Breathe
By Leticia Bonifaz
Women who have reached the highest decision-making positions in international organizations and in the governments of different countries have insisted on pointing out that the presence of more women in politics brings about changes in the way politics is conducted.
For decades, efforts have been made to increase the number of women in public decision-making positions. However, it should be pointed out that it is not only a question of numbers, but also of quality of representation. The reasons why women, despite having acquired the right to vote and be voted for, in the case of Mexico almost 70 years ago, have not had a spontaneous increase in participation, but rather it has been the result of international and national measures, have also been studied.
In Mexico, we had our first female governor in 1979. That was 26 years after we had won the right to vote. Those who came after that were spaced out over time and continued to be the exception, not the rule. It took quotas to increase the presence of women in the chambers and then the rule of parity. The current number of women governors was achieved by the impulse of a strategic litigation firm that caused the INE to interpret, based on the arguments made, that political parties should nominate women in half of the candidacies at stake.
