Women in Mexican Subnational Legislatures: From Descriptive to Substantive Representation (Latin American Societies)

This book aims to fill a gap in research on women's political representation by developing a multidimensional assessment of female participation in subnational legislatures in a federal political system like Mexico. The Mexican experience in terms of women's political representation at the federal and subnational levels has been very successful, as the reforms created a more robust "gender electoral regime" that promoted an increase in the number of elected female legislators (1987-2021). Still, little is known about the impact of the rise in women's presence in Congresses on other dimensions of political representation, such as symbolic or substantive.

Although previous studies on women's political representation in Mexico have yielded exciting conclusions based on empirical evidence and strengthened a theory focused on the analysis of presence, it is still insufficient to explain the other dimensions of representation and the relationship between them. Therefore, this book contributes to the comparative scholarship from the perspective of feminist neo-institutionalism, expanding the understanding of the relationship between women's formal and descriptive representation, the content of legislative work in terms of preferences and interests (substantive representation), and its symbolic effects on women and politics in general (symbolic representation).

Women in Mexican Subnational Legislatures: From Descriptive to Substantive Representation will be of interest to political scientists, sociologists, and jurists interested in gender and politics. The book fills a theoretical and empirical gap on the effects of gender parity in the programmatic and symbolic scope of power building. The findings on good practices and challenges are discussed within a broader body of comparative research, providing knowledge to academia, policymakers, and international cooperation agencies about the remaining obstacles to strengthening Latin American democracies and the need to continue exploring the links between subnational politics and democratization of federal political systems.

Flavia Freidenberg is Full Professor at the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and MA in Latin American Studies, both from the University of Salamanca (Spain). She also holds a BA in Journalism from Taller Escuela Agencia and in Political Science from Universidad de Belgrano (Argentina). She is a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers (SNI), level II, academic coordinator of the “Observatorio de Reformas Políticas de América Latina” Project (funded by the UNAM and OAS), and founder and coordinator of the Red de Politólogas - #NoSinMujeres. Before joining UNAM, she researched and directed at Ibero-American Institute of the University of Salamanca.

Karolina Gilas is Associate Professor at the Political and Social Science Department of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the UNAM and MA in Political Science from the University of Szczecin (Poland). She is a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers (SNI), level I, a member of the “Observatorio de Reformas Políticas de América Latina” and director of the “Representación simbólica de las mujeres en América Latina” Project (UNAM). Before joining UNAM, she held senior advising positions at Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary. She is a member of the Red de Politólogas - #NoSinMujeres.

Sebastián Garrido de Sierra is Associate Professor at Mexico's Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), appointed to the Department of Political Science (DEP) and the National Laboratory of Public Policies (LNPP). He received his Ph.D. and MA in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently coordinating the LNPP's Data Science Unit and is a member of the “Observatorio de Reformas Políticas de América Latina”, at UNAM’s Institute of Legal Research. His research covers topics related to Mexican politics (elections, social movements), higher education (financing, control of public resources), transparency and the intersection between these three issues. He was an associate professor at UCLA and Visiting Researcher at the United States-Mexico Studies Center of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Camilo Saavedra Herrera is Associate Professor at the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexicom(UNAM). He holds a Ph.D. in Government from the London School of Economics and an M.A. in Political Science from UNAM. His research covers topics on Mexican politics, comparative constitutional change and judicial institutions. He is a member of the “Observatorio de Reformas Políticas de América Latina”. Before joining UNAM, he held senior advising positions at Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice and National Electoral Institute.