violence against women in mexico violence against women in mexico violence against women in mexico includes different forms of gender-based violence. it may consist of emotional, physical, sexual, and/or mental abuse. the united nations (un) has rated mexico as one of the most violent countries for women in the world. according to the national institute of statistics and geography in mexico (inegi), 66.1 percent of all women ages 15 and older have experienced some kind of violence in their lives. forty-nine percent have suffered from emotional violence; 29 percent have suffered from emotional-patrimonial violence or discrimination; 34 percent from physical violence; and 41.3 percent of women have suffered from sexual violence. of the women who were assaulted in some form from 2015 to 2018, 93.7 percent of them did not seek help or report their attacks to authorities. part of a series onviolence against women killing bride burning dowry death honor killing femicide infanticide matricide 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november 6 february by country violence against women violence against men violence against lgbt people there are different explanations for the causes of these high numbers of violence; scholars have looked at the cultural roots as well as economic policies and changes that have led to a recent growth in the amount of gender-based violence. there was a rise of international attention looking at the state of violence against women in mexico in the early 1990s, as the number of missing and murdered women in the northern border city of ciudad juárez began to rise dramatically. women in the mexican drug war (2006–present) have been raped, tortured, and murdered in the conflict. women have also been victims of sex trafficking in mexico. while legislation and different policies have been put in place to decrease violence against women in mexico, different organizations have shown that these policies have had little effect on the state of violence due to a lack of proper implementation. cultural roots susan pick, carmen contreras, and alicia barker-aguilar, researchers from the mexican institute for family and population research (imifap), examine the cultural roots that play a role in the current state of violence against women in mexico. they look into the culture of "machismo" that has created a feeling of superiority or entitlement for men in mexico. women, on the other hand, have been traditionally put into roles of subservience due to the culture of "marianismo" and have had less access to knowledge and power to discuss and change the current norms. they call violence against women "an expression of male power," and they include institutional forms of violence, such as lack of access to resources or types of freedom. origin of machismo and marianismo liberation theologian virgil elizondo has argued, "the devotion to mary is the most popular, persistent, and original characteristic of latin american christianity". other scholars have also agreed with this point of view, arguing that when spanish conquistador, hernan cortes, landed in tenochtitlan (present day mexico city) in 1519, he imposed spains' gender norms and christian evangelization beliefs on to the indigenous societies. as a result of spanish colonization, the ideological gender models of marianismo and machismo were embedded into mexican society. pre-colonial gender norms pre colonial indigenous groups such as the mexica, quechua and the aztecs believed in a gender complementary and parallel society; men and women operated in two separate but equal, interdependent divisions. for example, both aztec men and women had their own political systems in which same-sex rulers were appointed to government. these appointed officials would then discuss political related concerns over the general population and generate solutions together. men nor women overpowered one another because the aztecs believed that the creation of a human was equally made by both genders, therefore they were each to be treated and respected equally within society. as a result, women had many political freedoms and the opportunity to achieve economic independence. women had the liberty to choose from a variety of jobs ranging from being a midwife to a market trader. in addition, they could own various forms of wealth assets including: houses, land and movable goods. if a woman owned land before marriage, she still maintained independent control over her property and could choose who inherited her assets without needing the disclosure of her husband. the term "woman land" is found across nahuatl documents, the aztec language, indicating land was passed down to a woman either through "inheritance, dowries, or gifts". however, aztec women's rights were taken away with the arrival of spanish conquistadors. post-colonial gender norms when the spanish conquered tenotchitlan in the 16th century, indigenous societies became male dominated as women could no longer hold positions in government or religion, nor have control over their own personal assets. in 1530 the spanish converted the once male and female controlled mexican urban market into a solely male supervised system. thus, men had control over price management in the market, and prohibited women from purchasing or owning land without consent of their husbands. cacicas, elite women in the aztec empire, were forced to surrender their power to their husbands once they were married. it is argued by karen powers, an ethnohistorian, that as indigenous men were given more authoritative power by the spanish, the "machista" mentality started to plague their minds. under spanish law, the church granted men authority to punish their wives or sisters if they failed to be obedient. indigenous women were strongly advised to follow the tenets of the virgin mary, often referred by scholars as "marianismo". women were forced to embody the submissive, chastity and modest nature of the virgin mary. if