Nine Mexican Women Fight Stereotypes in their Printmaking
Feminism in Mexico is often divided chronologically into peak periods followed by lulls: the Revolutionary period (1915-1925), the Second Wave (1968-1990, peaking in 1975-1985), and the post-1990 period.[1] While feminism may be defined as a set of organized philosophy and activity aimed at creating, defining, and protecting political, economic, cultural, and social equality in women’s rights and opportunity,[2][3] Marta Lamas and other feminists caution that the women's movement in Mexico can not be equated with the feminist movement.[4] Lamas, a leading Mexican feminist, laments that the Mexican feminist movement has always been weak and has struggled in the modern era to move beyond Mexico City's middle class to working-class and rural women.[5] In the Revolutionary period where a broader spectrum of women from throughout Mexico were seeking suffrage, the movement lacked sophistication and focus, evident in the fact that Mexican women did not gain the vote until 1953.[6] Women's equality demands, per Lamas, stem from a situation where women are juggling between household commitments and underpaid jobs. As most Mexican women in the upper and middle classes are provided with domestic help, women are more accepting of traditional gender roles.[7] For many Mexican women, assisting other women through benevolent organizations and charitable works is in-line with their traditional view of womanhood, whereas a radical approach might meet with disdain or even violence.[8]
The level of education one has attained has played a large part in Mexican feminism. Schoolteachers, in most cultures, are some of the first women to enter the work force and the same was true in Mexico.[6] Many of the early feminists who emerged from the Revolution were teachers either before or after the war,[9] as were the participants of the Primer Congreso Feminista, the first feminist congress in Mexico.[6] The participants in the Mexico 68 clashes who went on to form that generation's feminist movement were predominantly students and educators.[10] The advisers who established themselves within the unions after the 1985 earthquakes were educated women who understood the legal and political aspects of organized labor. What they realized was that to form a sustained movement and attract working class women, they needed to utilize worker's expertise and knowledge of their jobs to meld a practical, working system.[11]
Because Mexico was dominated by one political party for 71 years, women's roles as mothers was politicized, marginalizing the political involvement of feminism to a great degree before 2000.[12] This narrow view of women often put feminist goals at odds with activities that they also supported. For example, both state run and national programs, likeDIF, offer welfare assistance and food supplements to low income women. To receive the benefits, the government requires women to take classes in domestic skills. Programs target skill programs that tie women to domesticity or are low-skill without evaluation as to whether those programs are appropriate or needed in the local marketplace. The systemic "blindness" with regard to the official recognition of women's roles allows women no input in the programs designed to help them, nor recognition of the achievements they have made from organizing and agitating for change.[13]
As of the most recent Gender Gap Index measurement of countries by the World Economic Forum in 2014, Mexico is ranked 80th on gender equality.[14]
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