twentieth century, and more specifically during the last fifteen years, may be suffering a setback. While the country and the world celebrate Mexico’s democratic advances because the once almighty ruling party has been voted out of office, important players—such as women—are being left out. Although some of this exclusion may be of the women’s own making, most of it is due to the fact that the formal institutions of power have not allowed them to be wholly incorporated. There is no question that democracy in Mexico is in the process of

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being reframed. Important advances and serious efforts have been made to make the political system more transparent and more accountable to the people. The people, in turn, have developed a new civic and political culture through which they have learned that both their votes and their preferences count. In the review of classic democratic theory at the beginning of this book we learned that a key element in a democracy is that electors determine who their leaders will be and that leaders compete for the people’s votes. We also learned that a key element in advanced democracies is that all sectors and groups of the citizenry must be included in institutional and governmental structures for their voices and demands to be articulated in the formation of public policy. At least for some citizens, these changes are occurring in Mexico. But as far as women are concerned, the new political climate is neither receptive nor inclusive. Women continue to be underrepresented. In a broad sense, I am optimistic about what the future holds for Mexican democracy. At the same time, however, when I contemplate what the future holds for women, I cannot help but wonder if democracy in Mexico is being reframed without fully including them.

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Notes

INTRODUCTION

11. All translations from Spanish-language sources in this book are mine, unless otherwise noted. 12. This literature is discussed in detail in chapter 2, so I will only touch on it summarily here. 13. Although we were unable to conduct as much of this shadowing as would have been desirable due in part to time and scheduling constraints, and in part to the natural reluctance of many women to have a shadow tagging along, we were able to demonstrate that the technique could be made to work, and we succeeded in introducing the concept to senior female decision-makers. Even when they were reluctant to participate, they were often intrigued by the research design. 14. When we conducted our first round of fieldwork in Mexico in January 1995, there was a flurry of activity among Mexican women as they were preparing the country reports for Beijing and getting ready to travel there. Clara Jusidman (1999) analyzes in depth what this conference meant for

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Mexican women and for Mexico in general. With the intimate perspective gained from active participation in all stages of the conference, she relates what went into the preparation of the documents, how people were selected as delegates and what conflicts ensued, what Mexicans learned from the experience, and what lessons could be drawn for future conferences of this sort. Classic Jusidman, the analysis is piercing and insightful. 15. Among the political women present were Amalia García, Rosario Robles, Ana Lilia Cepeda, and Leticia Calzada from the PRD; Cecilia Soto, who had just run for the presidency the year before on the PT ticket; and a large group of senior women from the PAN, led by María Elena Alvarez, Consuelo Botello, María Teresa Gómez Mont, and Ana Rosa Payán. Also present were some of the most prominent women in other political areas, such as Marta Lamas, Patricia Mercado, and Cecilia Loría, all of whom are key figures in Mexico’s feminist movement. 16. Among the academics presenting at that meeting were Vivienne Bennett, Rod Camp, Elsa Chaney, Joe Foweraker, Marta Lamas, Carmen Ramos, Kathy Staudt, and María Luisa Tarrés. The papers presented at both the 1995 and the 1996 conferences were revised and updated for publication in an edited volume. See Rodríguez 1998b. 17. Presentations at the 1996 meeting were made by Nikki Craske, Alicia Martínez and Tere Incháustegui, Alejandra Massolo, Lynn Stephen, and Lilia Venegas. We also had new presentations from some of the academics who attended the 1995 meeting—Vivienne Bennett, Elsa Chaney, Marta Lamas, Carmen Ramos, María Luisa Tarrés, and several others. Among them, special mention must be made of the presentation by Judith Gentleman on women in the national security arena, which stirred considerable discussion. 18. Among them were Cecilia Romero from the PAN; Laura Itzel Castillo from the PRD; and María Elena Chapa from the PRI. Other leading women, such as Laura Carrera and Clara Jusidman, were also present. CHAPTER 1

11. There are 500 seats in the Mexican Congress. The remaining seats were occupied by other parties: 16 by the Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano (Green Party, PVEM); 8 by the Partido de los Trabajadores (Workers’ Party, PT); and 7 by various small parties. 12. Of these six seats, the PVEM held five, and the Convergencia por la Democracia (Convergence for Democracy, CD), one. 13. See, for example, Alvarez (1990) for Brazil; Feijoó (1994, 1998) for Argentina; Chuchryk (1994), Frohmann and Valdés (1995), Valenzuela (1998) for Chile; Barrig (1994, 1998), Blondet (1995) for Perú; Chinchilla (1994) for Nicaragua; Schirmer (1993) for Guatemala and El Salvador. For a general overview of women’s political participation in Latin America see 26 0

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Jaquette (1994, 1998), Craske (1999), Craske and Molyneux (2002), Miller (1991), Molyneux (2001), Radcliffe and Westwood (1993), Waylen (1994). 14. In the early 1960s, intense patterns of women’s political activism began to occur all over the world. In their study of the women’s movement in forty-three countries, Nelson and Chowdhury (1994) examine the period between the early 1960s and the early 1990s. They tie this activism to international changes and document how these changes often set the stage for distinctly national dramas. During these years, women’s political engagement was influenced by fundamental changes in international economic relations, reduced national capacities to solve problems, remarkable transformations in political regimes, and a rise in religious fundamentalism. 15. This applies to both classic as well as contemporary analyses. In the more recent debates in Anglo-American political theory, for example, three strands of argument have dominated: the first continues the old controversy in democratic theory between elite versus participatory models of democracy; the second is between rights-oriented liberalism and communitarianism; and the third is between neoconservative advocates of the free market and defenders of the welfare state. Although these issues will not be discussed at length in this chapter, it is important to indicate that, by and large, all three strands of the debate have been consistently gender-blind. It is also important to underscore that although some of these strands have weaved their ways into the literature of comparative politics, the latter has been overwhelmingly concerned with civil society and especially with democratization. 16. In Mexico, women were granted this right in 1953. Switzerland was the last Western country to grant women universal suffrage, in 1971. 17. Cohen and Arato (1997), in their Civil Society and Political Theory, make a persuasive case that in spite of the proliferation of analyses of civil society, there was no systematic theory prior to their work. Their book certainly fills that void. 18. For example, see Fraser 1985 for a discussion of the relevance of Habermas’s theory to the contemporary women’s movement. Fraser’s argument shows how these theories are not only “gender-blind” but also “in important respects androcentric and ideological” (111). 19. Jaquette and Wolchik (1998: 16 –18) offer some useful suggestions for incorporating a gender perspective in Linz and Stepan’s framework. 10. For a discussion of the various meanings of consolidation, see Schedler 1998. Some of the more widely referenced sources in this literature are Linz and Stepan 1996; Diamond and Plattner 1996; and Domínguez and Lowenthal 1996. 11. In her more recent work, Waylen (2000) has continued to note this point. The new literature on consolidation has paid no attention to the interaction of women and political institutions. 261

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12. Time is always of the essence in any type of political or policy analysis. This is a point I have argued with respect to the progress of decentralization in Mexico (Rodríguez 1997). In their Advocacy Coalition Framework, Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1993) posit that in order to be able to analyze the impact and effectiveness of any policy, one needs to look at a period of a decade or more. All too often, in a rush to analyze current issues and events, we lose sight of the fact that change is never easy and always requires time. 13. After he had been in office only six months, critics began accusing Fox of falling short on his promises. Specifically, Fox was under fire because of the downturn in economic growth and because of his fiscal reform package, which proposed to impose taxes on food and medicines. Fox has defended his administration by citing a number of accomplishments, particularly in battling corruption (Ferriss, AAS, 17 May 2001). 14. For women this has posed a dilemma that is treated in the literature as one of ‘autonomy’ versus ‘integration.’ 15. The Eleventh National Census (inegi 1990) shows considerably low divorce rates among Mexicans. The census indicates a 0.2 percent increase in divorce rates from 1970 to 1990, from 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent. Separation rates decreased from 1.4 percent to 1.2 percent during the same period. Divorce rates among women are higher (1 percent) than among men (0.4 percent). 16. In 1990, the average family in Mexico had 2.5 children. The average number of children decreased from 6 in 1974 to 3.8 in 1986. Women between the ages of 45 and 49 had an average of 4 children, while women from 15 to 24 years of age had 2.6 children. Women without education had an average of 4.4 children, while women with secondary education had an average of 2.5 children. In urban areas, the average number of children was less than half that in rural areas (Cuadernos de Población 1991). 17. The data for all Mexican women in higher education in 1990 reveals that women made up 50 percent of students in accounting, 49 percent in business administration, 66 percent in communications, 37 percent in economics, 55 percent in engineering, and 39 percent in law (Camp 1998:171). 18. The gender roles of these women’s parents may be indicative of the era in which they grew up. Statistics show that the ratio of women employed outside the home to the total population between 1950 and 1970 climbed by a mere 1 percent, from 4 percent to 5 percent (Levy and Székely 1987). Since 1970, many more women work outside the home as a result of the economic hardships that the nation has faced (see chapter 2). Also, in Mexico, having a working mother has typically implied lower socioeconomic status because it meant the mother’s income was necessary for the family to make ends meet. 19. The political leaders in Camp’s study held public positions in Mexico from 1946 to 1970. That is, they were raised and educated in the decades immediately following the Revolution of 1910 (Camp 1984: 2). 26 2

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20. Nelson and Chowdhury (1994) refer to this notion of gender discrimination as the “patriarchal father-son” family structure. Politics excludes women from the material rewards of politics in much the same way as they are excluded from the material rewards of other male-controlled economic obligations and reciprocity networks.

CHAPTER 2

11. The “Mexican economic miracle” refers to the period beginning in 1940, when the country sustained an annual economic growth rate of 6 percent or more, coupled with low inflation and political stability. The miracle ended abruptly in the 1970s (Hansen 1974). 12. Under de la Madrid (1982 –1988) it seemed to subside as attempts were made at “moral renovation,” but it proved very hard to change longheld habits. Under President Salinas (1988 –1994), corruption appeared somewhat more discreet, but as a series of scandals at the end of his administration and in subsequent months showed, it remained a major problem— and it infected all levels of government employees. Indeed, as corrupt government officials became increasingly tied to Mexican and other Latin American drug rings, and as the narcos interfered more openly in political affairs, this more obvious corruption led many analysts to foresee the making of a new Colombia in Mexico. 13. For a review of economic policy from the early 1980s on, see Jones, Jiménez, and Ward (1993). In their analysis of land market investment opportunities and returns, they track economic and stock exchange performance throughout the de la Madrid and Salinas administrations, focusing on the upturn in the economy and the dynamics of the real estate market and land values. 14. Greater per capita income for female-headed households was found to be the case by every author who has researched this area except for one. Kristine Leilani Hopkins (1992), in her study of female-headed households in urban Mexico based on data from the Encuesta Nacional de Empleo Urbano en México (National Survey of Urban Employment in Mexico), found that female-headed households tended to have lower per capita incomes than male-headed households. 15. In my Decentralization in Mexico (Rodríguez 1997) I provide an assessment of Solidarity, particularly in terms of its impact on decentralization and local community involvement. 16. “Women devote themselves increasingly to economic activities, while they also have the responsibility of caring for children and the home. Young people and women develop under extremely difficult conditions and thus are the priority groups which Solidarity supports” (SEDESOL 1993: 9). 263

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17. The energy, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit of Mexican women also surfaced clearly in Judith Hellman’s study of Mexican perceptions of free trade when this was first being discussed internationally prior to the passage of NAFTA in 1994. One of the women Hellman interviewed “revealed that she had already formulated an economic strategy based on guesswork about what libre comercio (free trade) might bring. She had entered a raffle (tanda) in order to raise the cash to pay a sister-in-law to bring a sewing machine back from Texas. They intended to set up a workshop to produce sweaters and dresses so, as she put it, ‘we will be able to enter into free trade and send stuff to the places where people have money to buy’” (Hellman 1993: 199). 18. This is a common theme in the literature. An estimated 2.5 million Mexican women belong to unions, yet their presence in leadership positions is minimal (PRONAM 1999; see also Foweraker 1998). For example, the telephone workers’ union, according to a 1997 report, had only eight women in the national executive committee, out of a total of fifty-eight committee members—this in spite of the fact that over half of the union’s members were women (Mexican Labor News and Analysis, 16 March 1997). 19. According to union statistics, in 1998 Aeroméxico’s senior flight attendants earned slightly more than U.S. $7,000 a year, compared with approximately U.S. $42,000 made by their counterparts in the United States (Dillon, NYT, 8 June 1998). 10. ASSA did have one female leader before Barrales who lasted in the position six months and left the union under a cloud of suspicion and accusations of corruption. 11. See, for example, Stephen 1989, 1997; Bennett 1992, 1995, 1998; Massolo 1992, 1994b, 1995; Foweraker 1993, 1995, 1998; Foweraker and Craig 1990; Craske 1993; Carrillo 1990; García-Gorena 1999. For a broader overview of women’s social movements throughout Latin America, see Jaquette 1994; Jelin 1987, 1990; Escobar and Alvarez 1992; Alvarez 1990; Radcliffe and Westwood 1993; Safa 1990; Miller 1991. These studies are all incorporated within the larger theoretical literature on social movement theory: identity formation, new social movements theory, resource mobilization theory, the political process approach, and the social process approach. For example, Massolo (1992) offers a feminist perspective on Manuel Castells’s theories. In her first chapter, she presents a feminist theoretical review of urban movements that focuses on Castells. The rest of the book relates and discusses the life histories and testimonies of women and their participation in different barrios of Mexico City. García-Gorena (1999), in her analysis of the Madres Veracruzanas and the Mexican Antinuclear Movement, provides a discussion of social movements paradigms and documents how “new social movements” are not so new and how a political process approach works much better. See Foweraker (1995: 9 –26) for a discussion of these various theoretical approaches. 26 4

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12. Vivienne Bennett (1992) traces the evolution of social movements in Mexico from the early 1970s to the late 1980s and identifies three distinctive “waves”: the first was in the early 1970s; the second, in the early 1980s; and the third, in the late 1980s. Although triggered by and organized around different issues and based in different places, all these social movements had the same motivation at heart, as Bennett tells us: “the inability of Mexico’s development model to provide a decent standard of living for the majority of the population” (1992: 242). In another very useful analysis, Bennett makes a distinction between urban popular movements, which are formal organizations with rules for decision making, consolidated leadership, and continuity over time; and territorially based protests, which are moment- and issuebased and are aimed at solving immediate problems (Bennett 1998: 116). Women’s participation in both forms of activism has been fundamental. 13. See Stephen (1997: 129 –157) for an account of the formation of the council and for an analysis of its activities, its inner structure, and its intersection with feminism. CHAPTER 3

11. See Macías 1974, 1980; Ramos Escandón 1993; Soto 1990; Lau and Ramos 1993; Tuñón Pablos 1999; and Salas 1990 for an overview of the participation of women in Mexico’s wars and armed struggles. As these scholars and others describe, women are key figures in the collective memory of the Revolution. “Soldaderas” is a term that encompasses both women soldiers and camp followers. The typical story is that a young woman followed her man (“su Juan”) when he joined the armed struggle, becoming a caretaker of his daily needs. Adelita is the principal character in one of the most unforgettable ballads of the Revolution: “the woman whom the sergeant idolized/since, in addition to being courageous, she was pretty/and even the colonel respected her.” The old photographs of the Revolution in which women appear with rifles and bandoliers illustrate the role they played as soldiers, but they also provided the men with daily sustenance (in terms of both food and emotional support) and developed a strong spirit of collective action among themselves. 12. I will use the term “women’s movement” in the broadest sense. It is important to clarify that although in many instances “feminist movement” and “women’s movement” are used interchangeably, they are not one and the same. In the case of Mexico, as Marta Lamas points out, they are distinct concepts. Several movements organized by peasant women and women of the popular sector, among others, have successfully drawn attention to women’s political activism without espousing feminist ideals. Lamas uses the term “movimiento amplio de mujeres” to emphasize the concept of broadness when referring to the confluence of several movements, especially those led by 265

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women of the popular sector, workers, peasants, and feminists (Lamas 1994: 162 –163). 13. See, for example, Macías 1980, 1982; Morton 1962; Ramos Escandón 1993; Soto 1990; Lau and Ramos 1993; Salas 1990. 14. In addition to Yucatán, women were allowed to vote in local elections only in two other states. In San Luis Potosí, in 1924, another progressive governor, Rafael Nieto, gave women who could read and write the right to vote in municipal elections, and then extended it to state elections in 1925. Also in 1925, women gained the right to vote in both state and municipal elections in Chiapas (Morton 1962: 10 –12; Cano 1991: 281). 15. Governor Alvarado was an unusual man for his time. As Julia Tuñón Pablos tells us, he “issued several decrees to promote hiring women in the state administration; to implement the regulation of domestic work, requiring that servants be paid; to ban houses of prostitution; and to give women the legal right to leave their father’s home at twenty-one years of age. A right their brothers already had” (1999: 95). 16. One of the arguments against granting suffrage to women presented at the 1917 Constitutional Convention was the fear that they would vote conservative—specifically, that they were so feeble minded that they would vote as their priests instructed them. The reaction of a member of the Chamber of Deputies to a feminist demonstration in the 1920s makes the point: “Twenty-five thousand Mexican women coming before the Chamber to ask the vote for women! How horrible! It means that, if they obtain their object, we shall have a Bishop for President” (Morton 1962: 13). However, as Cecilia Loría commented in 2000, “con el tiempo se demostró que no somos conservadoras” (time showed that we are not conservative [Zárate Vite, El Universal, 8 March 2000]). 17. As Marta Lamas explains, in the 1970s there was a resurgence of the feminist movement. The feminist movement did not begin in the 1970s, but rather at the beginning of the twentieth century, and even then it had some predecessors in the nineteenth century (Lamas 1994: 162). As described in this chapter, that early-century movement sustained its strength until the 1950s. 18. See the article by Sternbach et al. (1992) for an analytical overview of the different feminisms in Latin America. See also the introductory chapter in Basu (1995) for a cross-national discussion of women’s movements. In Basu’s volume, scholars provide in-depth analyses of why feminism as a concept is so controversial, the diverse origins of women’s movements in different parts of the world, how the issues they address converge and differ, and how to measure their success. 19. For an account of the participation of women in the 1968 student movement, see Cohen and Frazier 1993.

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10. The first (1981) and second (1982) encuentros took place in Mexico City. The third (1983) took place in Colima. The fourth (1984) took place in Michoacán, and the fifth (also in 1984) was in Mexico City. 11. Benita Galeana, an elderly indigenous woman, is a highly respected grassroots activist and leader of low-income women. 12. See, for example, Reforma, 13 August 1999. That particular spread begins by stating “Nadie está a favor del aborto” (No one is in favor of abortion) and continues, México necesita razonamientos fundamentados para enfrentar problemas concretos de salud pública y justicia social. . . . Las creencias religiosas son muy respetables, pero en un Estado laico no deben definir las leyes ni las políticas públicas. . . . México necesita un debate serio, riguroso e informado que trate de manera civilizada y racional el tema del aborto. . . . Este debate permitiría continuar avanzando hacia una sociedad democrática como la que pretendemos construir. [Mexico needs sound arguments to confront specific problems of public health and social justice. . . . Religious beliefs are very respectable, but in a secular state they must not define the laws nor public policies. . . . Mexico needs a serious, rigorous, and informed debate to discuss in a rational and civilized manner the topic of abortion. . . . This debate would allow the advancement toward the democratic society we intend to build.] The spread is signed by hundreds of women leaders in every sector—politics, the arts, academia, entertainment, and so on—as well as dozens of organizations. 13. The quintessential women’s organization associated with the PAN is ANCIFEM (Asociación Nacional Cívica Femenina, National Female Civic Association), which has pursued a very conservative and traditional approach to women’s involvement in politics. ANCIFEM has been very closely linked to the Movimiento Familiar Cristiano (Christian Family Movement), which promotes family values, teaches catechism, and sees the PAN as the only viable mechanism for bringing family and religious values into public life. As the PAN’s women’s sector has become “modernized” under the leadership of Patricia Espinosa, Sandra Herrera, and Margarita Zavala, ANCIFEM’s influence has eroded. 14. The translation is “old bags,” and the use comes from the very common Mexican custom of referring to women as viejas (old women). Most of the time “vieja” is a derogatory term, but sometimes it is affectionate; a husband, for example, may call his wife “vieja” as an equivalent of the American “honey” or “sweetheart.”

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15. The PRD was formed in 1989 out of the Frente Democrático Nacional (National Democratic Front, FDN), a coalition of leftist parties that nearly won the presidential election in 1988 with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas as its candidate. The PRD was founded by a group of dissafected priístas, led by Cárdenas, Porfirio Munoz Ledo, and Ifigenia Martínez. Martínez, who has had a long and distinguished political career, brought a strong female presence to the new party from the outset. 16. The only party that has surpassed the 30 percent minimum is the PVEM (Green Party). In the 1997–2000 legislature, three of the five seats held by this party were occupied by women. 17. In fact, the first election was mishandled so badly that it was annulled, and fresh elections had to be called. 18. In those cases when the male politician is widowed or divorced, it is customary for the dif to be headed by one of his sisters or daughters, or another woman in his family. In the few cases when women have been in executive positions, the leadership of the DIF has been handed to another woman. 19. See Stetson and Mazur (1995) for a compilation of women’s bureaus and agencies worldwide. The edition contains a chapter on the Instituto de la Mujer in Spain, which Mexicans saw as a model for their own. 20. The members of the Consejo Consultivo in 1999/2000 included Griselda Alvarez, María Elena Alvarez, Gloria Brasdefer, Amalia García, Graciela Hierro, Cecilia Loría, María de los Angeles Moreno, Beatriz Paredes, Laura Pavón, Olga Pellicer, Cecilia Romero, and Cecilia Soto. The members of the Contraloría Social included Carmen Bolado, Brígida García, Ifigenia Martínez, Patricia Mercado, and Patricia Olamendi. 21. “La promoción, la protección y difusión de los derechos de las mujeres y de las niñas consagradas en la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos y en los tratados internacionales ratificados por México, en particular los derechos humanos y libertades fundamentales de las mujeres; la promoción, seguimiento y evaluación de las políticas públicas y la participación de la sociedad, destinadas a asegurar la igualdad de oportunidades y la no discriminación de las mujeres” (cited in Granados Chapa, Reforma, 8 March 2001). CHAPTER 4

11. In Mexico, as in the United States, federal legislative power is divided into two houses: the lower house is the Chamber of Deputies; the upper house is the Senate. (The term “Congress” refers to the entire legislature but is sometimes used interchangeably with “Chamber of Deputies” to refer to the lower house alone.) Elections are held at staggered intervals for all three

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levels of government—federal, state, and municipal. State and federal representatives (diputados, or deputies) serve for three years, senators for six. 12. The actual number of seats in the Senate doubled after the election of 1994 from 64 to 128. 13. Since then, women have occupied several important subsecretarías (undersecretariats), including the one in the most powerful ministry of all, Gobernación. Beatriz Paredes, for example, occupied this position in 1993. 14. Toallagate entailed the purchase of exorbitantly expensive linens for Los Pinos with public monies. The president’s office paid U.S. $400 each for embroidered towels and at least U.S. $1,500 for a set of sheets. The total expense for redecorating two cabins in the presidential compound, which was first published in the Mexican newspaper Milenio, was U.S. $440,000. Fox had promised austerity measures for his government, and he publicly criticized these expenses, prompting the resignation of the public official who had authorized them. Fox did try to turn the situation to good effect, though, by saying that the fact that this information was public knowledge proved the transparency of his government (see Thompson, NYT, 27 June 2001; AAS, 20 June 2001). 15. The circumstances of Sauri’s appointment as interim governor were controversial. The sitting governor, Manzanilla Schaffer, was forced to resign due to “disagreements” with the PRI. Some argue that Sauri was a pawn in a political scheme by PRI cacique (political chief ) Víctor Cervera Pacheco to reprimand the governor for not supporting his agenda and for recognizing the victory of the PAN’s Ana Rosa Payán in her run for mayor of Mérida, the state’s capital (López Vargas, Proceso, 3 January 1993). 16. While in the United States state legislatures are usually bicameral, in Mexico there is no senate at the state level. 17. For a discussion of the involvement of women at the local level, see Barrera Bassols and Massolo 1998; Massolo 1994a, 1994b, 1995; Bennett 1995, 1998; Tarrés 1989; Craske 1993. 18. However, it should be noted that these council positions are part-time and are not directly elected. Council members run for office on the municipal president’s electoral slate ( planilla), not individually. 19. Although most analyses of leadership in general tend to include a gender section, there are few sources devoted exclusively to women’s leadership. One of the most cited assessments of female leadership is Sally Helgesen’s The Female Advantage (1990). Helgesen uses daily observations to document how women leaders make decisions, schedule their days, gather and disperse information, motivate others, delegate tasks, structure their companies, and hire and fire employees—in short, how female leaders’ strategies represent a highly successful revision of male leadership styles. Helgesen argues that men and women approach work in fundamentally different ways and that these

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differences hold great advantages for women, especially in organizations that foster creativity, cooperation, and intuitive decision-making processes. See also Astin and Leland’s Women of Influence, Women of Vision (1991). 10. For example, when a journalist asked Ana Rosa Payán outright in an interview if she and Dulce María Sauri hated each other, Mayor Payán replied, “No, no, no. I cannot hate her. I do not know if she hates me, but of course I cannot hate her. I know that she is in an opposition party, which puts us in very difficult positions, but I think that it is more difficult for her than for me because I have the support of the people behind me” (Aguirre, Proceso, 10 May 1993: 16). Payán’s comments regarding Sauri’s lack of support from the people refer to the fact that Sauri was not elected, but rather was appointed by President Salinas on an interim basis to fill the outgoing governor’s unexpired term (see note 5 above). 11. The term dedazo, or “fingering,” refers to the process by which the president selects someone to occupy a position by “pointing” at him or her. 12. Camarillas are the most prominent informal networks in the Mexican political system. Essentially, these networks are formed at the country’s main universities (UNAM dominated in the past; now they also are formed at ITAM and ITESM) by groups of students and professors who share political interests and rely on each other for political advancement. As one member of the group advances to the top of the political ladder, he brings along the other members by giving them political jobs in the bureaucracy. Thus, as the leader rises through the government, so does his camarilla. Camarillas could be considered the equivalent of the “old boy” networks in U.S. politics. These groups differ from political parties in that they are not necessarily aligned along policy issues. Instead, they are organized around personal allegiances. Members can move from one camarilla to another, and in the recent past this was especially common during the speculation period before the presidential dedazo. Individuals try to guess who will be the next candidate and ally themselves with that person. For extensive discussions of the camarilla system, see Smith 1979; Cornelius and Craig 1991. Camp outlines fifteen characteristics of the Mexican camarilla (1999: 117). 13. In the 2000 –2003 legislature, this committee chair was no longer to rotate. The new permanent chair of the committee was Concepción González Molina, of the pri. The committee now has permanent status and comprises twenty-three members. 14. See the article by Ciro Pérez Silva and Alma Muñoz (1998) for an account of the Parlamento’s proceedings and agreements (La Jornada, 9 March 1998). 15. For Latin American women, the priority issue was combating poverty. 16. This is not meant to imply that Mexican women need international groups to help them develop and implement their priorities. It is important

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to underscore, however, that international advocacy networks do provide both material and discursive leverage to domestic groups (see Keck and Sikkink 1998: 23). Keck and Sikkink (1998) note, indeed, that international conferences have often been catalysts for the development of networks in participants’ home countries. This also appears to have occurred among Mexican women attending the Austin conferences in 1995 and 1996. 17. This conference was formally entitled “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century.” About 2,300 delegates and 2,000 NGO representatives attended the conference to assess their progress five years after Beijing. 18. Indeed, at the dawn of the new millennium, France was at the vanguard of equality in representation: starting with the municipal elections in March 2001, a new law obliges all political parties to have an equal number of male and female candidates. This parity law, the first of its kind, was not easy to pass. When it was first discussed in the early 1990s, it was fiercely opposed. But since the passage of the law— championed by Lionel Jospin, the socialist prime minister, and his wife, Sylviane Agacinski, a professor—the system has gained much popularity. In a recent poll, a full 63 percent of those surveyed said that the parity law meant that the French would now get better candidates and believed that the law would bring better governance. Indeed, a whopping 65 percent said they wanted a woman mayor elected in their town in 2001 (Daley, NYT, 4 February 2001). 19. For further discussion of the Norwegian case, see Bystydzienski (1994). See also Sugiyama (1998) for a discussion of the impact of quotas in India and Brazil. 20. A suplente takes office if the original officeholder resigns or dies. 21. For example, Mexican female senators from the three major political parties recently pressed for the removal of a clause in the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) agreement that states that it will be enforced only to the extent that federal and local budgets permit. This clause went into effect when Mexico signed the agreement in 1980. In 1999 Mexico signed the Optional Protocol of CEDAW, committing to fight against all forms of discrimination against women, but by early 2000 the Senate had not yet had the opportunity to ratify it. The female senators urged the federal executive to send the international agreement to the senate for ratification (Reforma, 31 March 2001). 22. For a discussion of quota systems, and particularly of the Mexican case, see Rowe (1996). 23. There has been much discussion in the scholarly literature regarding which type of electoral system is better at ensuring that more women get elected. Experience with the single-member district system shows that— with the exception of women— candidates from the majority group of a dis-

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trict are more likely to win an election (Zimmerman 1994: 6). Wilma Rule, in her extensive work on this subject, has argued that one reason women do not fare well in single-member districts is that since the process requires a candidate to win a majority of the vote, political parties are unwilling to support a candidate they do not believe capable of winning, and for most, the risk of losing seems greater for women. Thus, the single-member district system results in a disincentive for nominating and electing women to parliament (Rule 1994: 19). Accordingly, it seems that multimember elections, in which voters can choose more than one candidate, result in better electoral conditions for women. See also Jones and Navia (1999), who, based on their analysis of municipal elections in Chile, argue that “the adoption of quotas in open-list proportional representation systems will not have as positive an effect on the percentage of women elected as has been the case in many closed-list proportional representation systems” (341). When a closed list is used, the political parties present a rank-ordered list of candidates for each district. The ordering of candidates cannot be altered, and voters cast a ballot for the entire list. Once the party’s seat allocation has been determined through a proportional representation formula, its seats are distributed based on the rank order of the list. That is, if a party wins three seats, the first three people on the list win. When an open list is used, the political parties also present a list, but there is no rank ordering. Voters have to select a candidate from the list. The seats are also allocated through a proportional representation formula, but the seats are distributed based on the number of votes received, not on the rank order in the list. Thus, if a party wins three seats, the three candidates who obtained the most votes win. 24. I am using “public” and “professional” interchangeably. 25. In 1983, Anderson had presented to the Congress the first proposal ever to recognize sexual harassment as a crime. Every one of the female deputies signed onto the proposal. Although Anderson was an important figure within the PRI, especially in her role as one of the leaders of the CTM, she could not garner sufficient support to have her bill enacted. The proposal failed for various reasons, the most important being that Anderson was not allied either with the feminist groups or with the left-wing parties (especially the PSUM), both of which were investing their efforts in the struggle against violence towards women. In addition, as she succinctly put it, her male companions (of the PRI, who held the majority in the Congress) “were just not ready for it” (Stevenson 1998: 5). 26. The issue of domestic violence in Mexico, as anywhere else, is painful and complex in terms of both individuals and public policy. Two sources that deal with the matter with sensitivity and intelligence are Azaola (1996) and Morrison and Biehl (1999). See also Esterline (2001) for a study of the Mexican case.

