This Monday will begin the new legislaturewith 248 deputiesone percentage point from total parity in the federal Congress. It will be a weak feminist benchaccording to INE councillors, which will address the legacy of pending gender issues left by the 65th legislature.
Congress drags a historical debt in favor of women. It is about constitutional and legal reforms bogged down for several years, such as reproductive autonomy, legal interruption of pregnancy equal pay, National Care System, Regulation of conscientious objection and surrogacyonly some stagnated in the Chamber of Deputies and others in the Senate.
This new legislature lends itself to carrying out a symbolic act that was applauded this morning by President Andrés López Obrador. The deputy Iphigenia Martinez Hernandezfounder of the PRD, who, as president of the Chamber of Deputies, will place the presidential sash on Claudia Sheinbaumthe first female president, at her inauguration on October 1st.
So it is symbolizes what the officialdom calls as “Women’s Time”.
Who are the feminists in the federal Congress?
In it Congress only two feminists are visible so far: Amalia Garcia Medinaas a senator, founder of the National Front for the Liberation of Women (1978) and who delivered paradoxically the First abortion initiative in 1979called For a Free and Voluntary Motherhood.
The same as the deputy Patricia Mercado Castroidentified by councilors Rita Bell and Claudia Zavala on the list of 248 new legislators as the only feminist. The deputy has a long history as an activist and militant; in the 65th legislature, from the Senate, reached agreements for several initiatives in favor of women workersThe most important and approved, but frozen in the Chamber of Deputies, is the one that regulates equal pay for work of equal value for women.
He symbolism of more women in power -founded on the constitutional mandate of equality throughout 2019- is the conformation of the Claudia Sheinbaum’s cabinetuntil today made up of 9 women and 8 men in the first circle, with at least three secretaries sensitive to the gender: Rosaura Ruiz, Alicia Barcena and Marcelo Ebrard.
In it cabinet Other highlights of the former head of government Two militant feminists: Inés González Nicolás and Daphne Cuevas Ortizin the Labor and Women’s Secretariats.
Credentialing of the new legislature
Yesterday the General Secretariat of the Chamber of Deputies concluded the process of credentialing of the elected deputies who will make up the 66th Legislature (2024-2027).
Of 500 elected parliamentarians498 were recorded, 248 women and 250 menwho obtained their access identification to the constituent session this Thursday, August 29.
Credentialing lasted nine days, and concluded yesterday at 6:30 p.m.
Gender agenda was a priority in the Legislature that concludes: IBD
The study entitled The gender agenda in the LXV Legislature. Report of approved decreesprepared by researcher Lorena Vázquez Correa, highlights that the 65th Legislature approved reforms such as the elimination of VAT on menstrual management products, the prohibition of the marriage forced of minors of age and the creation of the National Registry of Alimony Debtors.
With 47 gender decrees approved between September 2021 and April 2024, the gender agenda It established itself as one of the Priority issues for the Congress of the Union over the past six years, according to research by the General Directorate of Legislative Analysis of the Belisario Domínguez Institute (IBD).
The following were also endorsed: “3 out of 3 against violence” reformsthe non-prescription of sexual crimes, the recognition of the vicarious violence and of violence acidicas well as the ratification ofILO Agreement 190 on workplace harassment.
These actions were added to the 21 decrees on the matter approved by the previous legislature, such as parity in everything, social security for people domestic workersthe Political violence against women based on gender and the Olimpia lawamong other important reforms.
On the other hand, the study identifies that some earrings of the legislative agenda for gender equality are the creation of the National Care Systemthe interruption legal of the pregnancythe regulation of conscientious objection, as well as the regulation of the surrogacy.
Research indicates that the The LXV Legislature was the most equal in the history of Congress of the Union, since the Chamber of Deputies closed with 254 women, which is equivalent to 50.8 percent of the seats and the Senate ended the second ordinary period of the third year of office with 64 female senators, that is, 50 percent of the seats.
What reforms are pending for the benefit of women?