the catholic church suspected a woman was not following these pillars they were viewed as evil and were closely monitored. the spanish conquest changed the division of labor in the aztec society, women were now expected to remain at home, attend to their husband and children. alternative perspective renowned mexican psychologist samuel ramos has offered a different explanation as to the origination of machismo. he argues indigenous men adopted a hyper masculine attitude as a result of feeling inferior to spanish conquistadors. this "machista" attitude was then adopted by indigenous men to compensate for not being able to protect their land from the spanish. economic roots mercedes olivera looks at the way that gender dynamics have changed recently, especially with the introduction of neoliberal economic policies in mexico. mercedes olivera is a researcher at the center for higher studies of mexico and central america in the universidad de ciencias y artes of chiapas, and she is involved in the independent women's movement and the center for women's rights. olivera argues that as poverty, unemployment, and insecurity have increased in mexico, more women have started joining the workplace in order to attempt to escape their situations. this progression of increasing numbers of women in the workplace has threatened the concept of a division of labor between men and women, where men's place was the workplace and that the duties of the women are in the home. according to olivera, this change has affected men's self-image and harmed their personal sense of "machismo" or superiority. types of violence femicide femicide, also known as feminicide, is defined in a report by the world health organization (who) as the "intentional murder of women because they are women." similarly, it is defined by un women, unite to end violence against women, and the office of the united nations high commissioner for human rights as "the violent death of women for reasons of gender." femicide is categorized as a specific type of violence against women or gender violence, which the un described in 1979 as "a mechanism of domination, control, oppression, and power over women." amnesty international estimates that there were 34,000 female homicides in mexico between 1986 and 2009. in 2012, mexico was ranked as the 16th country with the highest rates of femicides. moreover, between 2011 and 2016, there were an average of 7.6 female homicides per day. in 2016, mexico had a rate of 4.6 femicides per 100,000 women, and there were a total of 2,746 female deaths with the presumption of them being homicides. in this same year, the top three states with the highest rates of female deaths with presumption of homicide were colima (with 16.3 deaths per 100,000 women), guerrero (13.1 per 100,000 women), and zacatecas (9.7 per 100,000 women). the top three municipalities in 2016 were acapulco de juárez (24.22 per 100,000 women), tijuana (10.84 per 100,000 women), and juárez (10.36 per 100,000 women). during the years 2002–2010, the state of chihuahua had the highest rate of female homicides in the world: 58.4 per 100,000 women. after 2010, the rates of femicide in the municipality of juárez did decrease significantly; in 2011, the rate of female deaths with presumption of homicides was 31.49 per 100,000 women, and by 2016 it had decreased to 10.36 per 100,000 women. however, in 2019, the mexican government recorded 1,006 incidents of femicide — a 10 percent increase from 2018. for this same year an average of 10 women were killed every day in mexico, while two years before in 2017 the rate was at seven per day . female deaths with presumption of homicide, 2000-2016 year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 rate per 100,000 women 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.6 2.5 2.6 2.6 2.2 2.8 3.6 4.5 5.1 5.0 4.6 4.1 4.0 4.6 crosses in the city of ciudad juárez, chihuahua, were placed in the spot where 8 victims of femicide were found in 1996. femicide in ciudad juárez ciudad juárez is a city in northern mexico in the state of chihuahua located on the border between mexico and the united states; it is located within the municipality of juárez, chihuahua. the first major cases of female homicides in ciudad juárez were in the early 1990s, during which the city and events gained international attention. it is claimed by scholars, that the initial rise in femicide cases in ciudad juárez were related to the establishment of the maquiladora industry in 1993. over the course of just a decade, hundreds of women were reported missing. according to a report by amnesty international, in 2010 there were 320 women killed in the city of ciudad juárez. amnesty international has also reported the lack of response by authorities in ciudad juárez and mexico, as well as the irregularities in investigations concerning missing or killed women. maquiladoras and nafta in 1993, the north american free trade agreement (nafta) was signed by the united states, mexico and canada. the purpose of nafta was to help north american countries remain competitive within the global market. as a result of the agreement, industries expanded and the three countries were able to trade at low cost. american industries such as general electric, alcoa and dupont transferred their factory locations to juarez, mexico to take advantage of the cheap labor. in fact 80% of border factories/maquiladoras in juarez are u.s. owned. nafta helped create 1.2 million jobs in mexico, and over 25% of those opportunities were in the maquiladoras of juarez. elvia arriola, professor at northern illinois university college of law, has argued that the creation of jobs attracted over tens of thousands of poor women from all over mexico and central america to juarez. according to the council of hemispheric affairs, women earned an average of fifty five dollars for the 48 hours they worked a week at a maquiladoras. rosa fregoso, professor and former chair of latin american