however the story of how gender equality became a nationwide priority and how quotas were progressively enforced belongs to a more complex framework it tells how political parties played a primary role and mexican women s leadership and ability to build crossparty alliances functioned as a catalyst for change sparking fruitful debate within and between parties in the national legislature and public opinion while women in the parties were the driving force with some senior officials and powerful figures using their influence to muster support inside and outside the party they could not have pushed quotas through without the support of their parties