Mujeres al Poder Forum: Discussing women in power, challenges and technology ahead of elections

Why is it important to have more diverse women in spaces of power for democracy in Latin America? How does misinformation and online gender violence operate against them now that they are conquering political spaces? How is artificial intelligence beginning to play a role in the political participation efforts by women and underrepresented groups? These and other questions will be up for discussion this Tuesday in Mexico at the forum ‘Mujeres al poder, representación política y tecnología en elecciones (Women in power, political representation and technology during elections), organized by EL PAÍS América and Luminate, the alliance behind the Women Leaders of Latin America project. The event will feature numerous women with a public voice.

With less than a month to go before a national election in Mexico, where there are two women candidates with a strong chance of winning, the debate becomes increasingly relevant, and even more so because the forum is organized around solutions and an exploration of the challenges and difficulties faced by women who reach positions of power. One of the guest speakers who will discuss online gender violence is Salma Luévano, Mexico’s first trans lawmaker, who has suffered it firsthand; other Mexican speakers include Senator Beatriz Paredes of the PRI party, the politician and feminist Martha Tagle; and Rita Bell López, Advisor for the National Electoral Institute (INE).

To explore specifically how this violence operates in electoral scenarios, forum organizers have brought in Cecilia Galván, an Argentine researcher at Civic Compass; Fiorella Fabbri, corporate communications manager at Google Mexico; as well as Glenda Mitchel, public policy manager for Meta in Mexico, and Grecia Macías, a lawyer for the digital rights defense network R3D.

This latter organization has published a comprehensive report called Electoral Censorship ahead of the upcoming elections. “When it comes to gender-based violence in the digital sphere, it is important to ensure that removing the content is not considered the only measure available to confront it,” says the report. Approaches to freedom of expression will be addressed by Pedro Vaca, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The gathering will end with a look at the future: the debate on the regulation of AI and social media. Guest experts on the topic include Alejandra Lagunes, a senator for the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), Ruth Alejandra López, a senator for Mexico’s Citizen Movement, and Nina Santos, director of Aláfia Lab Brasil and a member of the Steering Group of the Global Coalition for Tech Justice.

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