Women in Mexican Politics: A Study of Representation in a Renewed Federal and Democratic State

by Fernanda Vidal Correa

Overview

This book offers an analysis of how women's participation is conducted in Mexico´s political sphere. Federalization and decentralization processes can have a significant impact on women’s participation and discrimination. By questioning the form in which a democratic state is built (that is, the degree of (de)centralization) the book looks to a set of forms and processes affecting women’s political life. A decentralized form of state-government implies three levels of government in which women (or any other group of people) can have active participation: central-federal government, state-regional-province government, and local (municipalities) government. This book offers an analysis of how gender discrimination operates in a different way in each of these levels of government and the corresponding political activity. Policies that fight against gender discrimination and promote women's participation, in both administration and political parties, do not always operate cooperatively, and often exist in contradiction with each other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498534390
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/12/2016
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	6.16(w) x 9.41(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Fernanda Vidal Correa is a research fellow at Panamerican University.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: The Representation of Women in Mexican States: An Introduction to the Research
Chapter 2: Pathways to Gender Parity: Federal And Local Amendments, Future Judicial Reviews
Chapter 3: Political Parties and the Representation of Women
Chapter 4: The Informal System: Political Networks, Clientelism and Political Capital
Chapter 5: Women’s Conditions in Mexican State Politics
Glossary
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

This book focuses on the challenges that women participation in the political management of all the states of Mexico face, even in today´s legal context which tends to establish parity between men and women. The researcher rigorously demonstrated, using newly acquired data and semi-structured interviews, how social practices, informal political processes and socioeconomic conditions, affected the participation of women in local politics. Her interviewees suggested that discrimination against women in the distribution of nominations is exacerbated by the role of women in party networks, in their lack of monetary independence; short political careers; lack of seniority within the parties; the intricate road they have to travel to construct their own political capital and, in some cases, the domestic violence they endure. This book is essential for those who are seriously committed with the struggle against inequities.

Silvia Berger

Fernanda Vidal raises critical questions that have long concerned those of us invested in understanding the effects on women's empowerment brought by the newly acquired democratic life in Mexico. How do federal institutional designs relate to or influence women's political participation? How have political parties influence women's path towards politically successful positions? And, what do cultural and gendered stereotypes have meant for women's political careers? Fernanda's book is also for anyone concerned with Latin American politics and gendered institutional designs, male dominated networks supporting patriarchal and clientelist systems, and women's political pathways in federally designed politics.

Alicia Girón

Women in Mexican Politics provides an original and timely study showing how much there is to learn from the experiences of women involved in Mexican political parties and politics. Through interviews and quantitative analysis, Vidal Correa tackles the thornier issues of gender quotas and parity, and documents at a time of major political party turmoil how women have become central to every level of political participation in Mexico. This is a significant contribution to understanding political transformations relevant to scholars of gender and democracy in general.

Matthew Gutmann

Fernanda Vidal raises critical questions that have long concerned those of us invested in understanding the effects on women's empowerment brought by the newly acquired democratic life in Mexico. How do federal institutional designs relate to or influence women's political participation? How have political parties influence women's path towards politically successful positions? And, what do cultural and gendered stereotypes have meant for women's political careers? Fernanda's book is also for anyone concerned with Latin American politics and gendered institutional designs, male dominated networks supporting patriarchal and clientelist systems, and women's political pathways in federally designed politics.

Alicia Girón