Gender Equity in the Mexican Workplace

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Region
Country
Project Duration
December 2021
-
June 2026
Funding and Year
FY
2021
: USD
10,000,000

The Gender Equity in the Mexican Workplace project works to empower women to gain representation in union leadership in order to strengthen protections, address discrimination and harassment at work, and augment wages.

The Problem

In February 2017, Mexico enacted landmark constitutional reforms, which aim to transform its labor justice system into a more transparent and impartial system to better protect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. In May 2019, the President of Mexico signed into law the necessary legislation to fully implement the 2017 constitutional reforms. As a result, hundreds of thousands of collective bargaining agreements will need to be reviewed and voted on by union members. 

In addition to these reforms, several articles of Mexico’s federal labor law codify prohibitions and responsibilities to prevent and address workplace discrimination and violence both on the part of employers and within unions. Given gender discrimination in the workplace and challenges to decent work is widespread, there are considerable barriers to implement these laws.

Our Strategy

Worker organizations are essential to improving gender equality through advocating with employers but also within their ranks. This project will leverage the unique opportunity of the legitimization of hundreds of thousands of collective bargaining agreements and the creation of new, democratic unions by elevating women to union leadership roles who take actions to minimize the gender pay gap, strengthen worker protections, and secure decent work.

Grantee:
Partners of the Americas
Contact Information:
(202) 693-4900 / Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA)
Tags:
Gender inequalities
Capacity Building
USMCA Technical Assistance
Women’s Empowerment