Violence Suffered by Women in Mexico Is on the Rise Jimena Candano - Forbes
go to original March 18, 2022

3 Things Men Can Do to Promote Gender Equity for All (TEDWomen)

The violence suffered by women in our country has been on the rise. And although there have been many reasons that have increased this phenomenon, the most unfortunate are the attitudes of our president towards feminists, in addition to the high rates of impunity, the lack of knowledge in public officials, and of course the pandemic.

To begin with, let's put on the table that the government made the decision to eliminate public policies that were focused on gender equity, causing terrible damage to the already scarce and weak progress in this area. To mention an example, I am referring to the eradication of child care centers, which had been created so that women who were not affiliated with the IMSS or ISSSTE would have a safe place to leave their children when they go to work. But despite the fact that it meant help and that they generated jobs, they closed them.

And although it is understood that it was a program that could be perfected due to possible cases of corruption, let us not lose sight of the fact that, in the only style of this government, it was decided to close them, without taking into account the consequences that this would have for thousands of women and children. In fact, it was the president who said that now the grandmothers and grandfathers would take care of the minors, and although there is no doubt that they did it with love, it is not his responsibility; they are neither old enough nor have the pedagogical skills to take on essential early childhood development.

Also a few days ago, the closure of full-time schools was announced, which benefited 3.5 million girls and boys. And at least 51% of them lived in areas of high and very high marginalization. In addition, according to a UNICEF study, it was identified that 66% of students receive their first meal of the day in these schools, showing a great improvement in learning. And in the case of mothers, they increased their income by 36%, since they had greater facilities to work.

However, today working mothers no longer have these options, just as children attend school at times when mothers cannot work a full day and those whose children are not yet of school age, they no longer have accessible options to leave them in care.

But even with these factors against them, according to the INEGI Population and Housing Census 2020, it was found that 40.9% (21,000,000) of the economically active population in our country are women, in addition to the fact that they are 33% (11,474,983 ) of Mexican households are those headed by a woman, even though this is one of the most affected populations in the workplace during the pandemic. Proof of this is that 1.9 million women ceased to be economically active, most likely to dedicate themselves to family care.

So, the actions seem to be aimed at putting an end to programs that gave women options, alternatives that seem never to be generated again to serve this population that needs it so much. Generating irreparable damage to society.

Read the rest at Forbes

Related: Mexico Women Demand End to Country’s Gender Based Violence (Associated Press)

Related: Almost 90% of Performers Have Experienced Violence, Harassment in Latin American (Yahoo!Entertainment)

This article was translated from Spanish using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

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