THE BATON AND FEMALE MUNICIPAL PRESIDENTS IN OAXACA

Abstract

The principle of parity has enabled a quantitative increase in female municipal presidents. However,
this has concurrently disrupted some word views of power built on a patriarchal basis, causing
important resistances within Indigenous Normative Systems. The analysis of women in decision
making positions in Oaxaca implies a multicultural approach, one that legally acknowledges the
existence of multiethnic municipalities, as well as the right of indigenous representation in local
administrations. The entrustment of the baton implies a cosmogonic indigenous vision in which wise
men engage in, holding a symbolic power that only men can seize. Thus, power, honor, and social
recognition are bestowed upon them, and in turn they become instruments of symbolic production.
For their part, indigenous women have demanded the observance of their advancing politicalelectoral rights, and have renegotiated gender norms.