Gender stereotypes hinder access to justice

Gender stereotypes produce discrimination and prevent women from exercising their rights and freedoms fully; they are victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, or cannot freely decide how to dress for fear of being assaulted in the street, said Monica Gonzalez Contró, from the Institute of Legal Research (IIJ) of the UNAM.

Participating in the seminar of the Institute of Neurobiology (INB) on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25N, the jurist added: when judgments are not made with a gender perspective, unjust rulings can be reached from the blind application of the law, because "it leads to decisions based on stereotypes and not on evidence".

Meanwhile, during the work of the Conservatory "Keys. Reading as self-defense", the director of the Center for Research and Gender Studies (CIEG), Marisa Belausteguigoitia, considered that reading is one of the most important and effective keys that also function as a defense of the person, "it depends on the books you read, they make you strong".

González Contró added that socially assumed stereotypes normalize violent behavior, from unwanted compliments to domestic violence; they also hinder access to justice. Stereotyping, the expert explained, can constitute an indispensable mental process because to know the world we organize and categorize it; however, it can deny rights and benefits, impose a burden, marginalize a person or violate his or her dignity.

The former general counsel of the UNAM recalled that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation determined that the situation of vulnerability, disadvantages, and historical discrimination must be considered so that there is true access to justice. She provided elements to judge with a gender perspective; "although it refers to the Judiciary, it is very important that this perspective is transversal to public policy, teaching and research activities, hiring criteria, etc. It applies to many areas. It applies to many areas. Among other aspects, it obliges the judge to identify whether there are situations of power that, for gender reasons, indicate an imbalance between the parties to the dispute.

Violent behavior is socially normalized. Reading and writing function as a defense of the person.

Finally, in the session where the director of the INB, María Teresa Morales Guzmán, was also present, she emphasized that UNAM is carrying out concrete actions to try to "level the floor", such as the creation of the Coordination for Gender Equality, which makes the gender perspective transversal, so that the condition of inequality can be overcome, among other actions.

Reading and writing strengthen them

In her speech, Marisa Belausteguigoitia said that the discussion "Keys. Reading as self-defense", arose to test "a certain type of protection, to reproduce skills that allow women to protect themselves and thus defend their integrity, decisions, freedom, body, time, and space, and result in creative acts".

Students from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters participated in this discussion, who found in reading and writing a way to raise their voices by exclaiming and spelling out their decisions, expressing their fears, and thus safeguarding their freedom, speaking out about what shames them, and showing their courage.

In turn, Patricia Piñones Vázquez, professor of the Faculty of Psychology and CIEG researcher, indicated that shame is resignified through reading and sharing it in the classroom, "writing as an act, as an instrument of defense, can allow us many possibilities to raise our voices".