How Gender Disparity Exacerbates Mexico's Economic Woes

We’re all familiar with Mexico, right? Sun, beaches, tequila… and apparently, a looming fiscal reckoning that’s been whispered about like a bad rumor at a high school party. It’s 2025, mark your calendars, because according to Enrique Provencio Durazo, coordinator of the University Program for Development Studies (PUED), that’s when the fiscal chickens are finally coming home to roost. And these aren’t just any chickens, these are debt-ridden, austerity-plagued, possibly rabid chickens.

Durazo, speaking at the 17th National Dialogue for a Social Mexico (a title so bureaucratic it could induce a coma), reminded everyone that this isn’t exactly breaking news. Back in 2021, the Ministry of Finance itself basically pre-announced this impending doom, suggesting 2024 as the initial date of impact. But, like a delayed flight on a budget airline, it’s been pushed back. 2025. It has a certain ominous ring to it, doesn't it?

Now, here’s the truly delicious part, the kind of tragicomic irony that makes life worth living (or at least worth writing about): Even in 2023, the powers that be were acknowledging that hitting those oh-so-important Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 would require a 5.4 percentage point annual bump in public income. It’s like knowing you need to lose 50 pounds but continuing to order the double cheeseburger with extra fries.

Durazo put it rather diplomatically, suggesting that the ongoing debate seems to operate under the assumption that “nothing will be needed.” Nothing! As if fiscal responsibility is some kind of magical unicorn that will just prance into the treasury and solve all their problems. This, he warns, will lead to “a mediocre development perspective,” a “rampant expansion” that simply kicks the can down the road, a fiscal game of hot potato where everyone knows who’s going to get burned in the end.

José Ignacio Casar Pérez, a researcher at PUED and the moderator of this delightful descent into economic despair, brought in Armando Sánchez Vargas, director of the Institute of Economic Research, to add some international flavor to the gloom. Vargas pointed out that while the global economy is sort of recovering from the pandemic, it’s doing so with the enthusiasm of a sloth on tranquilizers. And there’s this whole “uncertainty” thing hanging over everything, thanks to protectionism and global policies, which, let’s be honest, is just a fancy way of saying “everyone’s kind of making it up as they go along.”

So, what’s the solution? According to Vargas, we need a good old-fashioned industrial and commercial policy. You know, the kind that promotes employment and growth, the kind that involves public-private investment and an increase in private consumption. It’s all very sensible, very… textbook. But, as Vargas himself admits, a lot of this is out of Mexico’s hands. It’s about the “global context,” about how the North American economy is doing. It's like trying to control the weather – you can put up a fancy windsock, but ultimately, you’re at the mercy of the elements.

And then there’s Lorena Rodríguez León, director of the Faculty of Economics, who brings us to the heart of the matter: the ever-present, ever-frustrating issue of gender inequality. She lays it out with the cold, hard data: in 2022, women in the workforce spent 25 percent less time on paid work than men, but a whopping 121 percent more time on unpaid household and caregiving tasks. 121 percent! That’s not a gap, that’s a chasm. It’s a gaping maw of unpaid labor that sucks the life force out of women’s economic potential.

Rodríguez León cites various studies that paint a stark picture: nearly 65 percent of people caring for family members at home are women. This isn't just a social issue; it's an economic one. It perpetuates inequality, deepens the gender pay gap, and limits women’s ability to combine care duties with their careers. The solution? The National Care System, of course. But the question, as always, is how to build it, how to fund it, how to make it a reality rather than just another well-intentioned policy paper gathering dust on a shelf.

So, Mexico in a nutshell: a looming fiscal crisis, a global economy teetering on the edge, and a deeply entrenched gender inequality that continues to hold the country back. It’s a story of good intentions, missed opportunities, and the ever-present feeling that things could be so much better. It's a story, in other words, that’s tragically, frustratingly, and undeniably human.