MEXICO CITY (AP) — Claudia Scheinbaum’s name will go down in Mexican history.
Ruling Party Candidate Mexican Presidential Election Winner Sunday’s election marks a turning point for the conservative country, which has been ruled exclusively by men for more than two centuries.
Elsewhere in Latin America, women also hold leadership positions in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Guyana, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti and Costa Rica.
Mexican women gained the right to vote in 1953. There were no laws barring women candidates from running for public office, but Sexism and “macho” culture It continues to penetrate the nation’s 129 million people.
Before the election, Scheinbaum held a comfortable lead over the opposition candidate. Xochitl GalvezTo date, only two women have officially run for president of Mexico, and both lost.
In the election to replace outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum Build your own imageMany people wonder She can escape the shadows Of her mentor.
Currently, several key institutions, including Mexico’s Senate, Supreme Court and National Electoral Commission, are led by women. Mexico has the third-highest percentage of women in cabinet positions among Latin American countries, at 44 percent, and 10 of its 32 states have female governors.
However, in some indigenous villages, Men still hold the power.
Issues facing women in Mexico include femicide – the killing of women because of their gender – employment disparities and inadequate policies to guarantee sexual and reproductive rights – which Sheinbaum, 61, will have to address when she takes office on October 1.
Let’s look at the problem here.
Feminicide and Gender Violence
About the demo International Women’s Day on March 8 These are painful reminders of the many Mexican women who go missing and are murdered every day.
According to the United Nations Women’s Agency, up to 10 women are victims of femicide every day in Mexico, a number that is expected to reach 3,000 by 2023.
Maria Hochihua Pérez, whose daughter Nimbe went missing five years ago, holds a sign offering a reward during the National March to Find Her Mother in Mexico City, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)
Thousands more children are missing, often by mothers who feel abandoned by the government and have taken on the task of searching for them.
Most cases of femicide go unpunished due to Mexico’s inefficient judicial system, where reported crimes are often dismissed or not properly investigated or prosecuted.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, more than 40 percent of Mexican women over the age of 15 say they have been victims of some form of violence in their lives.
During the campaign, Sheinbaum said she would replicate measures to combat gender-based violence implemented while she was mayor, including creating an anti-femicide prosecutor’s office and passing laws to force perpetrators to leave their homes.
“We are warriors transforming and paving the way for other women,” Scheinbaum said.
Nevertheless, Sheinbaum has been criticized by feminists and activists for her administration’s lack of gender-related policies and for the use of excessive force against women during protests.
Sexual and reproductive rights
Teen pregnancy in Mexico is causing concern.
According to official statistics for 2021, the latest available, there were 147,279 births to adolescents aged 15-19, and 3,019 births to girls under the age of 15.
Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the country’s laws banning abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights, pending further state-by-state legal work to remove all penalties.
A woman holds a banner that reads “Legal, safe and free abortion” in Spanish as abortion rights protesters march in front of the National Congress during the Day of Abortion Decriminalization in Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico City on September 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
Twelve of Mexico’s 32 states have decriminalized abortion, most of them in the past five years. Several others allow abortion if the mother’s life is at risk, and abortion is legal nationwide if the pregnancy is the result of rape.
In most states where abortion has been decriminalized, advocates say there are still challenges to making abortion safe, accessible and government-funded.
Scheinbaum Didn’t touch on topic During her election campaign.
Gender employment gap
According to official statistics, 76 percent of Mexican men are employed, compared with just 47 percent of women.
Of working women, 54% work informally and spend nearly 43 hours a week on household chores, limiting the time they can devote to the labor market, according to the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness. Access to education and public transport are also determining factors.
Women typically earn less than men: in Mexico City the difference is 6%, but in other states it can be as high as 25%.
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