Not only will Mexico get its first female president on Oct. 1, but its first Ministry of Women as well.
President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Monday the creation of a Ministry of Women to be headed up by Citlalli Hernández Mora, a federal senator and general secretary of the ruling Morena party.
The new ministry will replace the National Institute for Women (Inmujeres), which was created in 2001 during the presidency of Vicente Fox.
“After a deep analysis of opinions of colleagues and the head of the institute I took the decision to make the Institute for Women a ministry,” Sheinbaum said.
“… We want women’s rights to reach every corner of the country,” the president-elect added.
Hérnandez, a 34-year-old native of Mexico City, will be part of Sheinbaum’s cabinet as minister of women.
In an address on Monday, she said that the creation of Mexico’s first Ministry of Women paves the way for the realization of “our grandmothers’ dream” for a more equitable country.
The goal of the incoming government will be for girls and women to have greater equality and to live lives free of discrimination, Hernández said.
The suffering, frustrations, injustices, inequality and “closed doors” faced by “our grandmothers” should remain in the past, she said.
Hernández pledged to “not leave any women defenseless in the face of inequality, justice and violence.”
Among those she specifically promised to help were women who work in agriculture and in factories in northern Mexico. She added that the ministry she leads will distribute women’s rights pamphlets across Mexico and work to combat gender violence “from below.”
She said that the current government has done a lot to help women, citing poverty reduction as one positive. But the soon-to-be minister predicted that even “better times for women” are coming.
The Sheinbaum government, however, will face a range of challenges related to women’s issues. Gender-based violence is a major problem in Mexico, with almost 3,600 women murdered in 2023.
Among the other challenges the incoming government will face is closing the gender pay gap, which was recently reported to be 15%.
From feminist activist to minister of women
Hernández, a Mexico City deputy before becoming a senator, is a founder of the leftist feminist group Internacional Feminista. She studied journalism at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) and is a founder of Morena, whose foremost originator is President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Sheinbaum highlighted that Hernández “is, and has been, a feminist activist,” and that she was part of the Yo Soy 132 student protest movement in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election.
As a deputy and senator, Hernández has focused on issues including the defense of human rights and gender equality, the president-elect said.
Among the bills she has presented are ones aimed at reducing gender violence and banning sexual conversion therapy, Sheinbaum said.
“It’s time for women”
The election of the 62-year-old climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor is a watershed for women in Mexico.
But some women, including members of feminist organizations, have expressed doubts that the arrival of Mexico’s first female president will bring any substantive improvements to women’s lives.
For her part, Sheinbaum has declared on various occasions that “it’s time for women” in Mexico.
In an address last Thursday after receiving official documentation confirming her majority victory in the June 2 presidential election, she reiterated her view that her election isn’t “an individual triumph” but represents the arrival of all women to the highest political office in the land.
“… I arrive nourished and full of the strength that comes from our ancestors — our grandmothers, our mothers, our daughters, our granddaughters. Today all of us arrive and … I commit to fighting to continue building equality and freedom for all Mexican women, especially the most vulnerable,” Sheinbaum said.
With reports from El Economista, Infobae, López-Dóriga Digital, El País and El Financiero
