Mexico's Women Make Gains in Politics

TORREÓN, Mexico -- In addition to completely reordering Mexico's political landscape, the mid-term legislative elections on July 5 marked a step forward for gender equality in the country. The opposition Institutional Party of the Revolution (PRI), previously the third-largest party, scored a huge victory. The PRI took a near-majority in the lower house of Congress, which had been dominated by the National Action Party (PAN), won five of six gubernatorial races, and a number of state and local contests around the nation.

The two leading vote-getters -- the ideologically amorphous PRI and the center-right PAN -- are both expected to tab women as the leaders of their respective caucuses in the Chamber of Deputies. With the benefit of such a platform, both the PAN's Josefina Vázquez and the PRI's Beatriz Paredes will not only be able to put oft-ignored women's issues closer to the forefront of the national agenda. They are now plausible presidential contenders for 2012. ...