According to columnist Elia Castillo Jiménez, the latest achievements highlight, despite the neglect of priority issues on the feminist agenda, that the creation of the plural group of substantive equality which served as a driving force for issues in favor of women. However, it has not been enough to achieve agreements that move forward on the thorny issues for the political class in Mexico.
In March 2021, the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved the draft amendments and additions to 29 articles of the Constitution on substantive equality. This opinion recognized the Equal marriage and reproductive autonomythis last topic represented, in the opinion of pro-life groups, religious groups and PAN legislatorsthe legalization of abortion at the federal level. The intervention of these groups stopped the discussion in the plenary session.
At the beginning of the 65th Legislature in September 2021, the coordinator and vice-coordinator of the parliamentary faction of Morena, Ignacio Mier and Aleida Alavez, maintained that the ruling that already had the consensus of all parliamentary groups would be resumed. To date, this project has not advanced.
The Implementation of legal abortion at the federal level ordered by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) is another great earringIn September 2023, the SCJN approved the decriminalization of abortion at the federal level, which obliges the health system to provide the service and prevents medical personnel from being criminalized for performing it.
The deadline for legislating on the matter expired on December 15. “There is still a lot to do, all these debts that we have. I have a initiative to give compliance with the court order for the interruption of pregnancywe are seeing what the decision will be, it is a court order that must be complied with,” he says. Gabriela Sodi, PRD deputy.
“Constitutional reforms require more intensive consensus-building because two-thirds of the votes are required,” recalls Aleida Alavez Ruíz, vice-coordinator of the Morena parliamentary faction and president of the plural group for Substantive Equality.
Substantive equality is urgently needed in Congress.Aleida Alavez.
The next mayor of Iztapalapa reflected that, although the women were the majority in the 65th legislature and other state legislatures are the majority, They do not occupy the main decision-making positions in congresses.
The pending reform package is still up in the air. Once the current legislature concludes on August 31, the opinions and initiatives must be discarded. The opinion in the hands of the Constitutional Affairs Committee chaired by Morena deputy Juan Ramiro Robledo could have been dusted off, but it was not.
“Eliminating the wage gap, gender parity in all public institutions, gender perspective in all budgets and nomenclature in both chambers of Congress” are the themes contained in this project.
The agreement that the plural group announced last November to promote constitutional reforms in the area of reproduction human assistedcommodification of human beings or surrogacyalso remained bogged down. By not transiting, all these proposals will have to be discarded pending the new legislature which starts on September 1st and wants to resume them.
Karolina Gilas ruled out the legislator as a possible standard-bearer for the PAN, saying, “it is more media noise than anything else.”
It is much easier during the campaign to get people to start recognizing you or to notice in you some qualities that could serve you as a candidate. But it is practically impossible for you to change people’s opinion. And elections are won with the center, not with the faithful, they are won with the undecided.Karolina Gilas.
What challenges will Sheinbaum have to address immediately?
According to Congresswoman Karla Yuritzi, one of the main Challenges for Sheinbaum will be the consolidation of the national health systemwhose foundations were implemented during that six-year term with the IMSS welfare, through which it is sought to unify the health system into one that has universal coverage to prevent Mexicans from suffering due to lack of medical care.
“On the other hand, it is essential to promote progress in the area of securityto continue with the reduction of high-impact crimes, which during her administration as Head of Government she managed to reduce by 58 percent and homicides by 50 percent, which was made possible thanks to a multifactorial vision of the phenomenon of violence and insecurity, since it is not only about establishing a police policy based on the pursuit of crimes, but on a policy and crime prevention culture by opening spaces where young people can develop professionally, artistically and culturally. For this reason, in addition to security issues, the creation of new high schools and universities was implemented.
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To face all these challenges and, aware that One person alone is not able to provide a solution.is that he has surrounded himself with a huge group of scientists and experts in areas such as education and health, with the intention of finding the best way to implement those policies that were successful in Mexico City, but now at the federal level.