(1)Peter Smith, The Labyrinths of Power: Political Recruitment in Twentieth Century Mexico (Princeton University Press: Princeton NJ, 1979), p. 80. He also notes: "In 1900 around 74 percent of the population could neither read nor write, in 1930 about 59 percent could neither read nor write, and by 1960 the figure remained as high as 32 percent."

(2)Roderic A. Camp, Mexico's Leaders: Their Education and Recruitment (University of Arizona Press: Tucson AZ, 1980), pp. 196-197.

(3)Miguel Al Centeno, Democracy Within Reason: Technocratic Revolution in Mexico (The Pennsylvania State University Press: University Park PA, 1994), pp. 114-115.

(4)See for example, Smith, Labyrinths of Power, p. 78.

(5)Roderic A. Camp, "Women and Political Leadership in Mexico," Journal of Politics, 41(1979):417-441. Unfortunately, the scope of this thesis does not permit the research that would be necessary to attempt a revision or corroboration of this finding.

(6)As an aside, there were several cases of siblings in various positions, including three sisters named Lajous Vargas, and a pair of sisters named Moreno Toscano and several of their cousins. These were easily picked out while leafing through the biographical dictionaries. Also noted were several married couples that included an appointed official, or even a college professor. This is a subject which merits further analysis and would require a specific and carefully structured questionnaire.

(7)The definition of "urban"for both the author's data base and Camp's Mexican Political Biographies Project includes cities which have a population of 5,000 or more.

(8)Current data was used because most of the women politicians are legislators and represent the population based on where they live rather than where they are born. A more specific analysis based on the birthplaces of all Mexicans was not done because that information is not readily available.

(9)To make the two samples more comparable, I excluded two age groups (1880-89 and 1890-99) from the male elite sample. Those groups were not represented among female politicians.

(10)Camp, "Women and Political Leadership in Mexico."

(11)Roderic A. Camp, Political Recruitment Across Two Centuries, 1884-1991 (Austin TX: University of Texas Press, 1995), Chapter 6.

(12)1990 General Census of the Population, Regional Populations, reproduced in Consejo para la Integración de la Mujer, Programa de Trabajo, (Mexico, n.d.).

(13)Smith, Labyrinths of Power, p. 82.

(14)INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática), Anuario de Estadisticos de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (INEGI: Mexico D.F., 1993), p. 134.

(15)Ibid., p. 132.

(16)Camp, "Women and Political Leadership in Mexico," pp. 433-436.

(17)Carroll notes that credentials, especially education and prior appointive or administrative office-holding experience, appear to assume a more important role for younger women. Demonstrated loyalty (campaign and party work) appears to be more important for older women. Susan J. Carroll, "The Recruitment of Women for Cabinet-level Posts in State Government: A Social Control Perspective." The Social Science Journal, 21 (January 1984):91-107.

(18)Law was found to be the most common degree among female politicians in the United States in both early and recent studies, see: Paula J. Dubeck, "Women and Access to Political Office: A Comparison of Female and Male State Legislators," The Sociological Quarterly, 17(Winter 1976):42-52; Christine B. Williams, "Women, Law and Politics: Recruitment Patterns in the Fifty States," Women and Politics, 10:3:(1990):103-123.

(19)Camp, Mexico's Leaders, p. 197; Wilfried Gruber, "Career Patterns of Mexico's Political Elite," Western Political Quarterly, 24:3(1971):467-482; Smith, Labyrinths of Power, pp. 46-48.

(20)Smith, Labyrinths of Power, p. 91. (21)De Silva, Luz de Lourdes, "Las mujeres en la élite política de México: 1954-1984." Pp. 269-308 in Orlandina Oliveira (ed.), Trabajo, poder y sexualidad, (Mexico, DF: Colegio de Mexico, Programa Interdisciplinaria de Estudios de la Mujer, 1989), p. 301.

(22)Author's Interview with Deputy Laura Alicia Garza Galindo, Mexico City, February 2, 1994.

(23)Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres Legisladoras, Memoria, Conference at Ixtapán de la Sal, Mexico, October 16-18, 1992 (Mexico DF: H. Camara de Diputados, 1993), p. 114.

(24)Anne Phillips, Engendering Democracy, (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), p. 90.

(25)Wilma Rule, "Electoral Systems, Contextual Factors and Women's Opportunity for Election to Parliament in Twenty-Three Democracies," Western Political Quarterly, 40(1987), p. 494.

(26)Martin C. Needler, Mexican Politics: The Containment of Conflict (NY: Praeger Publishers, 1990), pp. 88-89.

(27)It is highly likely that camarilla politics played a significant role in the appointments of these women. Unfortunately, complete data on this variable is not yet available.

(28)These cases include: Rosa Luz Alegria, Alicia Isabel Barcena, María Eugenia de Leon Garcia, Aida Gonzalez Martinez, María del Rosario Green Macias, , Mercedes Juan Lopez, Clara Jusidman Rapoport, Valeria Prieto Lopez, Norma Samaniego Breach, María Elena Tellez Benoit, Renata María Valdez Gonzalez Salas, and María Elena Vazquez Nava.

(29)Tables showing figures comparable to those used in Table 4-9 may be found in Camp, Politics in Mexico, p. 107, and in Centeno, Democracy Within Reason, p. 139.

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.