Patricia Galeana, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), presented the National Gender Survey as part of the opening of the “How Mexicans See Themselves: Major National Issues” collection, and said that in 88.1 percent of Mexican households, violence is part of family life and is seen as normal and that gender inequality continues to prevail in the country.
The survey was conducted among 1,000 people from different states of the country and social strata. It shows that a number of stereotypes that denigrate women are still present within Mexican society, said Galeana.
From the results, Galeana learned that being a woman is still associated with the traits of being a mother or a caretaker of other people. That is, that women are seen as more emotional and men are still seen mainly as more rational and a supplier for families.
The survey shows that Mexicans think that some of the disadvantages of being a woman are inequality, discrimination, their biological condition, harassment and abuse. However, Galeana cited that, compared to women, men said that the only disadvantage of being a male is that they can’t get pregnant.
More than 68 percent of men and 57.4 percent of women said that they had suffered from physical violence during their childhoods.
The survey also shows that income is mainly handled by men, even if they are unemployed and the woman is the one who works in the household. Other data obtained showed that homosexuality is more tolerated in men than in women; that men have a tendency to an irrepressible sexual desire, explaining their being unfaithful; that divorced women are less likely to find a sexual partner than men; that many still believe that for a woman to be fulfilled she must become a mother, but they don’t believe that men need to become fathers; and that it is preferable that the firstborn is a male.
