Gender Equality, Citizenship, Work and Family – Mexico
Equidad was founded in 1996, at a time when the pieces on the chessboard were shifting worldwide: the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (1994) and the World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995) had just taken place, placing women's human rights, sexual and reproductive health, and gender equality at the heart of democracy and development. In Mexico, these debates clashed with a reality marked by profound inequalities, limited participation of women in decision-making, and few citizen mechanisms for monitoring public policies. At this intersection of international context and local need, a group of feminists decided to create an organization that would empower women as political actors, equipping them with the management, negotiation, and leadership skills to analyze and evaluate public policies from a gender perspective. Thus, the feminist organization Equidad de Género: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia AC (Gender Equity: Citizenship, Work, and Family) was born.
From its earliest years, Equidad set out to do something that was innovative at the time: explicitly link gender equity with the exercise of civic and political participation. Its objective was not merely to "serve" women, but to contribute to greater gender equality by empowering women to fully exercise their sexual and reproductive rights, while simultaneously developing tools to monitor, analyze, and question budgets and public policies. The organization understood very early on that discussing women's rights meant delving deeply into issues such as public spending, transparency, accountability, and the democratization of institutions.
As it became more established, Equidad defined its main lines of work. The core of its efforts was organized into three main areas: gender-responsive public policies and budgets; women's political participation and economic empowerment; and sexual and reproductive rights, including the defense of legal abortion. These lines of work were always linked to training processes, applied research, and the development of public policy proposals, so that the organization combined technical work with feminist political education.
From the late 1990s and throughout the first decade of the 2000s, Equidad became a leading organization in the field of gender-responsive public budgeting. Along with other organizations such as Fundar and the National Forum of Women and Population Policies, it spearheaded the Mexican Gender-Responsive Budgeting Initiative, which examined how public spending responded, or failed to respond, to the commitments made by Mexico in Cairo and Beijing regarding sexual and reproductive health and gender equality. This work demonstrated that the size of the budget, its distribution, and its rules were not neutral: they could either perpetuate inequalities or contribute to reducing them. Through research, manuals, and guides, the organization provided government officials, legislatures, and civil society with the tools to identify gender biases in spending and propose concrete changes.
In 2002, Equidad joined the National Alliance for the Right to Decide (ANDAR), along with CDD, GIRE, Ipas, and the Population Council. From this position, it spearheaded the historic decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City in 2007 and has maintained a strong advocacy presence to this day, pushing for decriminalization in other states. A year later, in 2003, Equidad founded and began coordinating the Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Mexico (DDESER), comprised of women leaders from across the country, which now has established teams in 18 states.
One of the milestones of this period was Equidad's participation in monitoring the diversion of 30 million pesos from the 2003 Federal Expenditure Budget to the National Pro-Life Committee, funds originally earmarked for HIV/AIDS. Together with GIRE, the Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity, SIPAM, Letra S, and Fundar, Equidad documented the case, requested information from the Chamber of Deputies, reviewed hundreds of pages, and helped establish access to information and budget transparency as inseparable aspects of women's rights. This episode clearly illustrates how the organization forged a path that combined feminism, citizen oversight, and demands for accountability.
At the same time, Equidad was working on another key front: the production of indicators and diagnostic tools to measure progress toward gender equality in Mexico. A prime example is the “Commitment Fulfilled Index, Mexico 1995-2003,” which assessed the degree to which the Mexican State was fulfilling its international commitments on equality, based on the Beijing Platform for Action, the Cairo Conference, and other frameworks. These types of tools provided organizations and legislators with concrete evidence to identify shortcomings, promote legislation, and monitor public policies.
Over the years, the organization expanded its scope of work beyond the strictly federal level. It began collaborating with state and municipal governments, designing training modules and manuals for public institutions, and supporting the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in different sectors, especially health, population, and social development. Its experience has been systematized in numerous publications, manuals, and guides that demonstrate how gender theory can be applied to the concrete realities of programs, operating rules, and budgets.
In parallel, Equidad strengthened its work in training women's leadership and promoting their political participation. From its inception, it has been committed to empowering women from diverse sectors—community organizations, youth groups, unions, public officials, and local leaders—to influence the public agenda. In this capacity, the organization has developed civic education campaigns, training programs on sexual and reproductive rights, initiatives against violence against women, and support for women participating in decision-making spaces, always guided by a feminist perspective on democracy and the rule of law.
Over time, Equidad ceased to be a "young" organization and consolidated itself as an actor with more than 20, and later more than 25, years of experience. Its trajectory led it to work closely with institutions such as the National Institute for Women, government ministries, local and federal congresses, as well as universities and international organizations. At the same time, it maintained a firm foothold in the feminist movement and regional networks, participating in spaces such as the Feminist Articulation of the Southern Cone (Articulación Feminista Marcosur) and in coalitions that promote economic justice, ecological justice, sexual and reproductive rights, and comprehensive care systems. Its intention from the beginning has been "to transform and improve our world," promoting gender equality to build more equitable societies.
On the international stage, Equidad has gained recognition as an expert organization in mainstreaming a gender perspective. Its contributions regarding gender-responsive budgeting, access to information, transparency, and citizen oversight have been incorporated into publications by international organizations and training programs in other Latin American countries. Today, the organization is part of multilateral forums and global networks, such as the Global Care Alliance, and participates in debates on gender-responsive fiscal policies, women's economic justice, and sustainable development models.
Currently, recent institutional documents describe Equidad as a feminist organization that promotes equality between women, men, all gender diversities, and the rule of law by advocating for gender-sensitive public policies, strengthening women's leadership, and fostering their civic participation in all spheres of political and social life. Its vision is a democratic society with broad citizen participation, where people can make decisions about their lives within a framework of the rule of law and institutions that mainstream a gender perspective. Its priority objectives include strengthening the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights; preventing and addressing violence against girls, adolescents, young people, and women; promoting sustainable work and the economy as a central element of daily life; recognizing and redistributing unpaid and care work; promoting ecological justice; and consolidating women's political participation and economic empowerment throughout the country.
Thus, the story of Equidad de Género: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia AC (Gender Equity: Citizenship, Work, and Family) can be read as the story of a sustained commitment: building on the impetus provided by Cairo and Beijing, creating a feminist organization that placed equality at the heart of Mexican democracy, and, over nearly three decades, weaving together budgets, laws, campaigns, assessments, training programs, and alliances so that women's rights translate into concrete changes in institutions and daily life. From a small organization founded in 1996 to strengthen women's capacity to understand and transform public policies, Equidad has become a national and international leader in gender, citizenship, work, and family issues, and continues to build, day by day, that "history of a cause" that today forms a fundamental part of the memory and present of the feminist movement in Mexico.
Members:
Adriana Patlán – General Director of Gender Equity
Patricia López – Director of Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Violence
Erika Yamada – Institutional Development Coordinator
Laura H. Esquivel – Innovation and Learning Coordinator
Emilia Reyes – Director of Policies and Budgets for Equality and Sustainable Development
Link: Isabela Boada Guglielmi
Contact: [email protected]
Social Media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/equidadgeneromx/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/equidadmx
X: https://x.com/equidadmx
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/equidadgenero/
Website: https://equidad.org.mx/
