This year marked the first International Women’s Day in Mexico with a woman serving as president. In her speech for the occasion, Claudia Sheinbaum emphasized that her achievement was not solely her own, but a collective triumph for all Mexican women, in a country plagued by women’s rights abuses.
Meanwhile, in the streets, as is customary every year, hundreds of thousands of women marched to demand an end to violence against women. Among the chants heard were “Claudia, not all of us made it,” a reference to the women who are missing or have lost their lives. Another chant stated, “Claudia is not an ally; she’s privileged.”
Join María Meléndez as she takes a look at how Mexico’s first female president is solving the largest social issue facing Mexican society today: Gender violence.
Mexico News Daily
Whether women are treated well in Mexico is more of a cultural phenomenon than who’s president of the country. Cities and states can have a huge impact by prosecuting and jailing offenders, but we all know that the justice system fails at their duties more often than not. So is electing a female president going to lead to women being treated better? I’d guess it won’t make much of a dent.
That being said we were in Guadalajara for the marches on the 8th. The crowd was anything but peaceful. There was widespread property damage. Graffiti everywhere. Individuals were trying to break into buildings and often was successful. If many of the businesses hadn’t have closed and boarded up their windows it would have been SIGNIFICANTLY worse. And before you claim that the acts of a few shouldn’t ruin the intentions of all, the crowds were cheering the destruction. We saw it first hand. What was really disappointing was seeing the university receive so much damage.
It is what it is. We love Mexico even with all of its flaws. But fighting violence in the home by committing violence in the streets makes one’s cause suffer. There will be a long seen impact as there are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of graffiti tags for miles and miles.
i agree with you its a cultural phenomenon in Mexico. i see my gardeners husband and wife team working he stands by while she does all the hard work. another incident i saw the husband would not serve himself at the table for dinner. he waited till his wife fixed his plate and then he ate. Where the President could make an impact is through education.
Making the judicial system accountable
Elections for judges is an impressive step, in my opinion, to making the judiciary accountable.
An important topic and great background information. Thank you.
Travis, thanks for adding this kind of content. There is a complete dearth of analysis of Mexican politics in English. Everything I’ve seen from Maria has been good and I’m looking forward to more of it.
WHY ? why hurt women ? Are Mexican men so powerless that they need to harm a weaker physically women to feel powerful ? Makes no sense to me…. Men happy NOT to have women around ??? Beyond my comprehension … ?
Very well done article. Thought provoking and fair. My opinions to the 3 questions are:
1st) Yes, by electing a female president in such a macho and violent Country, it does make Sheinbaum’s presidency a great accomplishment. However, I believe that AMLO had such strong ties to the cartels, that the cartels played a role in making certain she was chosen as president. Not that she is not strong enough, qualified enough, or smart enough for the role, but 6 years of “hugs” not bullets and denying the US’s wishes to crack down on fentanal and immigration, left the cartels wanting 6 more years of unincumbered rule.
2nd) No, I do not feel that Presidenta Sheinbaum can actually improve/enhance the quality of life for women in Mexico. Policy and constitutional change can accomplish very little without social change, enforcement, and reframing the culture.
3rd) I believe that through Presidenta Sheinbaum’s actions Mexico could, and should, help Mexico be an influence on policies throughout the world. It is a disgrace that historically, women have been treated as lower class beings and suffered at the hand of men, across much of the world.
Any initiative Ms Sheinbaum can implement to help lift Mexico from it’s #10 global position for violence against women is welcome.
I think the president, man or woman, can definitely accelerate social change and justice by making violence against women a front and center issue backed by heavy handed enforcement. Start making examples of some of these creeps! Push the states to do more. Use your political capital!
She’s too busy building her mentor’s dream of national socialism.
protecting women from what?… themselves?
I believe a lot of change for the better could come from the leadership and local priests and nuns in the catholic church. The role of the church can not be denied as to it’s role in influencing women’s rights.