Shock jock rails against Mexico's modern women

A study by the Minnesota Population Center (MPC) at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis indicates that that figure has jumped 50 percent since 1990 and almost quadrupled since 1970.

Education for women has skyrocketed, too - especially in Monterrey. Here, women make up half of the student body at the city's major universities, according to Susana González, who runs the Nuevo Leon State Commission for Women.

Various studies also indicate that urban women in particular are marrying later, having fewer children, and increasingly insisting that their partners share in the burden of homemaking.

"A lot of Mexican men think that if they give you money, you should have breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the table for them," says Marie Angelica Parilla, a Monterrey mother of five who also works outside the home. "Now I'm earning money, too, and still I should do all the housework? Who is the slob here?"

Women's groups say that despite progress on the work front, there's still a long way to go before Mexican women achieve equality. Levels of domestic violence, rape, and sexual abuse remain high, with few efforts to address the problem, they say.

Fair labor legislation is another issue. Mexico's Congress will shortly consider a bill which would ensure women equal pay, better working conditions, and improved job security.

Muzquiz insists his show isn't misogynistic, and says he and his cohost have spoken out against spousal abuse and violence against women, and various forms of discrimination.

Still, he says that too many Mexican women are confusing "liberty with licentiousness," and too many Mexican men are becoming "mandelones," a terms that politely translates as "wimps."

"Our show is comic, but there are serious aspects, too," he says. He says that Mexican men want to take back the word "macho" and make it positive. Muzquiz says his show promotes "machismo light:" the idea of caring and providing for your woman, and expecting her to be there to care for you.

Mexican men feel emasculated by women's advancement, he says, and the "gringofication" of Mexican culture. Women north of the Rio Grande have taken it too far, he says, and the phenomenon is seeping southward.

"American women are building their lives alone, just to work, and sleeping with men only to toss them away like dirty diapers," he says. "This isn't advancement. This is machismo of the woman."

In a mainly Catholic country where the conventional family is large and tightknit, Muzquiz's argument finds resonance with men who are confused by women's changing roles.

"It's not that I oppose a women working, I'm just not used to it," says factory worker Rodolfo Barro Espinosa, who is slumped over a bar in a Monterrey Cantina one afternoon at 4:30 p.m. "Here in Mexico, men like to be treated nice, to come home to a hot meal. And it's true: We like our tortillas homemade."

Bartender Rosa Maria Sanchez Reyes, who supports four kids since her husband left her two years ago, erupts with laughter.

"This guy still lives with his mother," she shrieks. "What does he know about women?"

Times have changed in Mexico, she says, and there's no turning back.

"The day after I marry you," she warns him, "I am going to sleep as late as I want, and then go straight to the shop for a packet of tortillas."

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