Women

It is impossible to speak of Mexican women as a homogenous entity, even though all women in the country bear the weight of different forms of machismo, from the most blatant to the most subtle. Regional heterogeneity, economic differences, rural or urban residence, age, and ethnic identity shape the various ways in which women experience being women, have access to education and paid employment, and engage in politics.

If in the first half of the twentieth century it was the mechanical tortilla mill that changed women’s lives, in the second half it was increased access to education. Parents became increasingly willing to make sacrifices for their daughters’ education since, with expanded employment opportunities for women, education increased their daughters’ economic security in life and their productive capacity in both rural and urban settings.285

During the last thirty years of the twentieth century, the average educational level for women increased from 3.2 years to 7.3 years. For the entire age range between six and nineteen years, a higher percentage of females were enrolled as students than males. Women increasingly entered formerly male-dominated fields. For example, they constituted more than 50 percent of medical school enrollment. Education not only increased women’s employment opportunities but was the factor most closely correlated with lower infant mortality and lower fecundity.286

The three main areas of female employment are services, with 5.5 million workers, commerce with 3.2 million, and industry with 2.6 million. Women now constitute some 40 percent of the

5.4 million professionals working in Mexico. Some 63 percent of teachers are women, as are 54.7 percent of sales workers. The majority of those employed in assembly plants known as maquiladoras are women. They are preferred there since they are willing to work for lower wages than men and are perceived to be less likely to join a union, more manually dexterous, and better able to tolerate the monotony of repetitive assembly work. Women with limited education seek maquiladora employment since such work is better paid than alternatives commonly available to them in farm labor, domestic service, and market vending. An increasing number of jobs opened for women in agriculture since emigration depleted the male labor force and the export of fruit, vegetables, and flowers increased employment opportunities. Such agricultural employment, though, is hardly liberating, since women occupy dead-end positions, receive low wages, and work long hours in poor conditions.287

A majority of those working in the informal sector are women. The informal sector offers women a flexible work schedule, low entry cost, and the opportunity to fulfill household obligations while earning an income. Women in the informal sector make clothing, prepare foods, and manage one-person businesses with limited capital. A substantial number of women also work as domestics. Many of the job opportunities of more affluent women are made possible by the availability of inexpensive domestic labor to maintain their households. Writer Rosario Castellanos observed that cheap domestic labor had dampened radical feminism in Mexico. She declared, “When maids. . . disappear, radical feminists will appear.”288

Paralleling women’s increased entry into the formal labor force, women have assumed an increased role in the formal political process, traditionally the domain of a small male elite. The number of women serving in the Chamber of Deputies reflects this. In 1952, its first woman member constituted 0.6 percent of that body. By the 2003—2006 session, women comprised 23 percent of the Chamber. The 2006 election reversed the upward trend in women’s representation, as the number of deputies fell from 115 to 113 and the number of senators from twenty-four to twenty-two. In other political arenas, women’s progress has not been as great. In early 2007, only one woman, Amalia Garcia in Zacatecas, served as governor. Of the 2,435 municipalities in Mexico, only eighty-six had a woman mayor.289

Despite these slow gains, as political scientist Victoria Rodriguez noted, “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 women in politics and to promoting women’s causes.” Rodriguez also noted that the question was still open as to whether women would change the system or attempt to fit into the old one. In some cases, the presence of women has led to qualitative change. For example, women in Congress pushed through legislation increasing the penalties for sex crimes. In any case, the primary alliance of women voters is not defined by gender. Women voters do not tend to favor women candidates. In 1997, 52 percent of registered voters were women, but only 17 percent of the members of the Chamber of Deputies were.290

The single greatest obstacle to legalization of abortion has been the adamant opposition of the Catholic Church. Joining the Church is a well organized group opposing abortion known as

Pro-Vida (Pro-Life), best known for ferreting out and denouncing clandestine abortion clinics. Mexican politicians by and large resist supporting a liberalization of abortion legislation since they do not want to be stigmatized by the Catholic Church.291

The first major shift in abortion policy came in 2007, when the PRD-dominated Legislative Assembly of the Federal District voted to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, a measure that affected only the Federal District. Pope Benedict XVI publicly condemned the bill, as did Felipe Aguirre Franco, archbishop of Acapulco, who declared lawmakers who voted for the bill would be automatically excommunicated. Demonstrators marched in the streets to express their views, pro and con. A marcher opposed to legalization carried a placard with an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the slogan: “You killed one of my children! Are you going to kill more?” A supporter countered with a sign declaring, “Keep your rosaries off my Ovaries.”

Rather than signaling a trend toward legalizing abortion, the Federal District legislation created a backlash. Twelve states passed constitutional amendments declaring that the fertilized human egg is a person and therefore is protected by the constitution. Abortion remained illegal in other Mexican states.293

Despite the illegality of abortion up until 2007, between 500,000 and 1 million abortions occurred annually. Roughly 1,500 women died each year from illegal abortions, making abortion the third most common cause of maternal mortality. Providing illegal abortions generated an estimated $100 million a year in revenue. As with so many other aspects of Mexican life, it is poor women who suffer most from the lack of legal abortions. Affluent women are able travel to the United States or find a physician to perform an abortion, while the less affluent face much more risky options when they seek a back-street abortion.