Coluna Visions of Law

“Nothing has really happened until it has been described”

Viginia Woolf

It will never be possible to understand an authentic Mexican democracy without female participation in elections. Therefore, it is important to understand what the history of women consists of in order to understand the challenges they face today, especially regarding political violence against women.

History has shown that women have always faced many challenges to be acknowledged as equal citizens. The process to gain equality has left women struggling with the governmental dispositions and social conventions of their time.

Victory was lengthy and took decades. Societies must realize that global legal protection of women´s political rights have only started developing in the 20^th and 21^st century.

In Mexico, the first step to recognize women´s rights took place on October 17^th, 1953, when the Congress granted women the right to vote. Even though women comprised a little more than half of the population in the 1950´s (INEGI: Men 49.2%; Women 50.8%) they were not allowed to participate in the country’s political matters. Today, Mexico has a population of around 126,014,024 inhabitants, and the percentual distribution is still mostly feminine. (INEGI, 2020: Men 48.8%; Women 51.2%).

Nowadays, we have a strong regulatory framework. Nevertheless, we can notice that the violence against women (VAW) has not been eradicated yet due to social, political, and economic issues, for instance:

1. the lack of support from society, government, and judiciary;

2. the insufficient implementation of law that does not deal strictly with criminal offenders creating impunity; and,

3. the limited or marginal role of importance that society assigns to women.

One of the most serious barriers to women’s leadership and full participation is violence against them in politics and public life. Thus, it creates, sustains, and reinforces women's subordination.

Even though gender-based violence (GBV) would never be justifiable, we can perceive that the percentages of intimidation and the psychological, sexual and physical attacks against women has not only remained but also increased. This situation takes place since gendered motives come out when perpetrators use violence to preserve hegemonic men’s control.

Mexico is a male chauvinistic society where we can observe how people stimulate gender roles to differently mold men’s and women’s life experiences. In addition, it is disturbing to see how violence can be gendered in multiple and various ways against women.

Violence against women is a wider societal problem which constitutes serious violation of human rights, this strongly undermines women’s ability to fully participate in all aspects of life. Violence against women impedes each country´s progress towards sustainable development, therefore it is the responsibility of every nation to lead and require permanent solutions for GBV.

In conclusion, all nations and societies must prevent and eradicate violence against women. It is essential to ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life.