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27. See the story by Julia Preston in the New York Times (11 April 2000) for a complete account. See also Gardner 2001. CHAPTER 5

11. A third state, Guanajuato, was also governed by a panista, but he was an interim governor placed in office by President Salinas. Carlos Medina Plascencia was not even a candidate in the 1991 gubernatorial elections in that state; he came into the position only because the PRI candidate’s electoral conduct had been discredited and President Salinas wished to make a conciliatory gesture to the PAN. Even among panistas his governorship was seen as lacking in legitimacy. 12. This type of electoral system is critical for women. The literature has demonstrated that the single-member district system is the principal barrier to the election of women. See Rule (1987) and Rule and Zimmerman (1994); also see chapter 4 of this volume. For an analysis of how open-list proportional representation electoral systems affect women running for office, see Jones and Navia (1999). 13. The principle of representación mayoritaria (majority representation) formed the basis for the election of representatives to the so-called uninominal (directly elected) offices, such as the president, governors, senators, three hundred of the federal deputies, and a set number of state deputies, determined by each state’s constitution. In some municipalities the same principle applies to the election of the municipal president (mayor), síndicos, and regidores. The principle of representación proporcional (proportional representation) was designed to enable more members of the opposition to hold public office. This made possible the election of representatives to positions referred to as plurinominal, including one hundred federal deputies, a number of state deputies (again determined by each state’s constitution), and a proportion of regidores in each ayuntamiento. Opposition parties now had one hundred of the then four hundred seats. These plurinominal seats were to be distributed on the basis of proportional representation to the qualifying minority parties. The remaining 75 percent of the Chamber of Deputies seats, the uninominal seats, would be determined on the basis of the official electoral returns from the single-member districts. 14. A second outcome of the 1977 reforms was to facilitate the formation of new (but small) parties at the regional or national level, thus potentially fragmenting the political opposition further. 15. The series of reforms for increasing the opposition’s representation described here clearly illustrates that the PRI was not willing to make changes that would lead to its losing overall control of the electoral process. The PRI had a majority on both the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Tribunal

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and, at that time, the commission chair—the secretary of Gobernación— had both vote and, if necessary, tie-breaking vote. 16. For an analysis of the 1994 election from various perspectives, see Ward et al. 1994. 17. This demand was obviously aimed at the pri, whose party symbol uses colors and configuration identical to those of the national flag, and at government programs like Solidarity, which also incorporated them into their logos. For more on this conflation of pri and government nationalism, see Rodríguez and Ward 1994b. 18. As Staudt reports, in Costa Rica and the Philippines, women’s turnout rates are equal to or above those of men, and in Japan they are visibly higher. However, a major problem in analyzing women’s voter turnout is that very few countries regularly report and tabulate electoral turnout by gender (Staudt 1998: 33 –34). 19. The project is titled “Democracy through U.S. and Mexican Lenses” and is funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Roderic Ai Camp is the principal investigator, with a team of eight researchers (including myself ) from both Mexico and the United States. 10. See Blough (1971) for an account of women’s political attitudes in Mexico in the late 1950s and how women voted in the 1958 presidential election (their first after obtaining suffrage). Based on data collected in a 1959 survey regarding the political attitudes of urban Mexicans, Blough concludes that “despite slightly more negative attitudes held by the women, the two sexes were essentially similar in the way they felt about the political order. This basic similarity appears to have existed regardless of level of education, religious feeling, or political activity” (1971: 223). 11. It is not possible to put the data for 1994, 1997, and 2000 together in a table for more easily visible comparison because the questions asked were different. Whereas the 1997 poll asked for which party respondents would vote, the 2000 poll asked directly for which candidate they would vote. Naturally, in 1997 the question was somewhat hypothetical, since it was not a presidential election year. However, the data do serve to support the point of general party preferences among women and men. 12. One exception in this regard is Fernández Poncela and Fournier (2000), who analyze how men and women intended to vote in the 1997 election for mayor of Mexico City. Although the sample is relatively small and the survey concentrates on the Federal District, their analysis and findings reveal interesting differences between the sexes. 13. For example, in reference to the U.S. race: “Women hold the key. In a close race, female vote might deliver victory,” USA Today, 15 March 2000; “Presidential race could hinge on wooing women,” Austin AmericanStatesman, 26 March 2000; “Presidential race could turn to Bush’s appeal to women,” New York Times, 26 March 2000; “Gore finds new edge: women’s 27 4

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support,” Austin American-Statesman, from the Boston Globe, 10 September 2000. On 25 March 2000, Knight Ridder syndicated a story under the headline “While women in Mexico hold the key to elections, ‘machismo’ still rules” (Sandoval, Knight Ridder, 25 March 2000); and on 30 June 2000, the New York Times ran an article on page A1 entitled “Women become the darlings of the candidates in Mexico” (Thompson, New York Times, 30 June 2000). 14. While it was clear to the presidential candidates that the institute could provide valuable services and have an important presence in the future to advance the status of women, President Zedillo is rumored to have commented, “Instituto para qué?” (Institute for what?). 15. For a discussion of the women-centered apns, see Hernández Monzoy 2000. 16. Among the participants were José Woldenberg, president of the IFE, and among those signing the proposed legislative reforms were Marta Lamas, Elena Poniatowska, María Luisa “La China” Mendoza, Cristina Pacheco, Griselda Alvarez, Beatriz Paredes, and Patricia Mercado. Over 200 widely known women from all walks of life endorsed the general document. 17. After the assassination of Colosio in March 1994, Mujeres y Punto endorsed the candidacy of Ernesto Zedillo. 18. The established practice for the selection of PRI presidential candidates was for the incumbent to select his successor through the process known as dedazo, or “fingering.” The president selected the man he wanted to be next presidential candidate, and until the last election, this designation had been the equivalent of becoming the next president of Mexico. The selected candidate was often a member of the cabinet who had risen through the ranks of the bureaucracy, and as Camp (1993) suggests, a career of appointments and various party positions was a much more common route to the presidency than a series of elected positions (see also Rodríguez and Ward 1994b). Until recently, also, once a candidate secured the sponsorship of the incumbent, he was assured the support of the pri. This process, by and large, promoted a very narrow corridor to political power, especially given that the process of dedazo pervaded candidate selection at all levels of the Mexican government. 19. It is most pertinent for all parties to recall that the prd was born precisely out of dissatisfaction with the processes of candidate selection in the pri. In preparation for the 1988 presidential election, a group of dissatisfied pri members broke off to form the Frente Democrático Nacional, which supported the candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. In 1989 the Frente became the PRD. 20. The examples are too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say that as it has become more difficult to obtain a party’s nomination, many have chosen to cross party lines and join another party in order to obtain that party’s nom275

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ination. This has happened frequently with pri members who defect to the prd. Indeed, many of them have gone on to win, thereby giving important victories to the PRD over the PRI. With the election of Vicente Fox, the incidence of crossover to the PAN has increased exponentially. 21. While other countries’ first ladies have been the subjects of many interesting analyses, Sefchovich’s pioneering work is the first of its kind to study Mexican first ladies. For an interesting comparison of Eva Perón and Imelda Marcos, see Leitner (1999), who “rejects the first lady model of the United States and seeks to proffer a new model, that of the ‘superesposa,’ which could better explain the actions of politically prominent wives of the executive in the Iberian world” (ii). See also Burrell (1997) and Caroli (1987). 22. A part of this research project included a comprehensive content analysis of how women are portrayed in the media, in terms of both story content and images. Although in this section I will only touch upon some of the main findings of that portion of the research, the complete analysis is presented in Rodríguez (forthcoming). 23. The story relates to the controversy surrounding the changes in the content of primary school textbooks instituted by Zedillo and his team, which caused strong opposition from the teachers’ union. In the end, the union succeeded in eliminating many of the changes, demanding the destruction of thousands of textbooks that had already been printed at a cost of several million dollars. 24. This tendency is not unusual. For example, Miller (1991: 131) describes the meager coverage allocated to the Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres (First Inter-American Women’s Congress), which took place in New York in 1947, and more significant, the fact that “The New York Times, which gave daily page-one coverage to the meeting of the inter-American ministers and heads of state, published a brief notice of the women’s meeting on August 19, on page 21 of the Women’s Section, under ‘Food’.” CHAPTER 6

11. This is a relatively new phenomenon in Mexico, but not in other parts of Latin America. One of the best cases to illustrate how women are affected by, and actively participate in, conservative movements is that of Chile. See Power (2002) and Bacchetta and Power (2002) for a worldwide perspective. 12. This apparently new association between the Catholic Church and Mexican (particularly PAN) politics is not actually new at all. Much earlier, in 1986, Francisco Barrio (now Fox’s comptroller) closed his gubernatorial campaign in Chihuahua by invoking God Almighty in his quest for a clean election (“Delante de todos hermanos y ante Dios todopoderoso, elijo el

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compromiso de que haré todo lo posible para que el voto sea respetado” [“Before all you brothers and God Almighty, I commit to do everything possible to ensure that the vote will be respected”] [Barrera Bassols 1989: 103]). 13. This proposal unleashed a national outcry and a sustained debate in all media, from television and radio call-in shows to the legislatures of practically every state. Although in the end the proposal was vetoed, it did serve to galvanize both pro-choice and anti-choice sympathies and made abortion a topic for open discussion. 14. Las mujeres y los jóvenes que votaron mayoritariamente por la idea del cambio, lo hicieron esperando coherencia progresista. 15. Although the office was small, it served important functions, including the review of legislation and proposals to study their impact on women. It also alerted women’s groups about forthcoming issues. The office arranged briefings and meetings with senior officials, including the president, on issues such as domestic violence, equal pay, bankruptcy, Social Security reform, and the like. While some women’s groups decried the closing of the office, others were pleased. A spokeswoman for Concerned Women for America, a group that says it works to “bring biblical values into public policy,” said she was “thrilled.” She went on to state that “that office was really just to promote a radical feminist agenda. There are other views that are finally getting a hearing in the White House” (Goldstein and Allen, Washington Post, 29 March 2001; see also Kornblut, Boston Globe, 28 March 2001). 16. The group was formed in 1992 by Republican women angered by the testimony of Anita Hill; it opposes the Violence Against Women Act and Take Our Daughters to Work Day (see Morin and Deane, Washington Post, 1 May 2001). 17. [E]n especial ha de ser ella la primera educadora en la fe, en una nación oficialmente atea que ha expulsado a Dios de la vida pública y de la educación. 18. [H]a de reconocer, amar y entregarse de lleno a la profesión de madre y corazón del hogar. . . . Ha de reconocer la superioridad de tal misión sobre cualquier otra. 19. [T]iene graves consecuencias en los niños, afecta las relaciones interpersonales, alienta el llamado amor libre, la homosexualidad, la prostitución, la promiscuidad, el aborto y en fin, la destrucción de la familia. 10. This lapse was called to the public’s attention because a few days earlier, also in celebration of International Women’s Day, a state congressman for the pan in Monterrey, in a misguided effort to compliment women, actually stated that they were ignorant and useless (“Son incapaces para manejar una regla de cálculo y no saben la marca o el modelo de su automóvil, pero sí recuerdan el vestido de su graduación” [“They are incapable of handling a calculus ruler and they do not know the make or model of their car, but they do remember their prom dress”]). The reaction from both the

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audience and the media was one of indignation. He later made an equally clumsy public apology (“Ante mi esposa y mi hija, pido perdón a todas las mujeres” [“Before my wife and daughter, I ask all women for forgiveness”] [Ruano, Reforma, 16 March 2001]). 11. [E]llas son el futuro del país y merecen tener acceso a todos los espacios de la vida pública. 12. [H]ay mujeres que se hacen inútiles e ignorantes, que buscan un marido que las mantenga, que les costeen y paguen su carrera profesional, que son dominantes y controladoras, que se llenan de hijos, que no se quieren superar.

