“Considerable” misogyny in the federal security cabinet is one of the challenges she had to face in her political ascent, said the federal government’s highest-ranking minister this week.
“Many of the challenges were to demonstrate that women are as capable [as men] or more so,” said Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero. “Even today there are very considerable misogyny issues.”
The remarks were made during a virtual event held by the Women’s Museum on the 67th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, where Sánchez explained that she has been a victim of misogyny by members of the security cabinet, which President López Obrador assembles every morning.
“There have been times … when sometimes my opinion — and I don’t mean the president, on the contrary, the president has always given me my place — but among the members, my opinion was not taken into account at times, even if I was right and even if I was contributing something important,” she said.
Sánchez also said she has been a victim of exclusion throughout her career in the public sector and has been blocked from joining some groups.
“In effect, we have the right to vote and be voted for, but our representation in decision making areas is low. We have the right to justice, but our real access to the courts is precarious if we are women. If it concerns poor or indigenous women who are victims of violence, the possibilities of obtaining a favorable response from the authorities … are still threatened by stereotypical conceptions of who we are and how we should behave,” she said.
Sánchez, who graduated with a law degree from the National Autonomous University, was Mexico City’s first female notary public. She was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1995 by then-President Ernesto Zedillo, where she remained until 2015.
Sánchez became Minister of the Interior when President López Obrador took office in December 2018, the first woman to hold that position.
“During my participation in the Women’s Museum lecture series, I stressed that we still cannot speak of a fully democratic country until women have representation equal to that of men,” she tweeted yesterday. “Being in charge of Mexico’s domestic policy represents a unique opportunity to set the precedent that allows more and more women to occupy strategic positions in decision making.”
Source: El Universal (sp)
