Photo: Deposit Photos

By KELIN DILLON

According to the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography’s (Inegi) annual National Survey on the Dynamics of Relationships in Households 2021 (Endireh), more than 70.1 percent of Mexico’s 50 million-plus women over the age of 15 have experienced at least one violent situation throughout the past 12 months, statistics reflective of Mexico’s enduring femicide crisis.

The Endireh looked at Mexican women’s violent experiences across the previous 12 months, with the 2021 iteration specifically targeting violence experienced between October 2020 and October 2021. The recently released survey results from 2021 revealed a four point increase in total violence against Mexican women since 2016’s Endireh was taken, with sexual violence reportedly rising by 8.4 percent across this time frame.

The 2021 results continued to show that 51.6 percent of Mexican women have experienced psychological violence, 49.7 percent have been victims of sexual violence and a further 27.4 percent have suffered from economic and patrimonial violence.

The highest levels of violence during this time period were reported in the Mexico City metropolitan area, with 78.7 percent of women in the State of México (Edoméx), 76.2 percent of women in the capital itself, and 75.2 percent of women in the nearby state of Querétaro reporting violent experiences in the survey. 

By contrast, the lowest instances of violent acts were reported in Tamaulipas, at a 61.7 percent prevalence rate, Zacatecas, with 53.9 percent, and Chiapas, coming in at the lowest level of reported violence against women at 48.7 percent.

The survey went on to reveal that the majority of violence against Mexican women across the 12-month period was experienced in the community space, followed by the workplace, partner-borne domestic violence, violence at school and violence within the family.

The 2021 Endireh likewise detailed that the covid-19 pandemic and its related quarantine and social distancing restrictions could have put Mexican women in increased risk of violence at home, though most women indicated that the level of familial violence did not grow during the pandemic.

While 5.2 percent of women said that violence within their romantic partnerships increased during the pandemic, 13.2 percent of surveyed women said that it decreased and another 41.8 percent said it stayed the same.