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Abascal, Carlos, 249, 253 –256 abortion, 113, 125, 134, 151–152, 191, 240, 251, 252, 254, 277n. 3; in cases of rape, 194 –195; as an issue in the 2000 election, 216 Acosta, Mariclaire, 151–152 activism (among women): in the 1970s, 102 – 106; political, 55, 85, 95, 106; social, 48; waning of, in the 1950s, 94, 101 adelitas, 44, 89 Aeroméxico, 79, 264n. 9 affirmative action, 13, 122, 173 –174, 178, 207. See also quotas agrupación política nacional. See APN Agua Para Todos, 85 – 86 Aguascalientes, 34, 42, 199 Alemán, Miguel, 100 Alianza de Mujeres Mexicanas, 100 –101, 234 Alianza por el Cambio, 141, 248 Alvarado, Salvador, 95, 226n. 5

Alvarez, Blanca, 36, 43, 183, 224 Alvarez, Griselda, 6, 40, 154, 268n. 20, 275n. 16 Alvarez, María Elena, 36, 40, 119 –120, 133, 141, 226, 234, 260n. 5, 268n. 20 Amigas del Pueblo, 95 ANCIFEM. See Asociación Nacional Cívica Femenina Anderson, Hilda, 80, 192, 272n. 25 ANPI. See National Association for the Protection of Children antipoverty programs, 70 –73, 128, 189 APN, 17, 173, 217–224 Aranda, Ana Teresa, 128, 134 Archivo General de la Nación, 41 Arellano, Guadalupe, 152 Argentina, xviii, 20, 66, 175, 177, 232, 253 Arizpe, Lourdes, 151 Asamblea de Barrios, 108 Asamblea de Mujeres para la Transición Democrática, 171

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Asociación Mexicana de la Familia, 223 Asociación Nacional Cívica Femenina (ANCIFEM), 152, 267n. 13 Asociación Nacional de Protección a la Infancia, 126 Asociación Sindical de Sobrecargos de Aviación (ASSA), 78 –79 Austin conference (1995): 12 –14, 163, 179, 186, 195, 271n. 16; (1996): 12 –14, 179, 271n. 16 Authentic Labor Front. See Frente Auténtico del Trabajo Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution. See PARM Avila Camacho, Manuel, 99 –100 Baja California, 6, 101, 105, 199, 200; rape of girl in, 194 –195 Barquet, Mercedes, 151 Barrales, Alejandra, 79, 264n. 10 Barrio, Francisco, 275 –276n. 2 de Barrio, Hortensia, 128 Beijing Declaration, 175. See also United Nations Bennett, Vivienne, 85, 260n. 6,7 Berman, Sabina, 151 BIP. See Border Industrialization Program Bolado, Carmen, 268n. 20 Bolivia, 105, 176 border. See U.S.–Mexico border Border Industrialization Program (BIP), 67– 68 Botello, Consuelo, 164, 187, 241, 260n. 5 Bracero Program, 67 Brady Plan, 52 Brasdefer, Gloria, 241, 268n. 20 Bravo Mena, Luis Felipe, 183 Brazil, 31, 66, 73, 176 Brito, Esperanza, 114 Burgos, Leticia, 145 Bush, George W., 156, 215, 251, 274 – 275n. 13 cabildos, 181 Calderón, Felipe, 120 Calderón, Luisa María, 14, 145, 183 Calzada, Leticia, 228, 260n. 5 camarillas, 167–169, 270n. 12 campaigning, 225, 229 –232; spending limits on, 205 –206 Cárdenas, Cuauhtémoc: founding of PRD by, 34; as mayor of Mexico City, 20, 42, 124 – 125, 150, 200, 228; as a presidential candidate in 1988, 222, 268n. 15, 275n. 19; as

a presidential candidate in 2000, 214, 216, 217 Cárdenas, Lázaro, 44, 94, 98 –99, 116, 126, 200 Cárdenas Batel, Lázaro, 200 Carranza, Venustiano, 40, 44, 96 Carrasco, Diódoro, 233 Carrasco, Rosalba, 151 Carrera, Laura, 128, 221, 248, 260n. 8 Carrillo Puerto, Felipe and Elvia, 95, 97 Casa de la Mujer, 158 Casar, María Amparo, 151 casillas especiales, 205 Castillo, Laura Itzel, 260n. 8 Castillo Ledón, Amalia Caballero de, 100 – 101, 233 –234 Castillo Ledón, Luis, 233 Catholic Church/Catholicism, 98, 113, 194, 217, 249 –250, 253, 276 –277n. 2; youth organizations in, 43. See also Legionaires of Christ; Opus Dei; ProVida Causa Ciudadana, 134, 218 CD. See Convergencia por la Democracia CDP. See Comité de Defensa Popular CEDAW. See Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women Centro de Capacitación Política de la Mujer (Center for Women’s Political Training), 222 Centro de Información de Mujeres (CIMAC; Center for Information on Women), 241– 242 Centros Integrales de Apoyo a la Mujer, 125 Cepeda, Ana Lilia, 222, 241, 260n. 5 Cervera Pacheco, Víctor, 269n. 5 Chamber of Deputies, 172, 206, 234, 273n. 3; and the Abascal speech, 253 –254; after the 2000 election, 19 –20; opposition seats in, 202 –203; and sex crime legislation, 192 – 195; women in, 141–145, 180 –181. See also Congress Chamorro, Violeta, 162 Chapa, María Elena, 117, 131, 133, 167, 181– 182, 260n. 8 Chiapas, 33, 76, 132, 189, 215, 238, 266n. 4; Zapatista uprising in, xvi, 5, 53 Chihuahua, 8, 34, 83, 128, 189, 195, 200, 275 –276n. 2; opposition government in, 198 –200 child care. See day care children/child rearing, 37, 45, 58, 114, 121, 122, 126, 184, 191, 208, 217, 221; custody of, 97; employment of, 63; and hunger, 31 2

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112; on the street, 125. See also day care; family Chile, xviii, 21, 66, 131, 272n. 23; conservatism in, 253, 276n. 1 Christian Family Movement. See Movimiento Familiar Cristiano Cihuat, 105 CIM. See Consejo para la Integración de la Mujer CIMAC. See Centro de Información de Mujeres Citizen Cause. See Causa Ciudadana Ciudad Juárez, 65, 194 –195, 198, 200 Clinton, Bill, 54, 251 Clinton, Hillary Rodham, 153, 233, 235 El Closet de Sor Juana, 189 Clouthier, Leticia Carrillo viuda de, 120 CMC. See Congreso de Mujeres por el Cambio CNC. See Confederación Nacional Campesina CNOP. See Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares Coalición de Mujeres Feministas (Coalition of Feminist Women), 104, 105, 107 Coalición de Obreros, Campesinos, y Estudiantes del Istmo (COCEI; Coalition of Workers, Peasants, and Students of the Isthmus), 83 Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales (COFIPE), 171, 176, 204 –206, 218 Colegio de México, 107 Colima, 105, 154, 267n. 10; governorship of, 6, 40 Colombia, 96, 263n. 2 Colosio, Luis Donaldo, xvi, 53, 182, 215, 221, 275n. 17 Comisión de Equidad y Género, 138, 171, 172 Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres, 100, 132 Comité de Defensa Popular, 83 Committee on Gender and Equity. See Comisión de Equidad y Género communism/communists, 98, 202. See also PCM CONAMUP. See Coordinadora Nacional del Movimiento Urbano Popular Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM; Confederation of Mexican Workers), 74, 75, 79, 80, 116, 272n. 25 Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC), 35, 51, 116, 166

Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares (CNOP), 81, 116 Congreso del Trabajo, 51 Congreso de Mujeres por el Cambio (Congress of Women for Change), 186 Congreso Feminista Panamericano, 97–98 Congreso Nacional de Mujeres Obreras y Campesinas, 97–98 Congreso Restaurador de Colonos, 82 Congress, xvi, 5, 33, 43, 134, 170, 171, 188, 205, 248; and the Abascal speech, 254 – 255; organization of, 268 –269n. 1; parties in, 260n. 1; rape legislation in, 109, 115, 193; and the suffrage movement, 97–98; and the 2000 election, 182 –183; women in, 6, 20, 40, 79, 97, 101, 140 –146, 156, 166, 171, 179, 181, 183, 189, 249. See also Chamber of Deputies; Senate Consejo Consultivo (Advisory Board). See PRONAM Consejo Nacional de la Mujer, 133 Consejo para la Integración de la Mujer, 116, 186 Constitution, 100, 133, 204; amending of, 94, 101; of 1857, 93; of 1917, 74, 89, 90, 93, 95, 197, 266n. 6 Contraloría Social (Public Monitoring). See PRONAM Convención Nacional de Mujeres por la Democracia, 170 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, 271n. 21 Convergencia por la Democracia (Convergence for Democracy), 260n. 2 Coordinadora Nacional del Movimiento Urbano Popular (CONAMUP), 83 – 85, 108 Corona, Evangelina, 78 corruption. See fraud CRC. See Congreso Restaurador de Colonos Cristero rebellion, 250 CTM. See Confederación de Trabajadores de México Cuernavaca, 222 Dalton, Margarita, 113 DAWN. See Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era day care, 77, 112, 121, 127, 190, 217, 220, 254 Debate Feminista, 114 debt crisis. See economic crises Decade for Women. See United Nations: and the Decade for Women

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Decent School. See Escuela Digna dedazo, 270n. 11 De la A a la Z, 248 de la Cruz, Sor Juana Inés, xv, 44 de la Madrid Hurtado, Miguel, 50 –52, 75, 86, 107, 130, 198, 203, 263n. 2, 3 democracy/democratization, 15, 21–22, 25 –34, 76, 84, 151, 177, 218, 222, 256 – 257; reframing of, under Fox, 245 –257. See also Table 5.4 (212) Democratic Revolution Party. See PRD dependency theory, 69 Desarrollo Integral de la Familia. See DIF devaluation. See economic crises; peso Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, 91 Díaz, Porfirio, 41, 74, 95 DIF, 16, 43, 90, 126 –130, 134, 233, 268n. 18 discrimination (against women), 188, 229; against pregnant women, 115; in candidate selection, 227; education about, 102, 103; elimination of, 77, 121, 122, 125, 133, 135, 191, 220; in the workplace, 79 – 80, 146; worldwide, 225. See also sexism Diversa, 134, 149, 171, 173, 218 –222, 251 divorce, 36 –37, 59, 96, 262n. 15 doble jornada (double work shift, or double bind), 45, 48, 104, 113, 230 domestic violence, 58, 85, 116, 172, 184, 215, 216, 220, 231, 252, 272n. 26. See also violence against women drug smuggling, 50 Durango, 83, 198, 200 Duarte, Patricia, 134 Dzib, Raquel, 95 earthquakes, 43, 50, 78, 108 Echeverría Alvarez, Luis, 81, 102 –103 economic crises (in Mexico), 6, 8, 9, 48 – 55, 59, 74, 199, 215, 232; impact of, on women, 56 –58, 106 –108 economic theory, 69 –70 education, 46, 112, 125, 132, 137, 190; as an electoral issue, 48, 116, 122, 172, 191, 215, 216, 231–232; higher, 5, 102, 256, 262n. 17; levels of, among women, 36 –40, 168, 219, 222, 225; reforming, 45, 70, 71, 73, 121, 189 election: of 1986 (midterm), 199; of 1988, xvi, xvii, 109, 123, 182, 204, 221; of 1991 (midterm), 182, 204; of 1994, xvi, 114, 164, 188, 204, 208, 213, 228, 242; of 1997 (midterm), 182, 199, 206 –208, 211, 275n.

