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Overcoming Discrimination:
Overcoming the Discrimination of Women in Mexico: A Task for Sisyphus

Chair: Rebecca Cook, University of Toronto
Paper: Mariclaire Acosta, Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos
Discussant: Dorothy Q. Thomas, Women's Rights Project, Human Rights Watch

The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Workshop on The Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America
9-11 November 1996

Background and Context

Acosta initially drew attention to the overwhelming importance of the family in Mexican life. This, she contextualized within a society where considerable income inequality has been perpetuated and even exacerbated by the demands of a rigorous structural adjustment program imposed in the face of a debilitating foreign debt problem. Social welfare policies which provided subsidized food, health, and education for the majority of the population have been dismantled. Political parties, legislative bodies, and the courts are insufficiently developed to provide a framework for adequately solving social problems.

While the economy has been liberalized, the ruling elite has refused to relinquish political power and move towards a more democratic and competitive political system. Institutions of the state have been eroded, and many regions are at crisis point. Women, in particular, have borne the cost of the abrupt changes that have occurred in Mexican society.

The Female Population and the Feminization of Poverty

Acosta pointed to 1996 surveys which indicate that Mexican women continue to be family oriented. Educational opportunities between men and women have tended to become equalized. However, trends following the implementation of the structural adjustment program show that women have borne a disproportionate share of the impact of its implementation: employment levels have dropped, and the earning power of women as compared to men has dropped considerably. Advances made by women in the years between 1970 and 1980 have been lost.

While working women constitute a significant portion of the membership of trade unions, they have not been successful in attaining leadership positions. This is also true in political parties. NGOs advocating women's rights do lobby political parties.

Legal Rights versus Real Rights

Men and women enjoy formal equality before the law. Discrimination, however, remains a fact of daily life. While laws in the Federal District have been made more stringent, offenses continue to be under-reported. Even so, there have been disturbing increases in levels of sexual violence against women-particularly in areas of political unrest. Abortion is illegal, but rape victims who resort to abortion are not punished. However, no mechanism exists for rape victims to obtain safe abortions. The Supreme Court held in 1994 that a husband cannot be found to have raped his wife.

Domestic violence problems are dealt with by a specialized police department and prosecuted by a special division of the prosecutor's office. It continues to be a major problem however. Changes in the criminal code mean that visible injuries which do not endanger a woman's health and take less than two weeks to heal will only be prosecuted after complaint. Formerly, injuries would have been prosecuted by the state. Crime against women is seen as a private matter rather than a public one. In the face of these changes in the criminal code, a new law against domestic violence in Mexico City, the result of lobbying by women's groups, aims to bring matters of domestic violence back into the public arena.

Future Prospects

The government has adopted a "Program for Women." It envisages affirmative action in the political arena and an economic policy capable of eliminating the marginality and exclusion of women. Women's groups are participating in the implementation of the program. However, the struggle of women is far from over. It will take more than rhetoric and good intentions to ensure the full participation of women in Mexican society.

 

Discussant's Comments (Dorothy Q. Thomas)

Dorothy Thomas initially expressed her surprise that women were not more angry as a result of the manner in which they were discriminated against. Discrimination against women should be the concern of any person who cares about the rule of law. Indeed, for women, the rule of law is the exception, not the rule.

The Paradox of Continuing Violence and Discrimination against Women

The pervasive discrimination against women evident in Mexico presents a paradox: discrimination and violence against women are officially illegal, yet the system allows these to continue. This paradox replicates itself in other societies. Too often, it is accommodated without question. The sexual violence perpetrated against women in the genocide in Rwanda, for example, has not been the subject of an investigation or indictment by the international tribunal convened to deal with events in that country. The consequences of the failure to address this paradox in society are dire: It is not only the rights of women that are at stake, but also those of their families. Indeed, violence against women represents not just a violation of women's rights, but of health and economic rights too. Where the rule of law is concerned, it is not violence that discriminates, but "justice." Discrimination against women is difficult to overcome because the focus of discrimination against women is frequently fundamental to the way in which society organizes itself.

The Roots of Violence against Women

It is the source of violence against women which must be addressed. This lies in the lust for power, in whatever sphere, expressed in the accumulation of wealth. The tendency of power to discriminate is evident in all spheres of society. An examination of the rule of law has to grapple with discrimination and the complicity of the law with those who rule the law.

Thomas offered the following points in conclusion: First, overcoming discrimination means overcoming the notion that it is acceptable. Second, an approach that combats the mutually reinforcing relationship of one form of discrimination with another is necessary. Thirdly, the link between discrimination and the lust for power and wealth is vital.

 

Floor Discussion

The question of whether or not discrimination against women was more intense in some cultures than others was raised by Tom Farer. He went on to ask if attitudes of respect for traditional cultures and communities could be maintained while overcoming discrimination against women. Acosta explained that, in her paper, she had focused upon identifying the prevalence of rape and the failure of the state to punish it. She said that social and economic forces which are "beyond culture" and require action must nonetheless be addressed. In her experience, indigenous women in Mexico supported the call for the rights of their indigenous people, but not at the expense of their equal status. Thomas agreed that women around the world want both their rights and their culture to be respected.

Jean-Paul Brodeur drew attention to the "evil causes fallacy": confronted with evil consequences, people become angry and assume that the causes of evil must, in themselves, be evil and intolerable. This was relevant in consideration of the evil consequence of discrimination against women, in the light of issues of local culture and calls for self-government of rural peoples. Issues of local culture and calls for self-government of rural peoples are not, of themselves, an evil. He also wished to distinguish between the different causes of similar manifestations of violence-for example, rape may be sexually motivated or motivated by genocide. The latter was the case in the rapes of Muslim women in Yugoslavia. Where the causes of violence were so different, he questioned whether the approaches to it ought not also be different.

Thomas conceded that different sorts of violence may well be distinguished by their motivation. However, at the root of violence against women lies the abuse of power. Violence against women should not be accepted. People should allow themselves to be angered and use their anger to advantage.

Xochitl Lara Becerra (University of Notre Dame Department of Government and International Studies) stated that in Mexico the problem of discrimination against women should be seen in the context of a repressive regime. Until this was remedied, only limited progress in combating discrimination against women would be possible. Acosta responded that the Mexican government had recently adopted a policy the aim of which was to reduce discrimination faced by women. This, Acosta explained, led her to be less critical than she would otherwise have been of the government, and engage with it.

Rebecca Cook wished to know whether the Inter-American Convention on Violence against Women had had any ramifications for women in Mexico. Acosta replied that it has been the subject of lobbying by groups in Mexico and is likely to be ratified by Mexico.