| Abstract: | The Mujeres de Yucatan por la Democracia(Yucatecan Women for Democracy; MYD) is a reformistcivic association focusing on the politicaltransformation of democracy, organized to confront theMexican state. The MYD, struggling against the status quo andactive in the fight for democratic transformation, hasbecome a means for self-empowering its members. Althoughthe MYD's activism does not, on the surface, appear to threaten gender hierarchy, thedivision of labor, or the politics of women's dailylives, it does affect gender relations. Attitudes ofwomen towards themselves are changing, their home-lives are being transformed, and their work-lives arealso changing. As to the possible long-term effects ofthese changes, we can only conjecture that they have thepotential for introducing new values into daily life in a culture that traditionally hassilenced women's voices. These are transitional times inMexico where the women activists of MYD will not retreatto their way of life before the MYD was founded. The MYD has transformed women's self-definitionand fundamentally affected their view ofsociety. |
