Paridad en Todo — Mexico's 2019 Constitutional Gender Parity Reform

In June 2019, Mexico's Congress amended nine constitutional articles to require 'paridad en todo' -- gender parity in the composition (not just candidacies) of the executive, legislative and judicial branches at federal, state and municipal levels, building on a 2014 quota law requiring alternating candidate lists.

Under the preceding 2014 law, the 2018 elections already produced 48.6% women in the Chamber of Deputies (246 of 500 seats) and 50.8% in the Senate (65 of 128 seats), per IPU Parline data; the 2021 midterm elections, the first held after the 2019 constitutional reform, kept the Chamber close to parity (about 48%) and delivered a record number of female state governors.

Numeric parity has not eliminated resistance: in 2009 eight elected female deputies (the 'Juanitas') resigned in favour of male substitutes, prompting a tribunal ruling requiring same-gender substitutes; a 2020 federal law against gender-based political violence followed documented harassment of women officials during the 2020-21 electoral cycle.