As part of the commemoration of International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8, we recognize the important contribution that women make to the Fresh Produce Industry, with special attention to the women who collaborate in our organization and in the farming companies that are members of the Veggies from Mexico community.

Below we share the opinions of some of the women who work in the farming operations:

On this day, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) shares some statistics:

– According to the Population and Housing Census 2020, in Mexico, there are 64.540.634 women, who compose 51,2% of the total population.

– Of the total employed population aged 25 and over who work as officials and managers in the public, private and social sectors, 39,0% are women.

– In 2018, 40,7% of judgeships and magistracies in state courts and superior courts of justice were held by women; 48,2% and 49,2% of positions in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate were held by women; and in municipal councils, 44,9% were alderwomen, syndics, or municipal presidents.

– Women own one-third (36,6%) of micro, small and medium-sized manufacturing, commerce, and private non-financial services establishments (MSMEs). Women owners hire more women to work (two paid women for every man) and 86,1% of their staff remain employed throughout the year.

– The gender gap in total workload (paid and unpaid) is 13,4 hours per week on average.

In 1975, during International Women’s Year, the United Nations first commemorated International Women’s Day. Two years later, the United Nations General Assembly officially formalized the Day, although its first celebration dates to February 28, 1909, when the Socialist Party of America designated the day in memory of the textile workers’ strike the previous year in New York City, United States.

Subsequently, in 1979, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the most comprehensive international instrument, whose main objective is to protect the human rights of women. The Convention requires the Member States to eliminate discrimination against women in the public and private spheres, including the family, and aims to achieve substantive equality between women and men, both in law and in real life.

It should be noted that CEDAW is the second most ratified international instrument by the UN Member States, which Mexico signed in 1980 and ratified on March 23, 1981.

In terms of gender equality, it is of great relevance to highlight that the Mexican Congress has parity in the representation of men and women legislators, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies. It is also noteworthy that the current Mexican government has the highest number of women in the presidential cabinet.

This international day is commemorated around the world to raise awareness of the importance of empowering women in all environments, protecting their rights, and ensuring that they can reach their full potential; it also serves to highlight the inequality and discrimination that women still experience around the world, as well as to enforce their rights, including the need to eliminate the wage gap, so that women receive the same pay for doing the same work as men, increase the presence of women in leadership positions and eliminate the double working day.

It is also important to note that UNESCO works in all its fields of competence to promote gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment within the framework of its mandate for peace and sustainable societies. Gender equality has been one of the organization’s two global priorities since 2008: