Mexico's National Action Party on Women's Suffrage: Balancing Catholic Social Doctrine and Electoral Restructuring,1939-1950

This paper explores the slowly evolving position of Mexico's National Action Party (PAN) on women's suffrage, tracing their influences to Catholic Social Doctrine, as well as a changing political landscape. At least since the thirties, many considered that women's votes would increase the number of conservative voters in the electorate--precisely the PAN's constituency. However, the PAN was not at all a strong supporter of women's enfranchisement until the mid to late 1940s, during which time tensions remained within the organization. In this paper, such a position is uncovered to be the result of various intersecting factors, especially the authoritarian political environment in which the party was allowed to exist, and the Catholic doctrine imbued in much of their proposals.