Mexican women were granted the right to run for office and to vote in national elections in 1953.

Prior to the early 1900s, women with voting rights equal to men were rare. Today, most women around the world have the right to vote. Although an organized women's suffrage movement developed in Mexico after the Revolution of 1910, Mexico was not among the first nations to grant women the right to vote. Like most countries in Latin America, heavily influenced by the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church and fears of left-wing party leaders, Mexico was slow to approve universal women's suffrage. In Mexico, this right was first granted to women on a municipal level in 1947. On this day in 1953, the full rights of citizenship, including the right to run for office and to vote in national elections, were granted to all adult women in Mexico.

Women began to play a role in national government in Mexico soon after enfranchisement. The first female Cámara de Diputados (House) member was elected in 1954 and the first two Mexican women were elected to the Cámara de Senadores (Senate) in 1964. The first woman was named as cabinet deputy secretary in 1959 and as secretary in 1981. The first woman governor was elected in 1979. As of July 2005, 24.2% of seats in the Cámara de Diputados (House) and 21.9% of seats in the Cámara de Senadores (Senate) were held by women, compared to a world average of 16% and 14.9%, respectively and an average throughout the Americas of 18.8% 19.5%, respectively.

EDSITEment
Students research archival material to examine nineteenth and early twentieth century arguments for and against women's suffrage in Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage (6–8).

In Cultural Change (9–12), students examine some of the arguments used to win the vote for women in the United States.

ReadWriteThink
Students explore many aspects of voting, includes voting history, voting rights and current elections in Voting! What’s It All About? (3–5). Although the lesson focuses on elections in the U.S., it could be adapted to examine the 2006 Mexican elections.