possible to rapidly resolve specific problems, it also makes it more difficult to gen-
erate lasting programs and organizational structures. The lack of stable and repre-
sentative organizational structures is a serious impediment to consolidating the
women's movement in Mexico. A related problem is representational leadership.
Movement leaders tend to rise not through democratic mechanisms of election
but through personal charisma. This can seriously confuse issues of representa-
tion and voice within the movement and in its public face.

In spite of these difficulties, new channels for women's participation in the
movement are being opened. Clearly, the movement's priorities are being reform-
ulated in terms of autonomy and pluralism. Feminists in political parties, realiz-
ing that none of the parties treats women's issues seriously, have established alli-
ances with women doing political work outside of party organizations. The high
value set on autonomy has led to a number of agreements or accords on specific
issues. These experiences have demonstrated the need for a larger number of
women to be present when all decisions are made. Feminists have initiated a na-
tional campaign for affirmative action, and they are raising the issue of equality.
They have taken the political notion of democracy and applied it more broadly,
calling for recognition of and respect for difference.

Thus, on the threshold of the turn of the century, Mexican women face the
challenge of developing a more structured and better organized movement with a
broader capability for influence in a number of areas: lobbying the government as
it defines public policy, improving women's economic situation in the public and
private spheres, influencing political parties to incorporate feminist perspectives
into their platforms and sponsor more women as candidates, making the public
more aware of gender issues, and encouraging artists, critics, and intellectuals to
include the criticism of sexism in their work. The women's movement's most crit-
ical challenge is to work with the majority of Mexican women, who in their isola-
tion suffer poverty and machismo silently, to discover that collective action with
other women offers an effective way to address the pressing problems of their
daily lives.

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