Mexico has its first woman president. Here’s why that matters

By Laura Carlsen

Sheinbaum, a physicist with a doctorate in energy engineering and the former mayor of Mexico City, ran on a promise to continue the “Fourth Transformation”–the name given to the reforms initiated by the current government of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (referred to as AMLO) based on the three previous turning points in Mexican history: Independence, the Reform period and the Mexican Revolution. 

With an approval rate consistently above 60%, Lopez Obrador has been the wind behind Sheinbaum’s political sails, thanks to his charisma with voters, but also because his administration delivered tangible benefits to groups traditionally excluded from Mexico’s wealth, including pensions for the elderly, scholarships, and support to small-scale farmers. Voters chose another six years of the left-leaning Movement for National Regeneration (Morena) with a candidate who promised to continue on the path already laid out by her predecessor. 

But it would be a mistake to believe that nothing has changed. Mexico now has its first woman president. And that matters—as a symbol of women’s equality, and at least the possibility of advancing women’s rights and issues, although just how much remains to be seen. A woman in the nation’s highest office reflects -and projects- a major breakthrough in Mexico’s patriarchal political culture and an example in a hemisphere facing rollbacks in women’s rights and strong anti-feminist forces from the right. 

The rise to power

We watched the inauguration speech with a group of feminist activists, many of whom have worked for women’s rights for decades. It moved us–we couldn’t have imagined ten years ago that we would see a woman president in Mexico and much less one who talks about programs that value women’s contribution to the economy, democracy and justice.

In her inauguration speech, Sheinbaum marked the history-making moment of taking power as a woman. “I am a mother, a grandmother, a scientist, a woman of faith and from today forward, the constitutional president of Mexico,” she announced jubilantly. The audience on the floor of the Congress roared in applause. 

The new president stated that for a long time women were ignored, and girls were told that only men made history. She noted that gradually women’s roles became visible. She asked to be called Presidenta, instead of Presidente, with the feminine “a” at the end–“because we have been taught that only that which is named exists,” 

After praising the legacy of her predecessor and his political program, the president included women in recounting Mexican history and referred to known and unknown heroines–indigenous women, domestic workers, great-grandmothers who couldn’t go to school, and mothers, sisters, daughters and granddaughters “who dreamed of the possibility that someday it wouldn’t matter if they were born women or men that we could reach their dreams and desires with our sex being our destiny”. 

Among the commitments to guarantee basic freedoms, self-determination, honesty, private investment and the social programs that were a hallmark of the AMLO administration, she added a new pension for women aged 60-64–an important recognition and contribution (although the rationale for the age limits is unclear); scholarships for public school children, and home visits by healthcare workers for the elderly. These measures relate to feminist demands to develop “care economies” that value women’s unpaid labor and tasks that bind societies and have traditionally and disproportionately been carried out by women. They also relate to Sheinbaum’s plan for a National System of Care “to assure women have the right to autonomy”. That plan includes child care facilities for women agricultural laborers and factory workers in outsourcing plants–two sectors where women’s paid and unpaid work has been most exploited. 

Feminist gains and challenges

As Mexican women and feminist organizers, we celebrated the moment.  It was an emotional and gratifying scene–we felt like we were witnessing a momentous change. Mexican feminist organizations fought for years for gender parity in politics, and electing a woman president in many ways marks the culmination of those efforts. But no one is arguing that having a woman in power assures that longstanding feminist demands will be met. Common sense, and historical experience in many countries, shatters any essentialist illusions in that regard.

So, where does this leave us? It’s time to cork the champagne (or mezcal) and do a more careful analysis. 

To start with: We can reasonably expect some policy measures and reforms that will improve some women’s lives. These have been announced and while the gap between intention and implementation in politics can be a black hole, it’s safe to say there will be some steps forward. 

We can also reasonably expect that with a president who has greater understanding of the obstacles for women and increased political commitment to prioritize gender justice, there will be more room for cooperation. And we have to take into account that the June 2 Mexican elections brought women and feminists into high posts in government not just the presidency and cabinet, but also in Congress and state and local posts. In the powerful nerve center of Mexico City, the election of prominent feminist politician Clara Brigada opened the door to many feminist leaders who now run government offices. This could lead to greater dialogue with feminist organizations. On the other hand, it  could also drain movement leadership. Most likely, it will do both.

Increased dialogue would be a welcome and major change. There was little dialogue between the presidency and women’s movements under the AMLO government. The former president took umbrage at women’s protests of continued high levels of violence against women and femicide in the country and the lack of effective federal government action to reduce it. When hundreds of thousands of Mexican women demonstrated against violence at record-breaking March 8 marches and other mobilizations, he accused feminist organizations of being manipulated by the conservative opposition and of exaggerating the problem. 