19; of 2000, 9, 10, 17, 19 –20, 32, 121, 131, 133, 163, 173, 177, 181, 182, 191, 208, 215 –219, 226 –227, 231, 234 –236, 240, 249 electoral process, 4, 16 –17, 27–28, 197–243, 271n. 23, 273nn. 2, 3. See also election; fraud Electoral Tribunal, 272 –273n. 5 employment (women’s), 8, 55 –56, 59, 60 –70, 216 Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres, 183 encuentros feministas, 107 Encuesta Nacional de Empleo (National Employment Survey), 60, 64, 263n. 4 Environment Ministry, 150 Escuela Digna, 71 Espinosa, Patricia, 80, 119, 134, 135, 182, 255, 267n. 13 Estrada Sámano, Rafael, 253 executive branch of government, 146 –153 family, 232, 262n. 16; planning, 113, 121, 231. See also children/child rearing; day care Family Violence Law. See Ley de Violencia Intrafamiliar FAT. See Frente Auténtico del Trabajo FDN. See Frente Democrático Nacional Federación Mexicana de Mujeres Universitarias, 41 Federal District, 20, 42, 124, 150, 153, 157, 183, 193, 202; 1997 election in, 200 –201. See also Mexico City Federal Electoral Commission, 204 Federal Electoral Institute. See Instituto Federal Electoral Federal Labor Law. See Ley Federal del Trabajo female-headed households, 8, 254 fem (magazine), 78, 105, 114 feminist(s), 47, 109 –110, 151, 175, 231, 247, 249, 265n. 2; congresses, 95 –98; criticism of, in Abascal speech, 253 –256; and Diversa, 149, 171, 219, 251; and the economic crisis, 106 –108; emergence of, 102 –110, 160 –161, 256; families of, 40, 42; in the grupos de reflexión, 7, 102 –103; heroes of, 44; in labor unions, 77–78; in Latin America, 266n. 8; in Mexico (distinctive brand of ), 16; organizations, 43, 90 –102, 110 –114, 127–128, 134, 187– 192, 218, 223, 224, 239; and “popular feminism,” 87, 108 –109, 111; scholars, 25, 28; and suffrage, 95 –102

31 4

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Fernández, Father David, 44 Fernández de Ceballos, Diego, 120 First Inter-American Women’s Congress. See Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres first ladies, 43 –44, 126, 127, 151, 152, 232, 235 –236 First Tribunal to Reconcile Motherhood and Work, 80 flight attendants’ union. See Asociación Sindical de Sobrecargos de Aviación Flores Hernández, Eugenia, 84 FNALIDM. See Frente Nacional por la Libertad y los Derechos de las Mujeres Foppa, Alaíde, 105 Fourth World Conference on Women. See United Nations Fox Quesada, Vicente, 73, 79, 141, 214, 216, 228, 248; and the Abascal incident, 253 – 256; administration of, and women, 9, 17, 127, 128, 153 –154, 221, 249; conservatism of, 249 –256; democratization under, 245; and the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres, 133 –135, 217; and Martha Sahagún, 151– 153, 235; presidency of, as a turning point in Mexican history, 19 –20, 163, 168, 198, 206; promises of, whether he can achieve, 32 –33, 262n. 13 FPTyL. See Frente Popular Tierra y Libertad France, 39, 67, 175, 177, 209, 271n. 18 fraud, 49, 50, 205, 221 free trade, 52, 264n. 7. See also NAFTA Frente Auténtico del Trabajo, 80 Frente Democrático Nacional, 268n. 15, 275n. 19 Frente Nacional por la Libertad y los Derechos de las Mujeres (FNALIDM), 106, 107 Frente Popular Tierra y Libertad (FPTyL), 83 Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer (FUPDM), 98 –100 From A to Z. See De la A a la Z Fuentes, Carlos, 67 Fuentes, Mario Luis, 128 FUPDM. See Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer GAD. See Gender and Development Galeana, Benita, 267n. 11 Galeana, Patricia, 41, 151 Galindo, Hermila, 95 –97 Galvez, Xóchitl, 151 Garavito, Rosalbina, 40, 141

García, Amalia, 14, 44, 141, 151, 185, 195, 226, 248, 260n. 5, 268n. 20; background of, 35, 40, 42; as a federal deputy, 170; image of, 124, 237; passage of rape law by, 190, 193; as president of the PRD, 6, 115, 123, 227; on quotas, 180 –183 García, Brígida, 268n. 20 García, Refugio (Cuca), 98, 99 García de Madero, Teresa, 120, 183, 202, 240 García Flores, Margarita, 100 garment workers, 78, 103, 108 GEM, 107 Gender and Development (GAD), 69 Gender and Equity Commission. See Comisión de Equidad y Género gender studies. See women’s studies GIRE, 107, 113, 188 Gobernación (Ministry of the Interior), 131, 133, 134, 205, 217, 233, 269n. 3, 273 – 274n. 5 Gómez Maganda, Guadalupe, 130 –131 Gómez Mont, María Teresa, 36, 43, 80, 260n. 5 González Molina, Concepción, 270n. 13 Gordillo, Elba Esther, 77, 141, 166, 239 Gore, Al, 215, 274 –275n. 13 Gran Comisión, 145 Granja Ricalde, Federico, 165 grassroots activism, 8, 15 –16, 28, 43, 92, 231, 256 Great Britain. See United Kingdom Green, Rosario, 118, 141, 150, 196 Green Party. See PVEM Grupo de Educación Popular con Mujeres (Group for Women’s Popular Education). See GEM Grupo de Información sobre Reproducción Elegida (Group for Information on Reproductive Choice). See GIRE Grupo Monterrey, 85, 86 Grupo Plural Pro-Víctimas, 195 grupos de reflexión, 7 Guadalajara, 14, 20, 34, 56 –57, 60, 183, 200 Guanajuato, 8, 34, 152, 198, 199, 228, 249, 273n. 1 Guerrero García, Javier, 166 Guzmán, Emilia, 35 health and health care, 73, 112, 121, 125, 137, 172, 184, 189, 191, 215, 220; as an electoral issue, 48, 116, 216, 231–232; improving access to and quality of, 45, 70, 71, 85, 132 Hermosillo, 198

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Hernández, Silvia, 145 Herrera, María Teresa, 151 Herrera, Sandra, 119, 120, 267n. 13 Hierro, Graciela, 268n. 20 Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, 95 housing, 48, 70 –72, 112 human rights, 21, 80, 81, 112, 133, 151, 174 – 175, 193 Human Rights Commission, 109 Ibarra de Piedra, Rosario, 43, 44, 147 IFE. See Instituto Federal Electoral import substitution industrialization, 49 Incháustegui, Teresa, 135, 248, 260n. 7 indigenous people, 5, 7, 128, 172, 207, 233, 238; agencies devoted to assisting, 134, 151; rights of, 98, 187, 189 inflation, 49 –51, 74, 106. See also economic crises informal economy, 63 – 66 Inmujer. See Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres INPI. See National Institute for the Protection of Children Instituto de la Mujer del Distrito Federal, 125 Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), 151, 204 – 206, 218, 223, 275n. 16 Instituto Nacional de la(s) Mujer(es) (Inmujer), 10, 131, 133 –136, 217, 255 Instituto Nacional de Protección a la Infancia. See National Institute for the Protection of Children Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 134 Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. See ITAM Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. See ITESM Integrated Centers for the Support of Women. See Centros Integrales de Apoyo a la Mujer Integrated Family Development. See DIF Inter-American Women’s Commission. See Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres International Labor Organization, 256 International Women’s Day, 117, 171, 216, 253, 277n. 10 Inter-Parliamentary Union, 16, 20 ISI. See import substitution industrialization Italy, 29, 209 ITAM, 38 ITESM, 38 Jalisco, 199 Jiménez, Patria, 146, 172, 189

Jiménez Palacios, Aurora, 6, 101 Juárez murders, 195 judicial branch of government, 153 –154, 206 Jusidman, Clara, 42, 124, 259 –260n. 4, 260n. 8 Kahlo, Frida, xv Labastida, Francisco, 117, 214, 216, 234 Labastida, María Teresa Uriarte de, 234 – 235 Labor Congress. See Congreso del Trabajo Labor Ministry, 131 labor unions, 6, 73 – 80, 91–92, 103, 191, 254, 264n. 8. See also under names of individual unions La Jornada, 123 Lamas, Marta, 42, 43, 111, 114, 128, 187, 219, 248, 260nn. 5,6,7, 265n. 2, 266n. 7, 275n. 16 Land and Liberty Popular Front. See Frente Popular Tierra y Libertad land rights, 81, 121 land titles, 59, 70 Latin America, xvii, 66, 76, 105, 232, 240, 266n. 8, 270n. 15; democratic transition in, 21, 30 –31, 246; Mexico’s relationship to, 49, 52; quotas in, 174, 176 –177; women’s political representation in, xviii, 20. See also Argentina; Brazil; Chile; Colombia; Mexico; Venezuela Law of Family Relations, 96 Law of Political Organizations and Electoral Processes. See Ley de Organizaciones Políticas y Procesos Electorales leadership, 161–167 Legionaires of Christ, 250 legislative branch of government, 140 –146. See also Chamber of Deputies; Congress; Senate Ley de Cupos, 176 Ley de Organizaciones Políticas y Procesos Electorales (LOPPE), 202 Ley de Violencia Intrafamiliar, 195 Ley Federal del Trabajo, 80, 172 liberation theology, 36, 43, 44 literacy, 5, 116, 132 Lombardo, Marcela, 147 López Obrador, Andrés Manuel, 150, 201 López Portillo, José, 49, 86, 106, 130, 142 LOPPE. See Ley de Organizaciones Políticas Electorales Loría, Cecilia, 14, 131, 133, 134, 135, 151, 248, 260n. 5, 266n. 6; as head of Causa 31 6

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Ciudadana, 134, 218; as an NGO leader, 36, 130 Lovera, Sara, 193, 240, 241 Luján, Berta, 43 Madero, Francisco I., 95 Madrazo, Roberto, 166 Manzanilla Schaffer, Víctor, 154, 269n. 5 maquiladoras, 8, 66 –70, 75 Martínez, Alicia, 111, 260n. 7 Martínez, Ifigenia, 34, 40, 213, 241, 268n. 15, 268n. 20 Martínez, Lorena, 180 Marxism, 41, 254 MAS. See Mujeres en Acción Sindical mayors. See municipal government media, 205, 206, 222, 254; images of candidates in, 235, 236 –242 Medina Plascencia, Carlos, 273n. 1 Mendoza, Margarita Robles de, 98 Mendoza, María Luisa “La China,” 275n. 16 mentoring, 163, 168 Mercado, Patricia, 131, 151, 188, 248, 260n. 5, 268n. 20, 275n. 16; background of, 36, 43; and Diversa, 134, 149, 219, 220 Mérida, 95, 164 –165, 186, 200, 201, 269n. 5 Mexican Autonomous Institute of Technology. See ITAM Mexican Association of the Family. See Asociación Mexicana de la Familia Mexican Federation of University Women, 41 “Mexican Miracle,” 49, 81– 82 Mexican Revolution of 1910, 40, 74, 136, 262n. 19; aftermath of, for women, 93 –95; role of women in, 16, 89, 256, 265n. 1 Mexican Women’s Parliament. See Parlamento de Mujeres (de México) Mexican Women’s Alliance. See Alianza de Mujeres Mexicanas Mexico: antipoverty programs in, 70 –73, 128, 189; democratization and liberalization in, xvii, 15, 21–22, 25 –34, 76, 84, 151, 177, 218, 222, 245 –257; economic crises in, 6, 8, 9, 48 –59, 74, 106 –108, 199, 215, 232; electoral process in, 4, 16 –17, 27–28, 197–243; informal sector in, 63 – 66; labor unions in, 73 – 80; policy agendas of women in, 184 –195; political attitudes in, 209 –211; presidential election of 1988 in, xvi, xvii, 109, 123, 182, 204, 221; presidential election of 1994 in, xvi, 114, 164, 188, 204, 208, 213, 228, 242; presidential election of 2000 in, 9, 10, 17, 19 –20, 32,

