Editorials & Other Articles

No Latin American country has passed more reforms expanding women’s representation than Mexico. In 1996, the country started with a measure recommending that at least 30 percent of political parties’ legislative candidates be women. In 2002, it became compulsory, and by 2008, the quota level rose to 40 percent. A 2014 amendment upped the level to gender parity for candidates for federal and local legislative seats. Along the way, a network of women from across civil society, academia, media, and government worked strategically to win support and close loopholes that made it easy for parties to run women candidates in districts they were likely to lose anyway or swapping a man into a post after a woman wins a seat. Mexican women went from having single-digit representation in the national congress 30 years ago to holding an equal number of seats today.

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