Speaking from his morning press conferences, López Obrador more than once rejected the term “feminist”, calling his government “humanist”. This distinction, rather than including a broader spectrum, willfully disregards the fact that to create equality in a patriarchal society requires a commitment to fight specifically for women’s rights and against male domination and privilege. 

Needless to say, his general attitude of disdain and attempts to delegitimize feminist demands, incensed and alienated many feminist activists. Young women especially expressed outrage at protests and forums over the past six years. They’re no longer willing to remain silent about suffering gender-based violence, or seeing close friends harmed, murdered or disappeared without any kind of justice, or coming of age in a society where it’s unsafe to go out at night in their own neighborhoods. 

Now many feminists are hoping that Sheinbaum will break with her predecessor and move forward on women’s issues that were relegated under AMLO’s leadership. While there is some basis to expect progress, she also clashed on occasion with feminist organizations as mayor of Mexico City. As candidate, she retracted the word “feminist” to replace it with “humanist” in public speeches, which also reflects the pragmatic fact that although the Mexican population has elected a woman president the myths and prejudices that have long been cultivated against feminists still have deep roots in Mexico. In her inaugural speech, Sheinbaum  avoided mention of women’s organizations when talking about women’s gains, focusing on the role of specific women and women’s push for equality in general. Absent was the crucial role of feminist organizations in radically transforming Mexico’s political culture and legislation to reach this moment.

The new presidenta owes a major debt to women’s movements in Mexico. Earning and defending women’s right to vote and be voted for has been a long fight that has cost lives. Achieving gender parity in political office began decades ago. Women activists began by demanding party quotas to include women candidates. Then they had to work to close up loopholes as the political parties and the political elite pushed back against their gains. Since women got the right to vote in 1953, it has been a constant battle to obtain full rights and participation. It took forty attempts at legislative reforms to finally pass a progressive law against gender-based political violence, defined as acts aimed at limiting the exercise of women’s political rights and enforcement is still spotty. 

Thanks to the efforts of organized women, the concept of equal representation and women’s political rights gradually took hold in the political class and the population. It’s true that Morena’s commitment to equality in political representation made a huge difference. When Morena won the 2018 elections, Mexico leapt ahead of most countries in the world by gaining a 50-50 congress and cabinet. But in the long arc of women’s political rights, although AMLO and party leadership supported the concept of women in office, it was really the hard work of women activists that paved the way for Sheinbaum’s win. 

Much of whether or not feminist demands advance will depend more on the relationship established–or not–between the new government and these organizations. Here it’s important to note two obstacles: first, that the criticism that feminist organizations are opportunistic and ingenuous does, in fact, apply to some organizations that jumped on the bandwagon as a way of criticizing the president. There are many “feminisms”. A strong movement would need to unite around a basic agenda of rights and freedoms to enter into a dialogue with government that could advance these demands. 

The second is that AMLO built a largely negative relationship with social movements in general, notably feminist, indigenous and environmental organizations. He presented his program of transformation as a response to perceived needs, legitimated by the trust deposited in him at the urns, and required strict allegiance. From a feminist and democratic perspective, real change requires a much more collaborative construction between the citizenry and the government it elected. It remains to be seen whether Sheinbaum will regard social movements as allies or adversaries–or something in between.

There is also a very powerful reason to suppose that many fundamental feminist demands will not be met. Capitalism and patriarchy are inseparable as systems of domination. Mexico’s new president will not change the structural underpinnings of either, in large part because she does not have the power to do so. Political reforms can only seek to provide a firmer platform for long-term organizing for structural change. The global system imposes strict and violently imposed limitations on how far leaders can change a single country, and there are also serious questions to what degree Sheinbaum supports deeper changes.  

Key policies remain in place.The militarized war on drugs imposed, enforced and implemented out of Washington DC continues largely unchanged since Calderón. With the National Guard incorporated into the Army, it will be institutionalized and the militarist logic of force and firepower will continue to generate violence, and foment a macho culture that threatens women’s lives and freedoms. 

On the economic front, Sheinbaum’s emphasis on attracting foreign investment, especially from US transnational corporations, locks in relations of subordination. This basic tenet of neoliberalism sets up inevitable conflict with women and men who defend land and resources still held and conserved by farmers, indigenous peoples and longstanding communities. Although she has committed to some important changes, including an energy transition with reduced dependence on oil production, neoliberalism appears to be alive and well.

Women’s rights are not realizable in an economy based on extractivism and the maximization of profit to a white, male elite. A society that values care work cannot exist in a society that promotes the exploitation of natural resources and human labor.

Too often even we feminists who come from a tradition with a highly developed critique of dichotomies, look for pure triumphs or unmitigated denouncement of evils. Today’s complexities require us to do a deeper analysis. Mexico has its first woman president and she has put forth some proposals that have long been part of feminist demands. Although she will be working within a system we oppose, we may find spaces we can push through to move closer to the world we want and need.