121, 131, 133, 163, 173, 177, 181, 182, 191, 208, 215 –219, 226 –227, 231, 234 –236, 240, 249; quotas in, 173 –184; urban popular movements in, 83 – 86; women of, in political parties, 114 –125; women’s movement in, 89 –136 Mexico City, 5, 8, 10, 34, 35, 42, 82, 84, 95, 158, 165, 233, 267n. 10; APNs in, 218; Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas as mayor of, 20, 200, 228; earthquakes in, 43, 50, 78, 108; economic crisis in, 50; election (1997) in, 200 –201; feminists in, 97, 102, 103 –104; household roles in, 59; NGOs in, 107, 112; Rosario Robles as mayor of, 7, 123, 150; U.N. conference (1975) in, 7, 21, 104 –105, 110, 130, 175, 192; victims of rape and sex crimes in, 193, 194; women politicians in, 38, 119, 169, 181; workers in, 63, 78, 154. See also Federal District Meyer, Lorenzo, 52 Michoacán, 98, 105, 200, 267n. 10 Mill, James, 23, 26 Mill, John Stuart, 23, 25 –26 Ministry of Fisheries, 149, 150 Ministry of Foreign Relations, 138, 149, 150 Ministry of the Interior. See Gobernación Ministry of Planning and Budget, 149 Ministry of Public Assistance, 126 Ministry of Public Education, 76, 149 Ministry of Social Development, 73, 151 Ministry of Tourism, 149, 150, 151 MLD. See Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia Monterrey, 20, 34, 38, 83, 189, 200, 205, 241, 277n. 10; water crisis in, 85 – 86 Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies. See ITESM Morelia, 200 Morelos, 44, 105, 155, 221, 222 Morelos Borja, Esperanza, 120 Moreno, María de los Angeles, 14, 34 –35, 37, 40, 42, 117, 145, 167, 268n. 20; as president of the PRI, 118, 168, 180, 190, 201, 239; in the Senate, 7, 145 Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 21, 253 Movimiento Familiar Cristiano, 267 Mujeres en Acción Sindical, 80 Mujeres en Acción Solidaria, 103 Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia (MLD), 109, 173, 218, 221–222, 241 Mujeres en Solidaridad, 71–73 Mujeres y Punto, 173, 218, 220 –221, 222, 275n. 17 317

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La Mujer Moderna, 96 municipal government, 157–160 Muñoz Ledo, Porfirio, 34, 268n. 15 NAFTA, xvi, 52, 53, 75, 267n. 7 National Action Party. See PAN National Archive. See Archivo General de la Nación National Association for the Protection of Children, 126 National Autonomous University. See UNAM National Confederation of Popular Organizations. See Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares National Congress of Workers and Peasant Women. See Congreso Nacional de Mujeres Obreras y Campesinas National Commission for Human Rights, 152 National Convention of Women for Democracy. See Convención Nacional de Mujeres por la Democracia National Coordinator of the Urban Popular Movement. See Coordinadora Nacional del Movimiento Urbano Popular National Democratic Front. See Frente Democrático Nacional National Employment Survey. See Encuesta Nacional de Empleo National Female Civic Association. See Asociación Nacional Cívica Femenina National Front for Women’s Rights and Liberty. See Frente Nacional por la Libertad y los Derechos de las Mujeres National Indigenous Institute. See Instituto Nacional Indigenista National Institute of Adult Education, 132 National Institute for the Protection of Children, 126 National Meeting of Women. See Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres National Network of Housewives. See Red Nacional de Amas de Casa National Peasant Confederation. See Confederación Nacional Campesina national political organizations. See APNs National Program for Women, 90 National Revolutionary Party. See PNR National Solidarity Program, 70 –73, 243, 263nn. 5,6; 274n. 7 National Union of Education Workers. See Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación

National Women’s Health Card, 132 National Women’s Institute. See Instituto Nacional de la(s) Mujer(es) National Women’s Program. See PRONAM National Workers’ Union, 79 Nava, Salvador and Conchita, 234 Navarro, Leticia, 151 navismo, 234 Nayarit, 199, 233 neighborhood associations, 81– 82 Netherlands, the, 20, 39, 147 Network against Violence Towards Women, 192 NGOs, 79 – 80, 107, 127, 130, 131, 170, 172, 175, 219, 247; as alternatives to formal channels of political power, 4, 28, 231; characteristics of members of, 36, 40, 42 – 44, 169; and the media, 239, 240; personal agendas of members of, 187–188; and the rise of “popular feminism,” 108 –109 Nieto, Carolina, 221 Nieto, Rafael, 266n. 4 Nineteenth of September Women’s Garment Union, 78, 108 Niños en Solidaridad, 71 nongovernmental organizations. See NGOs North American Free Trade Agreement. See NAFTA Nuevo Laredo, 158 Nuevo León, 8, 34, 117, 199, 240, 241 OAS. See Organization of American States Oaxaca, 8, 34, 35, 113, 233; women’s activism in, 76, 83, 105, 128, 158, 189 O’Farril, Carolina, 80, 172 oil industry, 49, 50, 51, 69 Olamendi, Patricia, 151, 268n. 20 Oñate, Santiago, 239 Opus Dei, 250 Organization of American States, 100, 132 Pacheco, Cristina, 275n. 16 pacts, economic, 51 PAN, xvi, 80, 141, 201, 205, 224, 234, 241, 275-276n. 20; and the Abascal speech, 254 –256; agendas of women in, 185 –187, 191; and Ana Rosa Payán, 40, 141, 164 – 165, 202; and Cecilia Romero, 34, 40, 43, 145, 152, 164; and DIFs, 128 –129; and the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres, 134 – 135; and Luisa María Calderón, 14, 145; and María Elena Alvarez, 49, 119, 120, 133, 141, 226; and Patricia Espinosa, 80, 134; performance of, in the 1980s and 31 8

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1990s, 5, 199 –200, 206; performance of, in 2000 election, 19 –20, 216; and polling, 213 –214; on quotas, 122, 172 –173, 179, 180, 182, 183; and religion, 249 –250; and Teresa Gómez Mont, 43, 80; and Vicente Fox, 33, 125, 217, 221, 228; views of, on women, 114, 123; women of, in public office, 36, 118 –121, 141, 144, 145, 151, 152, 155, 164, 165, 171, 237 Panamerican Feminist Congress. See Congreso Feminista Panamericano parastatals, 51, 52 Paredes, Beatriz, 14, 37, 40, 117, 141, 156, 226, 268n. 20, 269n. 3, 275n. 16; background of, 35, 42; as governor of Tlaxcala, 154; image of, 237; in leadership battle, 166 Parlamento de Mujeres de México, 138, 171–172 PARM, 227–228 Partido Acción Nacional. See PAN Partido Auténtico de la Revolucíon Mexicana. See PARM Partido de la Mujer Mexicana y la Familia, 222 –223 Partido Democracia Social. See PDS Partido de la Revolucíon Democrática. See PRD Partido Nacional Revolucionario. See PNR Partido Revolucionario Institucional. See PRI Party of the Mexican Woman and Family. See Partido de la Mujer Mexicana y la Familia Patronato de Promotores Voluntarios/Voluntariado, 127 Pavón, Laura, 268n. 20 Payán, Ana Rosa, 40, 120, 141, 186, 202, 260n. 5, 269n. 5; as political rival of Dulce María Sauri, 164 –165, 239, 270n. 10; on quotas, 180 PCM, 106, 187 PDS, 149, 216, 220 Pellicer, Olga, 268n. 20 Pelosi, Nancy, 140 Peniche, Beatriz, 95 Perón, Eva, 232, 276n. 21 Peschard, Jacqueline, 151 peso (Mexican currency), 49, 50, 52, 53, 107, 215 Pinos, Los, 54, 134, 152 PIRE. See Programa Inmediato de Recuperación Económica Plan de Igualdad (Plan for Equality), 171, 179 PNR, 98 –99, 101, 136 political elites, 41, 44

political patronage, 128, 129 political parties. See PAN; PARM; PDS; PNR; PRD; PRI; PRT; PT; PVEM Political Promotion of Women. See Promoción Política de la Mujer political wives. See spouses, political Poniatowska, Elena, 275n. 16 Portes Gil, Emilio, 126 Portillo, Lourdes, 195 Popular Defense Committee. See Comité de Defensa Popular “popular feminism,” 87, 108 –109, 111 “positive discrimination,” 173 –174 PPM. See Promoción Política de la Mujer PRD, xvi, 40, 79, 80, 114, 131, 135, 145, 150, 164, 227, 275 –276n. 20; agendas of women in, 185 –187, 191; and Amalia García, 6, 14, 40, 42, 115, 141, 151, 182, 190 – 191, 226, 237; and DIFs, 128 –129; electoral gains by, in recent years, 5, 19 –20, 199 –200, 216; founding of, 34, 275n. 19; and polling, 213 –214; and quotas, 172, 177, 178 –179, 180, 182, 183; and Rosalbina Garavito, 40, 141; and Rosario Robles, 123, 124; women of, in public office, 121– 125, 141, 144, 145, 150, 151, 155, 164, 170. See also Frente Democrático Nacional pregnancy examinations, forced, in the workplace, 80, 191, 216, 220 presidents, Mexican. See Cárdenas, Lázaro; Carranza, Venustiano; de la Madrid Hurtado, Miguel; Echeverría Alvarez, Luis; Fox Quesada, Vicente; López Portillo, José; Portes Gil, Emilio; Ruiz Cortines, Adolfo; Salinas de Gortari, Carlos; Zedillo Ponce de León, Ernesto PRI, 28, 52, 74, 75, 80, 81, 128, 135, 141, 192, 202, 216, 221, 227, 234, 240, 243, 254, 275 –276n. 20; agendas of women in, 185 – 188, 191; and Beatriz Paredes, 40, 117, 141, 156, 226; dominance and fall of, xvi, xvii, 5, 19 –20, 32, 141, 146, 198, 234, 250, 251; and Dulce María Sauri, 6, 40, 42, 115, 117, 145, 156, 164 –165; fraud and corruption within, 199, 205; and María de los Angeles Moreno, 14, 34 –35, 40, 117, 168, 190, 239; and polling, 213 –214; and quotas, 122, 172, 176, 179 –183; reform of, 203 –206; reorganization of PNR into, 98, 100, 101; threat to, posed by economic crisis, 53 –55, 102; views of, on women, 114, 123; women of, in public office, 115 – 118, 141, 144 –146, 155, 156, 164 –167, 171

