An inclusive law
After a long fight, Mexican women are finally seeing the fruits of a series of political reforms that sought the election of more female lawmakers.
The fight began in the middle of the last century when women demanded their voting rights as citizens.
Shortly thereafter, women were elected as federal and state lawmakers, as well as city mayors. But the benefits of those reforms in making the country more inclusive were not sufficient.
A few years ago Mexican politicians decided to open the public arena to more females by introducing and enacting a new law that forced political parties to register candidates of both genders equally.
Back in 1991 both chambers in Mexican Congress were overwhelmingly dominated by men. That year the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies had more than 92 percent men, the highest percentage of the last three decades. Slowly, but mainly due to pressure from women organizations, the percentage began to decrease for the next 25 years. Nevertheless, female representation never crossed the 20 percent mark in the upper chamber and 30 percent in the lower one.
Six years ago, the state of things began its transformation. Male representation dropped below the 70 percent threshold for the very first time in this country’s history. The Senate had 67 percent male membership, and the other chamber descended even more, to 63 percent. And after the midterm elections of 2015, that percentage went even lower, to 57.4 percent.
But this year’s elections results showed how effective the new law really is. Although Mexican Congress will have a slight male majority, both chambers will turn a lot more equal. Male membership in the Upper Chamber will be only 51 percent, while the lower one will be at 52 percent starting September.
In 2016 the number of women in the Baja California Assembly, increased to eight out of 25 members, while at the Mexicali City Council, seven of its 15 members are women.
On this side of the border a totally different story has been written, politically speaking. Our local lawmakers are all male. Our latest female representatives were Denise Moreno-Ducheny in the State Senate and Bonnie García in the Assembly. Our Board of Supervisors has not had a single woman for many years, and the Imperial Irrigation District is about to lose one of its two female board members.
In the United States it would be very difficult to enact an equality law like the Mexican one for several reasons. First, we have a different election system. While Mexican political parties can nominate candidates without primary elections, U.S. state laws are not uniform. Second, given the recent political climate in the United States, emulating a Mexican law likely would be ill received, especially within the conservative circle. And last but certainly not least, our male-dominated democracy would not be interested in losing ground for the benefit of their female counterparts.
In order to change American law women organizations would need a huge lobbying effort, tons of patience and, paradoxically, the willingness of men.