Women in Mexican Politics

A Study of Representation in a Renewed Federal and Democratic State

By (author) Fernanda Vidal Correa

Publication date:

12 December 2016

Length of book:

140 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

239x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498534390

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.

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

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.