2023-09-04 18:17:11
In a year and a month, Mexico will mark a milestone in its republican history: it will have, for the first time, a female president, which will mean a before and following for a country -like the majority in Latin America- that still bears the machismo backpack on the back.
Although it has not yet been made official, Xóchitl Gálvez and Claudia Sheinbaum will be the candidates for the presidency. And it is not official because the results of the polls of the government party, Morena, which will be given this Wednesday, September 6, are still missing. On that side, it is almost a fact that Sheinbaum will take the nomination in her fight with Marcelo Ebrard, the former Mexican foreign minister. Unless a cataclysm occurs, the former head of the Government of Mexico City, she will seek to be the successor to Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
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On the opposition side, the Frente Amplio coalition chose Xóchitl Gálvez on August 31 before the end of the process, scheduled for this last Sunday, since the numbers widely favored the charismatic senator, who also had a rival in the intern to a woman, Beatriz Paredes, representative of none other than the historic and once hegemonic PRI.
“It is the transformation and it is time for women,” launched Sheinbaum herself in one of her activities. “We women know how to weave in a different way,” Gálvez also said, pointing out that this campaign – which was scheduled for November, but which was brought forward from June by decision of the president, bypassing electoral laws – will have a different tone.
“The arrival of a woman to the Presidency will undoubtedly be a milestone in the history of the country. Although we have been advancing in parity in the cabinets, in the governorships and there have been fantastic advances at the legislative level since the Congresses -both the national Congress and the state ones- are equal, the Executive Power had been resisting”, he points out to this Diario Karolina Monika Gilas, professor at the UNAM Center for Political Studies and expert in equal representation and gender perspective in politics.
“The arrival of a woman to the Presidency will undoubtedly be a milestone in the history of the country (…) The Executive Branch had been resisting”
“Regardless of who becomes president, it will be a historic moment and symbolically it would be reflecting the efforts of the feminist movements, of the authorities, and of the great debate that we have had for more than two decades regarding how we have to make our democracy more plural. , inclusive and equal”, he adds.
Adriana Báez Carlos, a national researcher, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences at UNAM and director of gender studies at the Parliamentary Bureau, holds a similar opinion: “If Xóchitl Gálvez and Claudia Sheinbaum are finally confirmed, this is very relevant because the The feminist movement in Mexico has gained a lot of strength and has paid positively for the women of the country”.
However, Baéz explains that, although parity has been introduced in several instances, especially in positions of popular election that correspond to collective bodies -such as Parliaments- at the presidential level it is an issue that has not yet been dealt with.
“Although the country has been changing, perhaps this circumstance is a coincidence. However, women’s leaders have been working in political parties and glass ceilings have been breaking. This case would not be forced by the norm, but it has occurred in a context of parity democracy, ”she points out.
for the woman
Sheinbaum and Gálvez have different profiles, but they agree that they have not exactly been champions of feminist movements. Sheinbaum, from a Jewish family, studied Physics and stayed for several decades in student groups and academic circles, until she was recruited by López Obrador when he was mayor of Mexico City to be secretary of the Environment.
Xóchitl Gálvez, of Otomi indigenous origins, had to work since she was a child to help her family, but she was able to enter the university where she studied Engineering. In the 1990s she successfully founded a digital technology company and during the presidency of Vicente Fox she became the director of the Office for the Development of Indigenous Peoples.
Profile
Who is Claudia Sheinbaum?
Age: 61 years
Party: National Regeneration Movement (Morena), left.
Studies: Graduate and PhD in Physics and Master’s in Energy Engineering.
Previous positions: Secretary of the Environment of the Federal District (2000-2006), head of the delegation in Tlalpan (2015) and head of Government of Mexico City (2018-2023).
Profile
Who is Xóchitl Gálvez?
Age: 60 years
Coalition: Broad Front for Mexico (right).
Studies: Computer Engineering
Previous positions: General Director of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (2003-2006), delegation head of Miguel Hidalgo (2015-2018) and senator of the Union Congress (2018-2023).
It is still unknown whether feminist demands (such as abortion) will form part of the agenda of both, but there is no doubt that the tone of the campaign will change and that, at least, the issue of women’s rights will be on the mat.
“The gender issue will be on the agenda, although it will vary according to the political project. The current government withdrew social programs that had been aimed at supporting women, such as daycare centers and full-time schools,” says Báez.
“Xóchitl Gálvez has said that support will return to women, but not much is known yet because the proposals have not been given. For her part, Claudia Sheinbaum, who is very loyal to AMLO, is a woman with a lot of autonomy and very capable. For example, in Mexico City, she did differ from the policies that the president implemented in the pandemic because while the Undersecretary of Health said that it was not necessary to wear face masks, she did prefer to listen to the scientists, ”she adds.
For Karolina Gilas, the gender issue, paradoxically, is not going to be so fundamental in this campaign: “Surely it will be talked regarding constantly due to its historical and symbolic importance, but I don’t think we are going to see big changes in the campaign. Due to the political and social polarization, the discourse will be focusing on the continuity of AMLO’s project, the so-called Fourth Transformation, or on supporting an alternative proposal so that this project no longer continues.
On the other hand, in a country that continues to be affected by the high rate of femicide, having its next president be a woman might help combat these crimes more effectively. In June 2023, 80 femicides were registered in Mexico, and during the first half of the year the figure reached 426 murders of women, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.
“In a country that continues to be affected by the high rate of femicide, having its next president be a woman might help combat these crimes more effectively”
“The advances that we have been able to build in Mexico, and also in Latin America, in terms of the political representation of women are not on a par with the rest of the spaces of our collective life. We have not made progress with the public policies necessary to achieve a better balance, since these macho and patriarchal patterns continue to exist. It is a great pending agenda to eradicate violence, discrimination and inequalities”, points out Gilas.
The usual machismo
As part of that patriarchal culture, both Xóchitl Gálvez and Claudia Sheinbaum will undoubtedly be scrutinized in a different way than other male candidates in previous campaigns.
One of the first has been, of course, President López Obrador himself, whom Gálvez called “macho” weeks ago when he said that she had been put “on the finger” by some rival politicians.
“We have a culture, like in the rest of the world, where the lords do not realize that they attack us or marginalize us. In the case of Xóchitl Gálvez, he does it to undermine his candidacy. In some way, it is gender violence because he is attacking her for being a woman, ”says Báez.
“Since the presidency, there have been many expressions towards Xóchitl that might be considered gender violence, since she accuses her of being manipulated, of lacking her own thought, and that should no longer take place in a democracy. The discourse that women are controlled by men no longer corresponds. But it is also true that Claudia Sheinbaum has received criticism when she is told that she has been placed in that position by the president, ”says Gilas.
The campaign will officially begin this September 7 and there are still many months to see how preferences move between the two. What will not change is that it will be a fundamental campaign in which, for the first time, two highly trained professional women are fighting for the Presidency. When they reached this stage, they already made history.
Besides…
A long election year
June 2, 2024 The presidential election will be held in Mexico, in which the two chambers of the National Congress will also be renewed and 9 governorships will be elected.The change of command It will take place on October 1, 2024, following a change in the legislation since previously the presidential mandates were renewed in December.MorenaPresident AMLO’s party, dominates both houses of Congress and governs 23 of Mexico’s 32 states.
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