With a Ph.D. in Demography from the Université Catholique de Louvain (LLN) and a degree in Demography from the Université de Paris (IDUP), in 1971 she became Researcher-Professor at El Colegio de México and has been a member of the National Researchers System (SNI) since its beginnings. Her doctoral research, titled "Le mariage au Mexique: évolution nationale et typologie régionale," was distinguished with its publication by the University itself. In 1998, she received the Biennial Demographic Research Prize from Mexican Society of Demography (SOMEDE) in the category of Best Research in Demography. She started her career at the Institute of Sociology at the Universidad de Concepción-Chile. Once graduated in Demography she joined the Center for Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies (CEDUA) at El Colegio de México, where she has continuously contributed to research and teaching. 

 

Her main research and teaching interests has centered around the fertility transition in Mexico and family formation in this country and across Latin America. She has a hundred articles published in national and international journals. She is the author of the following books: "Un siglo de matrimonio en México" (2001), "Le mariage au Mexique: évolution nationale et typologie régionale" (1998), and "Niveles de fecundidad y patrones de nupcialidad en México" (1991). Additionally, she participated as Coordinator for the book "Parejas Conyugales en transformación" (2011), Co-author of "Nuevas pautas reproductivas en México" (F. Juárez and M. E. Zavala) (1995) and Coordinator for the book "La fecundidad rural en México" (R. Benítez Zenteno) (1984). 

 

Currently, she continues her research and publications on the topic of union formation, which remains one of her principal lines of investigation. Within this broad theme, her focus primarily encompasses the establishment of a new model of marital life in Mexico and Latin America. This includes the evolution of marriage and cohabitation, divorce and de facto separations, as the dynamics of second marriages. 

 

Over the years, she has undertaken research and teaching stays at prestigious institutions, such as the Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques (INED) in Paris, the World Fertility Survey (WFS) in London; the Centro de Estudios Demográficos (CED), Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona; the Université Catholique de Louvain (LLN) in Belgium; the Institute of Economics, Geography, and Demography (IEGD) of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Spain; the Center for Population Studies at the Universidad de Córdoba in Argentina; and El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) in Tijuana, Mexico. 

 

She remains an active member of the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (AMC), Sociedad Mexicana de Demografía (SOMEDE), the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), the Association Internationale de Démographes de Langue Française (AIDELF), and the Asociación Latinoamericana de Población (ALAP). She is also affiliated with the and the CentroTepoztlán Víctor Urquidi, (CTVU), México.