Women of Mexico

            Bordering immediately south of the United States and north of Central America there sits the country Mexico.  Mexico is part of the North American continent, surrounded by the ocean. The size of Mexico is slightly less than three times the size of Texas. The estimated population as of July 2011 is 113,724,226 people; fifty-two percent of them being women ("Cia- the world," 2011). Mexico is a large/middle income country; where the economy is the fourteenth largest in the world and known for their Spanish language in which ninty-two percent only speak Spanish. More than seventy-six percent of the Mexican population lives in urban areas; Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey (Reimers Fernando & Knaul Felicia, 2008). The majority of the women live in these urban areas who are principally young adults. The average number of children born to women has decreased more than fifty percent, from seven children per women in 1970 to 2.57 in 2002 (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). The following paragraphs will specifically be covering women in Mexico; it has not been until recently they have been started to be treated fairly. Now in the twentieth century, Mexican women have made important advances in their social, legal, political and economical conditions (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). Even though the female population continues to work on the much ground that remains to be made up, they struggle with racism, exclusion, and the social, economic, political and cultural inequality that is always around them. For example it wasn’t until the year of 1953 when Mexican women could start voting. Up until then they had been overlooked by history and politics (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). The following paragraphs will further go over what is going on in Mexico with the women and what changed have occurred with them in the last few decades.  

            Mexican women were also discouraged for the longest time from the work place. But since the 1980s the incorporation of women in the workplace has been increasing. A survey done in 2000 showed that one in every three Mexican women had now been employed in the labor market (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). In 2005, fourty percent of women had paying jobs; five percent agriculture, nineteen percent industry, and seventy-six percent services (Seager Joni, 2009). One of the biggest factors that contribute to these women getting employed is hugely contributed to assembly plants called Maquiladoras; these have had a tremendous growth in Mexico since the signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and they have supplied this country with multiple jobs to employ women (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). Maquiladoras are factories where they like to hire younger than twenty five year old women, whom have no experience so they can “mold” them into the worker they want them to be. The only way to really get hired into a Maquiladoras is by word of mouth; the managers also like to hire depending upon the personal references work performance; if they are hard workers then the person they are trying to get get employed with them must be as well. At these factories, its long hours, hard work, low pay and you need to fulfill daily quotas which are nearly impossible (Fernandez-Kelly Maria Patricia, 1983). These factories make these women take random pregnancy tests during their employment, and can be fired if they end up becoming pregnant (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). Another option of employment is called “industrial homework,” this type is for mothers who cannot leave their children; but these work conditions can be even worse than Maquiladoras. Women often rely a lot on social networks for support due to the fact Mexico doesn’t have unemployment insurance; so these mothers stay employed through everything (Gabayet Lusia, 2003).

            Mexico like many countries has laws. Within the past few decades they have made changes to some of the laws. Listed below are some of the following that were created to better help this country. Mexico’s labor law was originally passed in 1931; a new bill was under debate in 2002 which would protect women from sexual harassment and abuse, also from being fired for becoming pregnant and would forbid the employers to perform pregnancy test in the work place; this was changed.  There is evidence that three out of every four women were sexually harassed in the workplace and approximately forty percent leave their jobs due to this. Domestic violence and sexual harassment are common in Mexican society. In 1996, Mexico introduced tough laws to try and stop domestic violence but made little progress (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). Statistics show that one in every three women have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime by a family member. In Caidad, Juarez and chihauria Mexico, more than 500 women have been murdered since 1993 and multiple are still missing (Seager Joni, 2009).

            Global sex trafficking is a multibillion dollar industry where women’s bodies are commodities in the global sex trade. Women often become part of this by one of two ways: one, as younger girls they are sold into prostitution by their parents due to their family being poor and needing money. Mexico was part of a crisis zone in 2000-2008, where families were known for selling daughters to organizations in order to get money to live. Secondly, women are lured into sex trade under false pretences (hired maids or waitresses), then forced into prostitution. Prostitution was also huge when wars were about; soldiers would be there at those houses multiple times a week. Another way women become part of this sex trafficking is when they are homeless and need to make money for themselves.  Mexico is both a source and a destination country for sex trafficking (Seagear Joni, 2009).

