Women's Day: Yucatecan women, pioneers in the fight for their rights

We mark Women’s Day with a brief tour of the history of the struggles and achievements that are part of Yucatán’s identity.

Worker, Indigenous, mestiza, student, homemaker, entrepreneur, professional, mother, trader — the Yucatecan woman is all this and much more. That is why 8 March, a single day of the year, is not enough to thank women for the many roles and contributions they make to society.

Throughout the ongoing consolidation of Mérida as a city and Yucatán as a state, Yucatecan women have overcome all kinds of obstacles to win recognition of their voice.

Women’s contributions to society and the Mexican economy are often made invisible. That is why remembering the history of women in Yucatán is essential to build a more democratic, tolerant and inclusive society.

New movements and forms of protest arise from this need, such as the national strike “El nueve, ninguna se mueve” (“On the ninth, none of us moves”).

Women’s Day in Mérida should be commemorated every day through small actions that transform a naturally machista lifestyle into an inclusive one that seeks gender equality and justice.

Past and present of women in Yucatán

The present of Yucatecan women cannot be understood without mentioning their past. Since pre-Hispanic times, the Maya woman played a central role in history.

Before the conquest, and across the continent, women had their own forms of organisation and socially recognised spheres of activity. Women in Yucatán were considered complementary to men in their contribution to family and society. As well as being farmers, homemakers and weavers, they were also potters, herbalists, healers and priestesses in the service of the gods.

But everything changed with the arrival of the Spanish: they consolidated a body of misogynistic beliefs and restructured the economy and political power in favour of men.

The centuries passed and, faced with subordination, the history of women in Yucatán began to trace a path of struggle to change the oppressive way of thinking.

The first Feminist Congress in Yucatán

Precursors of rights, the history of women in Yucatán is linked to the rise of feminist movements in Mexico. In fact, the Mexican feminist movement emerged in the mid-19th century on the Yucatán peninsula.

In the early 20th century — in 1916, to be precise — Yucatán hosted the first Feminist Congress in Yucatán and Mexico, and the second in Latin America.

From that period, women such as Elvia Carrillo Puerto, Rita Cetina, Dominga Canto and Consuelo Zavala stand out. They all championed women’s rights on the peninsula and are an example of extraordinary, brave struggle at a time when women’s role was seen as exclusively for the family.

While the Congress set a precedent, it must be clear that not all women took part — most were primary-school teachers. Participation was reduced to white or mestiza women who, because of their social class, had had the chance to become literate.

Indigenous and illiterate women did not take part. They were still excluded, working in subhuman conditions on the opulent henequen haciendas.

Even so, 1916 was a crucial moment in the history of feminisms. From then on, the path was traced towards recognition of women’s suffrage and the fight for citizenship. The Feminist Congress in Yucatán also stressed women’s education, sex education and divorce.

The exclusion of the Indigenous woman

On Women’s Day in Mérida we cannot forget the role played by Maya and Indigenous women.

In Mexico, Indigenous women and girls are one of the most vulnerable groups. Their exercise of citizenship is constantly threatened, among other causes, by the traditional patriarchal patterns that have framed and limited their role, subordinating them to men.

In the celebration of Women’s Day in Yucatán, the presence of Indigenous women cannot be overlooked. So far there have been no radical or structural changes to reform the vulnerable situation they face.

Estimates based on the 2010 National Income and Expenditure Survey say that about 40% of speakers of Indigenous languages live in extreme multidimensional poverty — five times the rate for the non-Indigenous-language-speaking population.

Likewise, the “Report on Human Development of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico” says the Indigenous population’s Human Development Index is 11.3% lower than that of the non-Indigenous Mexican population, and that the probability of Indigenous women falling into poverty is 38%: almost double the non-Indigenous rate, around 20%.

Discrimination and oppression

Indigenous women in Mexico face a fourfold oppression: by class, ethnicity, generation and gender. Discrimination is not exclusive to the economic system; within families it is very common for women to be boxed into traditional gender roles (as mothers, wives and domestic workers).

Domestic work, along with motherhood, is considered a female obligation. When some Indigenous women manage to enter the labour market, on terrible wages, like mestiza women they don’t stop doing domestic work, resulting in double and triple shifts.

64.7% of Indigenous women aged 12 and over do unpaid activities — higher than the national figure of 62.8%. The labour-participation rate in the Indigenous population is 70.4% for men and 23.5% for women. Illiteracy (22.5% among Indigenous women) and lack of training, among other factors, also affect these women’s access to the labour market.

So, on Women’s Day in Yucatán and every day, it is urgent to highlight the need to act and intervene in the face of the alarming figures for that part of society.

Finally, this 8 March, it is also essential to present new, efficient public policies to reverse the figures for precarious work, sexual harassment and femicide to which Yucatecan, Mexican and women worldwide are continually exposed.

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