The “State Feminism” of Amalia de Castillo Ledón during the Governments of Emilio Portes Gil and Lázaro Cárdenas

Abstract

This article examines the trajectory of Amalia de Castillo Ledón during the presidencies of Emilio Portes Gil and Lázaro Cárdenas, presenting the first analysis of how the government posts she held -with ever greater responsibility- inside the country, together with the diplomatic assignments she fulfilled from 1929 to 1939, won her a position in Mexico’s post-revolutionary elite that she succeeded in conserving throughout her lifetime. The experiences acquired, and lessons learned, in the Direction of Popular Recreation, the Department of the Federal District, Luis Castillo Ledón’s government in Nayarit, and as a diplomatic representative to the Pan-American Round Table in San Antonio, Texas, and the Inter-American Commission on Women, nourished and shaped the “state feminism” that would define Castillo Ledón’s trajectory, which resulted in her becoming the woman with the greatest political power in the mid-20^th century. Analysis is based on previously unexplored documents from the Archivo Histórico de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores