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

Product Description 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. Review 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, UNAM 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, IAFFE, President-Elect 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, Brown University About the Author Fernanda Vidal Correa is a research fellow at Panamerican University.