ABSTRACT
Did the Mexican feminist movement of the ’70s and ’80s have an impact on “common” Mexican women? There is a long history of academic research that has investigated the roots of female oppression around the world. This research, however, has been conducted mostly by European and American scholars who, at some point, overlooked women’s issues from other countries who live under different historical, social, and cultural contexts. Latin American theorists in general, and Mexican theorists in particular, have applied these European and American theories to women’s situation in Mexico. Many Mexican academicians have explored, written, and published a vast number of books and articles about the issues that most affect the lives of Mexican women. However, there appears to be no praxis whatsoever, since these discoveries fail to reach the “common” women whose knowledge of this research and these theories is non-existent. Peasants and working-class women do not share the same needs as those of women in medium and high social levels, of mestizas, of the well educated, and those with access to better professional jobs. While poor women strive to survive under a dire economy and sometimes a racist and violent society against them, upper class women face a different reality because of their social status in Mexican society. Many Mexican women may feel alienated from what is researched and published about women’s issues in general.
