MEXICO HAS BECOME a leading example of gender parity in politics, with women occupying nearly half of the country’s positions of political power.
There are 11 women in president Claudia Sheinbaum’s 22-member cabinet. Women hold 64 of 128 seats in the federal senate, and 251 of 500 seats in the chamber of deputies. They also govern 13 of Mexico’s 31 states.
Sheinbaum’s principal opponent in the 2024 presidential election was a woman—Xóchitl Gálvez. Campaign debates between Gálvez, a technology entrepreneur, and Sheinbaum, a distinguished climate scientist, were notably dignified, substantive and mature. This is in sharp contrast to the political discourse in neighbouring US, where President Donald Trump’s lies, insults, vulgarities and hate speeches dominate. Mexicans—who are often objects of Trump’s abuse—note that he has shown respect to Sheinbaum. Unusually, he has even expressed admiration for her. On her part, Sheinbaum has handled Trump calmly and pragmatically, showing that she is flexible enough to give in to some of his demands, but firm on matters of fundamental concern to Mexico.
In 2009, over 93 per cent of Mexico’s governors were men, as were 72.4 per cent of federal deputies and 80.5 per cent of senators. A landmark constitutional reform in 2019 ushered in a remarkable change. Known as ‘Paridad en Todo’ (Parity in Everything), the reform amended several articles of the Mexican constitution to establish gender parity as a constitutional principle. The law mandated equal representation of women in federal executive branch, the national Congress, state legislatures, the judiciary, autonomous constitutional bodies, municipal governments and candidate lists of political parties.
The reform embedded gender parity into the constitutional structure of governance. A striking aspect was the political consensus behind it. With support across party and ideological lines, the measure transformed gender parity from a partisan demand into a question of democratic legitimacy.
Mexico’s courts and electoral authorities actively enforce parity provisions. In the house of deputies, Morena, the ruling party, has the highest female representation (57.7 per cent).
Mexico’s reforms emerged within a broader Latin American movement toward what is often called “parity democracy”. Countries such as Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica have also adopted significant gender quota or parity laws in the past two decades. Argentina was the first country in Latin America to institutionalise a national legislative gender quota in 1991, a year before India reserved one-third of seats in local governments for women.
What makes Mexico distinctive is the comprehensive nature of its 2019 reform. Unlike many quota systems that focus on legislatures, Mexico extended parity requirements to executive and judicial institutions as well. The model is more resilient to adverse political conditions, because gender parity has been elevated to a constitutional principle. The reform, born out of a combination of feminist mobilisation, judicial activism, electoral reform and inter-party negotiations, is remarkable given the fact that Mexico was considered as a macho society.
Mexico’s example could be studied by India, which recently tried and failed to pass a law for greater parliamentary representation for women. Female representation in Indian Parliament is less than 15 per cent. Of course, India’s sociopolitical conditions, history, electoral system and political structure are different and more complex. Nonetheless, there may be a lot to learn from the Mexican reform, which is now frequently cited globally as one of the most ambitious gender-parity measures enacted anywhere in
the world.
Ambassador (retired) R. Viswanathan is a Latin America expert.