Following the announcement of female candidates by its two largest political parties, Mexico appeares to be on the path to elect its first female president.
The Morena (left-winged) candidate will be represented by Claudia Sheinbaum and the National Action Party (conservative) candidate by Xóchitl Gálvez.
They will be replacing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador who left office September 30 due to Mexican law, which forbids presidents from running for a second six-year term.
Sheinbaum, former Mexico City mayor, is putting a strong emphasis on the well-being of the economy, investments, and of her citizens.
Gálvez cares deeply about progressive political positions on issues like abortion, drug laws, and social spending.
Though Sheinbaum and Gálvez are different in their political priorities, both women share the fact that with their campaigns, they are breaking the glass ceiling. This is viewed as the nation’s attempt to shred its macho heritage.
Mexico didn’t have full voting rights for women until 1953, 33 years after the United States, which reinforced its male dominance.
Women’s representation in Mexico since the 1950s has improved, when the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had ruled the nation for 71 years, started to lose power amid corruption scandals and economic disasters.
Many Mexicans felt a need for political leadership that was very different from what they had previously known in the aftermath.
Additionally, at this time, women’s issues-related civil society organizations became more vocal.
Mexico gradually implemented quotas for positions in their government, and in 2019, a constitutional amendment was approved that ensures equality in all spheres of government.
This can explain why it ranks fourth overall, tied with New Zealand, for having the highest proportion of women in parliament. Since 2021, 32 governors and 50 percent of the entire Mexican Congress are women. There is balance in the president’s cabinet.
Among other important positions, Mexico did select its first female top justice of the Supreme Court as well as the central bank’s governor.
While the possibility of a female head of state would be a historical first for Mexico, numerous individuals are worried that this representation won’t be able to address the problems women face, such as the high rates of femicides and gender-based violence, forced marriages, wage inequality, and underrepresentation in most executive suites.
Many women have turned to The United Nations Entity for Women (UN Women) to address such issues.
In Mexico, UN Women collaborates with the three levels of government and civil society in order to accelerate the implementation of international commitments addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
83.3 percent of legal frameworks that promote, uphold, and monitor gender equality under the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) indicator, with an emphasis on violence against women, are in place as a result of the UN’s efforts.
Still, they have not attained complete gender equality.
One of the largest gender employment discrepancies still exists in Mexico. Women who do work typically do so in low-paying and insecure conditions. They often also obtain informal occupations with minimal social safety.
44.9 percent of Mexican women of working age are employed. This is the third-lowest percentage of women employed.
Women experience high rates of domestic and public violence, and access to justice is unequal.
They rank among the top nations in terms of the number of feminicides (the act of murdering a woman because they are a woman) that take place each year, with about 1000 feminicides occurring in 2021 out of 34000 murder victims.
Though the country is progressive in its political efforts, the high female crime rates, and unequal pay still are an issue they face today.