Throughout Mexico's history, women have endured systemic oppression. Beginning in colonial Mexico, gender hierarchies formed. The establishment of hierarchies, the patriarchy, and lack of independence forced women into submissive roles. After the first and second waves of feminism, dynamics between men and women changed, granting women more independence. As they gained freedom, violence escalated and by the 1980s a pattern of violence emerged. In 1993, the documentation of femicide began and rates continued to increase with little legal protection offered. The rise of social media and continued the discussion of the issue and brought to light all levels of violence.Though legislation was passed to protect women, it was not enough. Women continue to fight for their safety and bring awareness to the issue.

My Honors Thesis was a creative project in which I created a new course, The Road to Women’s Economic Empowerment (SGS 494). This course explores how different societal features affect the agency and economic development of women worldwide. We begin by defining women’s agency and conceptualizing the barriers to women’s economic empowerment. Barriers include gender norms, health conditions, degradation of environmental and/or natural capital, discrimination, and skewness in political representation. Each barrier is given further investigation through case studies in a variety of countries. We end the course by looking at policies and laws in different countries, evaluating their success and failures to improve women’s economic and social autonomy. This is an online course which includes video interviews and podcasts from scholars and activists, a quiz every other week, video posts which enable discussion of material with peers, and a final project to apply the concepts introduced in class.