Participation of Women and Girls in National Education and the Science, Technology and Innovation System in Mexico, by Prof. Judith Zubieta and Monica Lurcher was launched on April 29, 2016 at Gender Summit 8. The book, sponsored by the Mexico office of S&T (CONACYT) was launched during the panel “Participation of women and girls in science and technology education“.
Key messages:
Key messages from the book include that Mexico has achieved progress in closing the gender gap, in large part due to advances in the health and education sectors. Although data show improvements in some indicators, they also indicate that Mexicans have not shared equally the benefits and improvements attained in the past two decades; southern Mexico has been consistently lagging behind the rest of the nation in quality-of-life indicators. Furthermore, and though remarkable progress has been made, rural living conditions still pale in comparison to those found in urban areas.
Mexico’s history, its rich cultural heritage, and its strategic geopolitical situation are part of the conditions Mexicans will have to deal with while confronting and attempting to change deep-seated social and cultural norms, beliefs and practices that weigh heavily on gender-based discrimination.