A woman watches over tortillas cooking in her home in Santa Maria Quiegolani, Mexico. Being a woman isn’t easy in this poor rural village where Zapotec is the native language and most girls are lucky to complete grade school. In some of the country's rural towns, women have no voice and no vote. A Oaxacan villager didn't accept that, and she took on the system.

Following the resignation of Mexico's attorney general Thursday, Marisela Morales was quickly nominated to fill the post. Michelle Obama recently lauded her 'unfailing drive. If ratified by the Mexican Senate, Morales would be the first woman to hold the male-dominated post – the significance of which would resonate widely in a nation that lags behind the region in terms of gender equality. Mexico places 91 on the World Economic Forum’s 2010 Global Gender Gap Report, one of the lowest rankings in Latin America and only better than Belize, Suriname, and Guatemala.

Mexico's governing conservative party has for the first time selected a woman candidate to run in the country's presidential election.

Mexico's governing conservative party has for the first time selected a woman candidate to run in the country's presidential election.

Former education minister Josefina Vazquez Mota beat Ernesto Cordero, the preferred candidate of Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Mexico’s gender quota system has made a significant difference for women seeking election to the Mexican Congress. In the last 15 years, the percentage of seats occupied by women has increased from 10 to 26 percent.  

But at the municipal level, women have not had such success. The number of women mayors in the country averages 5.5 percent, and in some areas the percentages are smaller. An example is the Mexican state of Michoacán, on the central western coast, which elected just three women mayors in its 113 municipalities.