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Jeffrey Green Hon. American Studies 2/7/12 Candidacy tests Mexico's Culture of Machismo Summary  In Mexico City the Conservative ruling party is gambling on a change in politics. The conservative ruling party is hoping that they will be able to get the first women in office as the president. Josafina Vasquez Mota is a devout Roman Catholic that is a popular congresswoman who sympathizes with the poor. She is currently the first female presidential candidate in Mexico. Women in Mexico were granted the right to vote in 1953 and the first female governor in Mexico was not until 1999. The group that helped most with this recent development in the views of society was the National Action group. They have helped to get women elected to a political office in other Latin America countries recently. They hope that Mexico is ready to make a change in their views of women as political leaders. Vasquez Mota has been educated at some of Mexico’s finest private schools, and private universities. She then worked as a business consultant and business columnist for several years. Some of the first things she says she will do when elected to office would be to get rid of corruption and then improve education. The Mexican people are starting to distrust National Action who has been in power for 12 years and has not helped to solve the drug smuggling issue in which 47,000 people have died in five years due to the illegal narcotics industry in Mexico. Reflection  This information gives a sense of the growth in women’s equality since the first protests for woman’s suffrage over 100 years ago. This article relates to the new culture and ideals that newer generations grow up with, that new culture puts equality and unity on the forefront of their priorities. In 1871 the women of the United States wrote a petition to congress that said, “ … believing that under the present Federal Constitution all women who are citizens of the United States have the right to vote.”(National Archives) This was the start of a new culture that would shape society into what it is currently today. Mexico might be further behind with that new movement than the United States, but the US has not had a presidential election with a woman as a primary candidate. The globe will continue to further its progress in equality as long as the world is looking to take small steps that will lead to bigger steps. Currently the ratio of men to women in all the parliaments around the world is about 5:1. This ratio is much higher 42.3% in the Nordic countries where women have been viewed as equals for a much longer time than other regions. Also the Pacific region has the worst ratio of men to women in their parliaments 12.9%. Slowly the other countries will catch on to the growing trend and those numbers will increase (Women). Evaluation  In the future the best ratio for men to women in parliaments would be 1:1, but the world is not ready for such a change in the politics. They eventually, each country will take on this challenge and hopefully accept the new ways of politics. However, some countries are founded on religions that do not view women as equals and therefore those countries will not like the pressure of such changes. Arab countries that are founded on Islam only have 13.5% of women in their parliaments (Women). Will the future pose a change in politics or a change in the views of women? Will the women be able to make good decisions politically? There are no answers for these questions now, but in the future the world will be able to look back and answer them with little hesitation. Questions: 1.) Will the world be able to stand up to the stereotypes of society in politics? 2.) How will the world adapt to more female political influence? 3.) Will the US elect a female president in the next decade? 4.) What types of education do women in politics have to receive in order to be viewed as equals? 5.) Will this woman change the way Mexico is run?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Women in Parliaments." Women in Parliaments. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ipu.org/wmn- <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">e/world.htm>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Larger Image." National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 09 Feb. 2012. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><http://www.archives.gov/global-pages/larger-image.html?i=/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/images/petition-l.gif>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rodriguez, Olga R. "Candidacy Tests Mexico's Culture of Machismo - World News - Americas <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">– Msnbc.com." Msnbc.com - Breaking News, Science and Tech News, World News, US News, Local News- Msnbc.com. Web. 09 Feb. 2012. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46288885>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Women's Suffrage." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 09 Feb. 2012. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_suffrage>.