Mexico

Lauren Rachel Canales

Professor Adrianne Brown

WST 250

10/15/13

How Religion and Culture affect Woman in Mexico

In this blog assignment I will be addressing how religion, politics and culture has affected women in Mexico and their reproductive rights. I will be including information that describes some of Mexico’s past and present and how women have had to live and are living with today. I also want to better understand and describe the culture of Mexico and how the “machismo” has been an issue for women. I will also be talking about the violence that women go through in Mexico.

In Mexico, an issue that woman have been struggling with is gender equality with the Catholic Church and politics. President Juarez was the one who had declared the separation of church and state in the mid-19^th century. This is an issue because some woman have opposing views with the Catholic Church in Mexico. Woman have been trying to fight over their reproductive rights, since the 1970’s. They were wanting “access to modern methods of contraceptives.”¹ It wasn’t until some feminist women in universities started protesting, and in 1988 Cuauhtémoc Cardenas “was the first presidential candidate to include some of the feminist claims in his electoral agenda”² but he sadly for woman, he was defeated. Though before that, the Church still has had a major influence on laws, when there still should be a separation. “[I]n 1972 the Church called for reduced family size, and has promoted family planning clinics and education programs.”³ Even today in Mexico, the Catholic Church still dictates the laws for woman and their health. “Abortion continues to be allowed only in cases of rape, health conditions, or fetal defects, except in Mexico City, where it was legalized in 2005.  Today as well artificial birth control and abortion are prohibited by the Catholic Church; these prohibitions have serious societal and economic repercussions.”⁴

Today, Mexican politics has become more religiously conservative since the National Action Party (PAN) claimed the presidency in 2000 and again in 2006.” We can see that religion does play a major role in woman’s life whether they like it or not. Even if they have tried to speak out Mexico continues to be more reserved about woman’s rights and their reproductive health.  One significant thing that has occurred recently is that in the State of Mexico City, Mexico in 2007. “[L]egislature passed landmark legislation decriminalizing elective abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.”⁵ So this has been a great first step to improving and addressing reproductive rights as well as woman’s rights. The law even included “sexual education curriculum in schools and called for widespread access to contraceptive methods.”⁵ Though it seems to be that there is always a push-back and woman and their rights are being challenged.

The roles that Mexican woman have played are what we have seen in the United States, it’s has taken years and battles and today woman are seeing better results and a way of living. Though it this wasn’t the case. Woman in Mexico, too were seen as the typical house wife and were not allowed to work or have a say in politics. These women do not just want to live at home and do domestic house work and take care of their husbands too. They want to be more than a wife and be seen just as important as a man. For example they were not giving the right to vote until1953. Yet, one of the most troubling thing that woman in Mexico have to face is men having to have full power and control over everything. They call it machismo: ”an attitude, quality, or way of behaving that agrees with traditional ideas about men being very strong and aggressive.”⁶ So Gender roles are very vivid in their everyday lives, where woman have to obey their husbands/men figures in their lives, and men get to do as they please. The problem of this is that those woman who do depend on men, then depend on men their whole lives and so what we tend to see then is that these woman depend on their fathers, brothers, then their husbands, sons and son-in-laws. So some of these woman don’t get to see past what these male influencers tell them and show them. So some of these woman have not been aware that they too, like men have rights and have the right to their own life and decisions. Though over the years we are seeing woman get out of this cultural tradition and try to take on independent roles such as getting higher paying jobs, careers, and ultimately not letting a man dictate their lives, but better yet we are now seeing woman take on these leading and executive positions just like any man. Yet once again I seem to keep jumping back and forth with the role that women have in Mexico.

Today we are seeing more violence against women in Mexico. The “Mexican National Institute of Women suggest that 45 percent of women in the country suffer some form of violence in their lives.”⁷ One of the biggest issues that have arose is the disappearance and murders of more than 500 girls and women in the last 12 years in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City.⁸ This is has been considered a national problem now as well. There has been many cases were you hear of women going to or trying to leave Mexico and disappear and this has been because of the gang and drug lords that have invaded and is controlling the boarder. They snatch the women and rape them, holding them hostage and asking for a ransom, and also pursing to kill most of the women that they take. This is why we are seeing less people wanting to travel to Mexico and less people wanting to cross the border like they always have to visit Mexico. The military is more active than ever trying to not only capture the drug lords but to protect these women so they aren’t captured.

Over all women in Mexico have been dealing with many issues since the mid-19^th century. Whether it’s been women trying to have a voice and be able to be a part of a political movement these woman do not want to be left unseen in the shadows of men. These woman too want more freedom to be able to express themselves the way they want to. It doesn’t seem fair that the Catholic Church is still a very huge influence in Mexico today that has more of a voice than women do. These women should have more equal rights as men, now that we are seeing more women holding higher career titles. I also believe that there should be some type of program and gathering were they can teach men about their machismo because that too is what is influencing women in the other direction and how more women experience domestic violence. It’s also important to look into what more the Mexican government and military can do about the disappearances and murders of women by the border.

Works Cited

1./2.  Maria Consuelo Mejia, et al. "Politics, Religion And Gender Equality In Contemporary Mexico: Women's Sexuality And Reproductive Rights In A Contested Secular State." Third World Quarterly 31.6 (2010): 989-1005. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

3. "World Savvy Monitor." World Savvy Monitor. 2013 World Savvy Monitor, 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

4. Samuelson, Ruth. "Church and State in Mexico: A Political Party Wavers on Women's Rights | Politics | Religion Dispatches." ReligionDispatches. Religion Dispatches 2013, 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

5. Becker, Davida, and Claudia Díaz Olavarrieta. "Decriminalization Of Abortion In Mexico City: The Effects On Women's Reproductive Rights." American Journal Of Public Health 103.4 (2013): 590-593. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

6. "Machismo." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013

7. "In Mexico, Women's Advocates Make Slow but Steady Gains against Violence." In Mexico, Women's Advocates Make Slow but Steady Gains against Violence. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.

8. Seager, Joni, and Joni Seager. "Murder." The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World: Completely Revised and Updated. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. N. pag. Print.