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Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres, 276n. 24 Procuraduría General de la República, 154 Programa de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (Program for Education, Health, and Nutrition). See PROGRESA Programa Inmediato de Recuperación Económica (Program for Immediate Economic Recovery), 50 –51 Programa Nacional de la Mujer. See PRONAM Programa Nacional de Solidaridad. See National Solidarity Program Programa para la Participación Equitativa de la Mujer. See Promujer PROGRESA, 73 Promoción Política de la Mujer (PPM), 118, 120 Promujer, 125 PRONAM, 16, 90, 117, 130 –136, 150, 165, 217, 233, 268n. 20. See also Consejo Nacional de la Mujer PRONASOL. See National Solidarity Program proportional representation, 181, 182 –183, 201–203, 226, 272n. 23, 273nn. 2, 3 PRT, 106, 170 Pro-Victims Plural Group. See Grupo Plural Pro-Víctimas ProVida, 134 –135, 152, 195, 250 PSUM, 272n. 25 PT, 170, 171, 172, 187, 206, 228, 237, 254, 260n. 1 Puebla, 80, 116, 128 PVEM, 141, 145, 171, 201, 206, 207, 254, 260n. 1, 268n. 16 Querétaro, 199 Quota Law. See Ley de Cupos quotas, 10, 13, 16, 117, 122, 141, 170 – 171, 172, 173 –184, 207, 226 –227; in Argentina, xviii, 20, 176 Ramírez, Maricarmen, 233 rape, 105, 109, 115, 190, 192 –195, 249 reading and discussion groups. See grupos de reflexión recursos etiquetados, 217 Red Nacional de Amas de Casa, 221 reforms, political, 202 –206 reproductive rights/reproductive practices, 85, 104, 134, 185, 188, 189, 215, 216, 231, 249, 252. See also abortion

La Revuelta, 105 Richards, Ann, 13, 156 Rincón Gallardo, Gilberto, 149, 216, 220 Robles, Rosario, 42, 150, 180, 185, 202, 237, 248, 260n. 5; as mayor of Mexico City, 7, 123, 150 Roccatti, Mireille, 152 Roman Catholic Church. See Catholic Church/Catholicism Romero, Cecilia, 34, 40, 43, 120, 145, 164, 260n. 8, 268n. 20 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 25, 29 Ruiz Cortines, Adolfo, 94, 100 Ruiz Anchondo, Patricia, 35 –36 Sahagún, Martha, 151, 152, 235 Salinas de Gortari, Carlos, 143, 144, 165, 166, 192, 263n. 3, 270n. 10; antipoverty program of, 70, 71; and corruption, 222, 263n. 2; during economic crisis, 51–53; education of, 38, 39; election of, 182; on equality for women, 116 –117; fall from grace of, 168; political liberalization project of, 199; popularity of, xvi; relationship of, to labor, 75 Sánchez Anaya, Alfonso, 233 Sánchez Unzueta, Horacio, 234 San Luis Potosí, 97, 198, 234, 266n. 4 San Pedro Garza García, 202 Satellite Educational Television Distribution Network, 132 Sauri, Dulce María, 40, 117, 118, 145, 207; as governor of Yucatán, 154, 164 –165, 269n. 5; personal life of, 37, 42; as PRI president, 6, 115, 156, 183, 227; as PRONAM executive coordinator, 130 –132; as rival of Ana Rosa Payán, 231, 270n. 10 Scandinavian countries, 20, 174, 175, 180 Scherer, Clara, 128, 131, 233 sección femenil, 101 Secretaría de Desarrollo Social. See Ministry of Social Development Secretaría de Educación Pública. See Ministry of Public Education Secretaría de la Mujer (Women’s Secretariat), 131 SEDESOL. See Ministry of Social Development SEMARNAP. See Environment Ministry Senate, 7, 20, 141–145, 167, 171, 181, 195, 196, 204, 206, 234, 269n. 2, 271n. 21. See also Congress SEP. See Ministry of Public Education

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Sepúlveda, Alicia, 80 SERNAM, 131, 253 Serrano, Irma, 238 sex crimes, 109, 172, 192 –195. See also rape; sexual harassment; violence against women sex education, 96, 116 sexism, 45, 89, 122, 242. See also discrimination (against women) sexual harassment, 46, 80, 115, 146, 167, 172, 192, 240, 272n. 25 Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE), 75 –78, 276n. 23 Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI), 39 Social Democratic Party. See PDS socialism, 95, 98 social movements, 4, 6, 8, 81– 87, 157, 256, 264n. 11, 265n. 12 Sole Front for Women’s Rights. See Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer Solidarity. See National Solidarity Program Solidarity Children. See Niños en Solidaridad Sonora, 34, 220 Soto, Cecilia, 147, 163, 227–228, 237–239, 260n. 5, 268n. 20 Soto, Irene, 84 spouses, political, 34, 37, 43, 232 –236. See also first ladies squatter settlements, 81, 82 state offices, 154 –156 Stephen, Lynn, 84, 260n. 7 student movement/uprising of 1968, 42, 43, 74, 81, 102 Subsecretaría de la Mujer (undersecretariat in the Labor Ministry), 131–132 suffrage, women’s, 16, 26, 27, 90 –102, 197, 207, 234, 256, 266n. 6; in U.S., 24 Supreme Court, 153, 154 Sweeney, John, 79 Tamaulipas, 158 Tapia, Elena, 220 targeted resources. See recursos etiquetados Tarrés, María Luisa, 36, 260nn. 6, 7 teachers’ union. See Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación Teléfonos de México (TELMEX), 52 telenovelas, 240 Telephone Workers’ Union, 80 Tlatelolco massacre, 203 Tlaxcala, 34, 35, 199, 233 “Toallagate” (Towelgate), 153, 269n. 4 Toluca, 34

Torre, Rosa, 95 Tribunal Electoral, 206 UNAM, 34 –35, 37–40, 107, 168, 270n. 12 unemployment, 54, 66, 74 United Kingdom, 39, 67, 147, 174, 209, 226 United Nations, 16, 100, 140, 176, 219, 222, 252; and the Decade for Women, 7, 21, 105; and the 1975 Mexico City conference, 104 –105, 110, 175, 192; and the 1980 Copenhagen conference, 192; and the 1995 Beijing conference, xvi, 9, 24 – 25, 110, 130, 174 –176, 177; and the 2000 Beijing-Plus-Five meeting, 175, 252, 271n. 17 United States, 24, 39, 57, 67, 95, 155, 199, 215, 225, 235; conservatism in, 251–252; during Mexican economic crisis, 49, 52, 54; political attitudes in, 209 –211; voting behavior in, 228 –229; women’s movement in, 105, 170; women of, in public office, xvi, 20, 139 –140, 154, 158, 167, 184, 230 –232, 236 –237. See also U.S.–Mexico border Universidad Iberoamericana, 38 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University). See UNAM Uruapan, 158 U.S.–Mexico border, 8, 65, 67–70 Valdés de Rojas, Laura, 151 Valdés Vega, María Eugenia, 77 Vázquez Mota, Josefina, 134, 151 Velázquez, Fidel, 74, 75, 79 Vélez-Ibáñez, Carlos, 82 Venezuela, 176, 247 Veracruz, 34, 105, 255 Vicencio Tovar, Abel, 234 violence against women, 104, 112, 121, 167, 170, 189, 192 –195, 272n. 25. See also domestic violence; rape; sexual harassment Virgin of Guadalupe, xv, 217, 249 “voluntary maternity,” 105, 106 voting, 109, 114, 207–217. See also electoral process Water for Everyone. See Agua Para Todos welfare, 63, 106, 126, 128, 191 WID. See Women in Development wives of politicians. See spouses, political Woldenberg, José, 275n. 16 Workers’ Party. See PT

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World Bank, 53, 54, 72 Women, Period. See Mujeres y Punto women: antipoverty programs targeted at, 70 –73; building of alliances by, 169; career paths of, 6, 39; characteristics of, in this study, 36 –46; and the CONAMUP, 83 – 86; conservative backlash against, in Mexico, 249 –256; discrimination against, in the workplace, 79 – 80; during and after the Mexican Revolution, 16, 89, 93 –95, 256, 265n. 1; effects of economic crisis on, 59; and the electoral process, 197–243; exclusion of, in Latin American literature, 30 – 31; in the executive branch, 146 –153; in the Fox cabinet, 151–153; governorships held by, 201; as heads of households, 56 – 58; image of, 236 –242; in the judiciary, 153 –154; leadership styles of, 161–167; in the legislative branch, 140 –146; marginality of, in formal politics, 21–22, 246 –249; as mentors, 163; in municipalities, 157– 160; in neighborhood associations, 82; as participants in civil society, 29 –30; percentages of, in Mexican government, 20; in NGOs, 110 –114; as political competitors, 164 –167; policy agendas of, 184 – 195; prominence of, in policymaking process, 4, 6 –7; in political parties, 114 –125; in public office, behavior of, 160 –173; in public office, statistics on, 138 –160; in the public sphere, 47–48; and quotas, 173 – 184; sexual objectification of, 238, 240; social activism of, 8, 48; suffrage for, 93 – 102; in unions, 73 – 80, 264n. 8; as voters, 207–217; and what they expect from the state, 33 –34; and the women’s movement, 16, 89 –136; in the workforce, 8, 55 –56, 59, 60 –70, 146, 172, 262n. 18 Women for Solidarity Action. See Mujeres en Acción Solidaria

Women in Action in Labor Unions. See Mujeres en Acción Sindical Women in Development (WID), 69 Women in Solidarity. See Mujeres en Solidaridad Women Struggling for Democracy. See Mujeres en Lucha por la Democracia Women’s Assembly for the Democratic Transition. See Asamblea de Mujeres para la Transición Democrática Women’s Institute of the Federal District. See Instituto de la Mujer del Distrito Federal women’s movement in Mexico, 16, 89 –136 Women’s Parliament. See Parlamento de Mujeres Women’s Regional Council of CONAMUP, 84 – 85 women’s rights, 80, 118, 133, 189. See also feminist(s) “Women’s Rights to Labor, Education, and Health,” 172 Women’s Secretariat. See Secretaría de la Mujer women’s sector. See sección femenil “Year of the Woman,” 156 Yucatán, 95, 97, 155, 164 –165, 186, 239 Zacatecas, 35, 199 –200 Zapatista uprising, xvi, 5, 53 Zavala, Margarita, 120, 183, 267n. 13 Zedillo Ponce de León, Ernesto, 143, 233, 275n. 14, 276n. 23; appointment of women by, 138; cabinet of, 242; creation of PRONAM by, 117, 130; and economic crisis, 53 –54; education of, 38, 39; relationship of, to labor, 75, 77; reorganization of judicial system by, 153; as Secretary of Education, 239 Zendejas, Adelina, 101

32 2