            Mexico has always been known for their bigger families. They live with approximately six people in every house. But during the last decade, families in Mexico are having an increase in single-parent families, which are mostly headed by women. Statistics show that in 1970, eighty percent of the families were headed by two parents; but in 1997 two parent families dropped to only sixty-seven percent (Reimers Fernando & Knaul Felicia, 2008).  And the number of families that are headed by women are increasing by twenty-one percent in 2000.  In the instance of a separation between parents, children are ten times more likely to live with their mothers and only one percent choose to live with their fathers (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). The gender role in Mexico is similar to many countries; it reflects the saying “women at home and men on the streets,” which is expected of women and men. Within the last decade these roles have changed a bit for both genders; more for women than men. Women’s participation is increasing in education and wage employment instead of staying at home; and men have increased a bit in helping with domestic tasks. This means that women are now expected to work both inside the home and outside (Gabayet Lusia, 2003).

            Education has increased significantly in Mexico over the last several decades; many students were dropping out of school before completing the mandatory nine years of basic education due to the low quality and efficiency (Gabayet Lusia, 2003). In 1990, seventy-eight percent of people above the age of ten were not able to read or write. Continuous attendance in the school system is higher for boys then it is for girls (Reimers Fernando & Knaul Felicia, 2008).  Between the number of boys and girls that participate in school is pretty equal; after graduation only about fifty percent attend college (Seagear Joni, 2009). There is almost a million youth children between the age twelve and fourteen do not attend school in Mexico. A study was performed on the Mexican children in 2000 and was also performed on the rest of the nation; it was done by Programme of International Student Assessment that showed Mexico is among the lowest of their countries participation in the study. More than a third of the students performed below the minimum level in mathematics; and about a fourth of the students were below minimum level of literacy (Reimers Fernando & Knaul Felicia, 2008).

            Health among Mexico has increased within the past years with healthcare increasing. It all depends on healthcare in the family. Now that women are able to work, and are eligible for insurance makes a huge impact on her health. Some illnesses that women are vulnerable for include: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cerebral and hepatic ailments which includes hepatitis. AIDS has also increased tremendously, especially in the certain communities that send many migrant workers to other countries. Seventy- seven percent are males, and thirty-three percent are females who are getting diagnosed with AIDS. These individuals are getting diagnosed between the ages of fifteen to forty-four; and within this age group AIDS is the third –leading cause of death among men and sixth among women. Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia have also emerged, especially in the younger population from higher class. This mainly is due to the mass media and fashion (Gabayet Lusia, 2003).

            In 1953, women’s full rights as citizens were recognized and were made eligible to vote in popular elections in Mexico. But it wasn’t until around 1993 when the political parties began to include more participation by women in the country’s political standpoint. In 1981 was the first year a women was made secretary of state, but no woman has reached the presidency. In 1988 the first female ran for election, and in 1994 there were two women candidates. Mexico, in 1981, came up with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women that had been approved by the United Nations in 1979 (Gabayet Lusia, 2003).

            The first feminist movement in Mexico goes back to the nineteenth century; where it all began with the right to education. The very first Feminist Congress in 1915 fought to gain educational rights and equal pay for equal work; then later is where the issue came about the equality to political rights. The United Nation eventually had a slogan which said, “Equality, Development, and Peace,” this further strengthened the women’s movement. Many nongovernmental organizations have been created to help support feminist groups; Mexican women’s movement has been linked debates on topics like feminism and democracy. These support organizations help for example in areas of violence against women, such as legal, psychological, and medical support to help (Gabayet Lusia, 2003).

            Roman Catholic is the main religion and spirituality that is worshiped in Mexico. Even though women are not able to become ministers, priests or a pastor doesn’t mean that this effects their participation in rituals and other religious activities. Besides the limitations, women still make up the majority of those who attend church and devote a large portion of their time to church activities.  A survey showed that those who attend church only once a month or sometimes never were mostly men. With this said women are the main reproducers of religious values for future generations, which is huge in families (Gabayet Lusia, 2003).

            Mexico is very comparable to the other countries. Multiple countries have these same if not similar issues. Mexico is slowly making changes to include women into more activities and political issues. And hopefully soon they will make changes and try to illegalize sex trafficking.

 Bibliography 

Cia- the world factbook. (2011, January 11). Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library

Fernandez-Kelly Maria Patricia. (1983). Living in the global economy. (pp. 388-396). Albany,       NY: State University New York Press.

Gabayet Lusia. (2003). The greenwood encyclopedia of women's issues worldwide: North america and caribbean/. (pp. 205-220). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Seager Joni. (2009). The penguin atlas of women in the world. (4th ed., p. 30,                     56,100,101,112,120). Brighton, UK: Myriad Editions.

Reimers Fernando, M., & Knaul Felicia, (2008). The greenwood encyclopedia of chilren's issues    worldwide/ irving epsyein general editor. (pp. 239-259). Westport, CT: Greenwood     Press.