Combating violence and feminicide in Mexico

In July 2018, the United Nations expressed grave concern over rising incidents of gender violence in Mexico. During the first six months of 2018, 402 women were brutally murdered. Female bodies are often found badly mutilated and discarded in garbage dumps or the desert areas that surround the maqulias or poorer working-class neighborhoods. Extreme violence against Mexican women was initially associated with the northern border city of Juarez. Over the years, however, women and girls have experienced obscene levels of violence throughout the country. From 1985 to present, approximately 50,000 have been murdered. The level of brutal violence perpetrated against Mexican women appears paradoxical for a country that in many ways has been at the forefront of promoting gender equality domestically and regionally through South-South development cooperation. In the article ‘Diffusing gender equality in the midst of a feminicide pandemic’ senior researcher Ninna Nyberg Sørensen discusses the breach between Mexico’s significant progress in establishing strong legislation to support gender equality and the state’s ability to implement and enforce legislation. The analysis shows that extreme gender violence is enacted not just as a tool of patriarchal control but also as a means of maintaining racial, economic, sexual and ideological hierarchies.