Institutional male chauvinism affecting undocumented migrant women heading north
María López explores how migrant women in transit through Mexico are exposed to institutional and feminicidal violence, yet are able to create spaces of resistance.
Institutional male chauvinism affecting undocumented migrant women heading north
12 Jun 2025, 12:00 – 13:00
More than 13.4 million undocumented migrants headed north through Mexico between 2019 and 2024, and about 31% are women and girls. In transit through Mexico, they face the risk of crime and impunity and encounter a migration policy of control and containment: arbitrary detention, extortion, lack of empathy and corruption.
Drawing on the concepts of male chauvinism, institutional violence in the region, feminicidal violence, and interviews with women in a migrant shelter in Mexico City in 2023, María presents institutional machismo as a set of exclusionary norms and practices against migrant women perpetuated by state actors that diminish their agency and jeopardise some women’s chances of advancing their journey and overcoming learned gender values.
Although the narrative of the journey cannot be seen as an emancipatory mechanism, it emerges as an ‘embryonic space of resistance’ from which many women emerge empowered and autonomous.
This event will be particularly useful for policymakers, sociologists, anthropologists and scholars in gender studies, women's studies and/or migration.
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Image
Joe Hernandez via Unsplash.
Professor of Sociology and Deputy Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre
London Metropolitan University
Her research examines the challenges faced by marginalised groups, including undocumented migrant women in Mexico and Afghan refugees in the UK, and develops innovative responses to them.
Further information
Ticketing
Open
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes
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