Feminism in Mexico

Feminism in Mexico is the philosophy and activity aimed at creating, defining, and protecting political, economic, cultural, and social equality in women's rights and opportunities for Mexican women.[1][2] Rooted in liberal thought, the term feminism came into use in late nineteenth-century Mexico and in common parlance among elites in the early twentieth century.[3] The history of feminism in Mexico can be divided chronologically into a number of periods with issues. For the conquest and colonial eras, some figures have been re-evaluated in the modern era and can be considered part of the history of feminism in Mexico. At the time of independence in the early nineteenth century, there were demands that women be defined as citizens. The late nineteenth century saw the explicit development of feminism as an ideology. Liberalism advocated secular education for both girls and boys as part of a modernizing project, and women entered the workforce as teachers. Those women were at the forefront of feminism, forming groups that critiqued existing treatment of women in the realms of legal status, access to education, and economic and political power.[4] More scholarly attention is focused on the Revolutionary period (1915–1925), although women's citizenship and legal equality were not explicitly issues for which the revolution was fought.[5] The Second Wave (1968–1990, peaking in 1975–1985) and the post-1990 period have also received considerable scholarly attention.[6] Feminism has advocated for the equality of men and women, but middle-class women took the lead in the formation of feminist groups, the founding of journals to disseminate feminist thought, and other forms of activism. Working-class women in the modern era could advocate within their unions or political parties. The participants in the Mexico 68 clashes who went on to form that generation's feminist movement were predominantly students and educators.[7] The advisers who established themselves within the unions after the 1985 earthquakes were educated women who understood the legal and political aspects of organized labor. What they realized was that to form a sustained movement and attract working-class women to what was a largely middle-class movement, they needed to utilize workers' expertise and knowledge of their jobs to meld a practical, working system.[8] In the 1990s, women's rights in indigenous communities became an issue, particularly in the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas.[9] Reproductive rights remain an ongoing issue, particularly since 1991, when the Catholic Church in Mexico was no longer constitutionally restricted from being involved in politics.

  1. ^ "Feminism – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Definition of feminism noun from Cambridge Dictionary Online: Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
  3. ^ Cano, Gabriela. "Feminism" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 480.
  4. ^ Miller, Francesca, "Feminism and Feminist Organizations" in Encyclopedia of Latin America History and Culture, vol 2, pp. 549-50. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
  5. ^ Guy, Donna. "Gender and Sexuality in Latin America" in The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History, ed. José C. Moya. New York: Oxford University Press 2011, p. 369.
  6. ^ Schneider, Julia Maria (2010). Recreating the Image of Women in Mexico: A Genealogy of Resistance in Mexican Narrative Set During the Revolution (MA thesis). Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. pp. 12, 24–29. doi:10.31390/gradschool_theses.1481. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Frazier (2003) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Foweraker (1990), p 220
  9. ^ Cano, "Feminism" p.485