Mexico Tidbits eZine: Mexico’s First Female President

Being a woman in Mexico is tough—if not dangerous. Women earn 16% less than men, and the gender gap in labor force participation is one of the highest in Latin America. But perhaps the most shocking statistic is that every hour, at least one woman disappears, and every day, 11 women die violently.

Few would imagine that this same country has just elected a female President. Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of Mexico City and loyal successor to the left-wing incumbent, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), has come out on top following the June 2 vote.

The question is how in the world this happened. In a county where 90% of Mexicans harbor negative biases against women, and 58% hold such biases specifically against female politicians, tens of millions have voted for women. That includes not just Sheinbaum but Xóchitl Gálvez, a senator and businesswoman, who the opposition rallied behind.

This is no small puzzle. Mexico’s negative biases against female leaders nearly double those of the U.S. or Canada. Yet, Mexico has become the first North American nation to elect a female leader. The results are still streaming in, but Mexico is also expected to boast the fourth largest contingent of congresswomen in the world and to have women governing nearly half of its 32 states.

The empowerment of women in Mexican politics did not occur haphazardly. It stemmed from a deliberate, albeit gradual, construction of a legal framework fostering gender parity—most notably through mandatory gender quotas. It all started in 1996 when a law recommending that at least 30% of candidates should be female was passed.