Discussing Women's Empowerment - Sida

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CITIZENSHIP AND WOMEN IN MEXICO • DOMÍNGUEZ
Another aspect related to citizenship, that arises in all these interviews,
is the need – the duty – to be tolerant when confronting diversity, especially
if participation goes from the local to the national level:
“We have responsibilities in the sense that the rights of others should be
sacred for us, we should not try to impose our points of view but try to
respect the diversity of opinions, actions and lifestyles. Our constitution
should reflect this diversity of Mexican men and women if the Indians
have a particular way of being, the Mestizos have another, and all of them
should be recognized as citizens, as people who have the same rights in
spite of the color of their skin or their social origin…” (Cid7-58a)
“I think that when we think of participating at the local level we also have
to think of participating at the national level. Linking this to the idea of
diversity, you cannot think of local or national participation if you don’t
think about diversity, that we are different, have diverse points of view and
different forms of participation and different ways of solving problems. I
think that the issue of recognizing diversity and differences is a key point that
could make it possible to transform this authoritarian culture.” (Cid8-23a)
For non-participants citizenship is also associated with mutual help,
with solidarity, with giving something to the community. But where tolerance
is concerned, one of the middle-aged women in this group is, as
we have already seen, very emphatic on the limitation of rights for rapists
and other kinds of criminals. This can be explained as being a result of
the authoritarian political environment Mexico has lived under for centuries,
but it may also be related to a climate of sexual violence against
which women are now reacting forcefully.
Summing up, we see that for these women (participants and non-participants),
whatever their social origin, age or educational level, political
participation is fundamental in order to exercise a form of citizenship that
aims to solve the existing social problems and even to create a new political
culture. The problems they relate to are not automatically linked to
women’s issues, they are sometimes local, sometimes of a national character
and they have to do with their different identities. However, all interviewees
agree that participation has different implications for men and
women (they thus assume their common identity as women, although not
as feminists). Participation for women is always connected to the private
sphere as an encouragement, an obstacle or a limitation. Women, according
to participant women, always search for coherence, linking personal
and public processes – something that quite often results in conflicts