Who is Claudia Sheinbaum, the elected president of Mexico?

This is Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, 61 years old, the 66th president, who on October 1, 2024 will take office as head of state and government of the United Mexican States, the second economy in Latin America and as Jenifer M points out . Piscopo, from Royal Holloway University of London, the United States’ first commercial ally.

According to official data from the Mexican National Electoral Institute, Sheinbaum Pardo, representative of the Let’s Keep Making History coalition, made up of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the Labor Party and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, outvoted his main rival, the candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, of the Force and Heart for Mexico coalition, made up of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo will be the president of a country that, according to the 2020 Population and Housing Census, has 126,014,024 inhabitants, of which 64,540,634 are women and 61,473,390 are men. Although it seems clear that she will be the president of all, it is important to reiterate it when the demands begin (which there will be) about her results, her mistakes and her lack of action for the cause of women.

It must be kept in mind that women in these positions are evaluated more harshly than men and in terms of equality, when they incorporate it into their agendas, they do what they can taking into account the barriers – institutional, cultural, even from their own political allies. political parties – that are presented to them and that limit their objectives.

Women who assume the presidency of a country are expected to establish measures in favor of equality in a greater proportion than what is required of presidents, as if the latter did not have the same commitment to citizens and were not as obligated as the first to establish mechanisms for the advancement of women.

It should be noted that, although it is true that a woman in this position is a reference for others, her arrival does not necessarily imply that measures in favor of equality will be established or a pro-woman agenda will be implemented. During the Mexican presidential campaign, different voices from the women’s and feminist movements expressed that the mere presence of a woman in the presidency did not ensure the implementation of the feminist agenda.

The experiences of women who have led the Executives of their countries and whose presence has not implied substantive changes in favor of their peers can be reviewed. In most cases, they are conservative and members of right-wing, center-right or Christian Democratic parties. An example is Margaret Thatcher, of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, who repeatedly entered into disputes and denigrated the British feminist movements. In our region there is the case of Laura Chinchilla, the first – to date only – president of Costa Rica during the period 2010-2014 for the National Liberation Party. Her disputes with the women’s and feminist movements began during her presidential campaign; several organizations even issued a statement in which they pointed out that the candidate did not represent them as women. During her mandate the questions intensified.

In this way, we must recognize that the arrival of a woman to the presidency is good news, but it is not enough.

Who is Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo?

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has high-level academic credentials and extensive expertise in environmental issues. She has a bachelor’s degree in Physics, a master’s degree and a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); she is a researcher at the Engineering Institute of this same institution (currently licensed to hold public office); member of the National System of Researchers (SNI); with dozens of scientific publications on energy, environment and economic development, and an h 23 index in Scopus. Added to this is the fact that she has been a United Nations consultant for Energy and Sustainable Development and a member of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for her efforts to make the effects of climate change known. climate change. This constitutes, following Pierre Bourdieu, part of its cultural capital.

The new president was born in Mexico City, she is a mother, of Jewish descent, granddaughter of emigrants from Lithuania and Bulgaria. She is the daughter of the chemist Carlos Sheinbaum Yoselevitz and the biologist Annie Pardo Cemo, the latter an emeritus professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the UNAM, an institution that has always played an important role in Claudia’s life.

The fact that her father and mother were scientists undoubtedly had an influence on what Bourdieu calls the president’s habitus. Her socialization occurred in the context of her upbringing by scientists, university students, who showed a commitment to social struggles and the need to act in politics to achieve social changes. The president refers to this influence:

“I am a daughter of 68. My parents participated in the student movement, I was 6 years old when the massacre in Tlatelolco on October 2 took place and in that movement my mother already participated as a teacher (…) So, let’s say that duality between politics, in doing politics to transform the world, and particularly our reality, our country, our city and at the same time this scientific academic sense was where I grew up.”

This influence led her to be a student leader at UNAM and actively participate in student protests during the presidency of Miguel de la Madrid. Her performance in politics began in 2000 as Secretary of the Environment, in 2000, when Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was elected head of government of the Federal District (today Mexico City). Since that moment she has been part of the team of the outgoing Mexican president. In 2012 she was part of AMLO’s presidential campaign team and is part of those who founded the National Regeneration Movement (Morena).

In 2015, with the support of Morena, she was elected head of the Tlalpan Delegation. In 2018, she wins the elections and becomes the first woman to be elected head of government of Mexico City, a position from which she separated in June 2023 in order to run in the presidential elections. This shows that Sheinbaum Pardo is not a newcomer in political life. Her more than 20 years of political activity, holding public and elected positions demonstrate this.

Women’s ability to govern and the persistence of gender stereotypes

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s career shows that she not only has academic skills but also political experience; She has won two elections, including the mayoralty of the most important city in the Mexican territory. However, like her opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez, who was head of the Miguel Hidalgo Delegation and elected senator of the Republic in 2018, her ability to govern has been questioned on countless occasions, which demonstrates the persistence of stereotypes. of genre.

During the electoral process, a question was repeated and was the headline of many social media outlets: is Mexico prepared to be governed by a female president? This reflects the persistence and resistance to change in the traditional roles assigned to men and women.

Asking about women’s capabilities or openly talking about their inability to govern, their political inexperience, shows, in the 21st century, that regulatory changes – we must not forget that in Mexico, in 2019, there was a constitutional reform that established parity between men and women in all public positions, at all levels and in all powers – will continue to be insufficient if social imaginaries are not transformed and it is internalized that political spaces are women’s spaces.

That this is sexist is demonstrated by observing that, when it comes to men, one can disagree with their approaches, but one does not question their ability to

govern by being a man. The same thing happens when it is indicated that women will follow the “orders” of some man who is behind his electoral victory.

In the case of both Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez, during the presidential campaign it was suggested that they were following the “instructions” of some political man. In the case of the first, AMLO, who, for some, “anointed” her as the chosen one, her favorite and her call to succeed him. Added to this is that the president-elect has repeatedly indicated that she will continue with the policies of the so-called “Fourth Transformation” implemented by the outgoing president.

In the Xóchitl Gálvez case, it was said that she received instructions from the barons who lead the political parties that make up the coalition that supported her. In both cases, the two policies are placed in a situation of subordination and their agency capacity to make their own decisions is unknown. This without denying that both had to act in a system dominated by men and had to have the approval of the leaders of the organizations that supported them to present their candidacies.

The double standard when evaluating men and women is once again evident when it is believed that the new president will follow AMLO’s orders, without taking into account that generally outgoing presidents have some “dolphin” or candidate of their choice, but this does not mean that, if he wins, he will blindly obey the orders of the one who leaves office. Furthermore, as Yanina Welp, of the Albert Hirschman Center on Democracy, Graduate Institute, points out, in Latin America a former president can rarely control a president (in this case president) in power.

The challenges

In a complex society like Mexico’s, there are many challenges that the president will have to face, however, it cannot be denied that among all of them, the problem linked to violence, or violence in the plural, stands out due to its multiple demonstrations, including those directed at women for gender reasons.

Regarding this last point, feminists consider that the new president’s proposals do not include strong measures to confront this scourge that makes Mexico one of the most dangerous countries to be a woman and where 10 women are murdered every day.

It is too early to talk about strategies and the direction that will be followed. There is a certainty that the new president, in addition to the problems that she will have to face like any president who is head of government and state, will have to overcome additional obstacles due to the fact that she is a woman. There is also no doubt that a new page begins in the political history of Mexico.

Doctor in Political Science. She is a research professor at the Central University of Venezuela and the Simón Bolívar University (Colombia). She is a member of the HILA Network and the #NoSinMujeres Network of Political Scientists.