Parity in Public Administration as a Moving Target: The Role of Women Policy Agencies in Mexico

Abstract

Following the Beijing Conference Women's Policy Agencies were established in almost all Latin American states to promote gender parity at all levels of government. However, public administrations have not yet achieved gender parity. To explore why, we conducted a case study of two Women's Policy Agencies in Mexico that share the constitutional mandate of “parity in everything”: INMUJERES at the national level, which has a low hierarchical status, and the Ministry of Women in Oaxaca, which has a high one. Based on two original datasets and interviews, we found that neither hierarchy nor legal mandates guarantee gender parity, as both agencies exhibit low capacity and operate within gendered state apparatuses.