Women Win Mexican Primaries; One Is Likely to Be First Female President Mary Beth Sheridan and David Agren - The Washington Post
go to original September 7, 2023

Mexican Senator Xochitl Galvez (L), and outgoing Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.  (Reuters)

Half of Mexico’s Congress is female. The cabinet is gender-balanced. And now, women have won the primaries of the two leading political blocs — making it likely that this traditionally macho nation will elect its first female president, ahead of the United States.

Claudia Sheinbaum, 61, who until recently served as Mexico City’s mayor, defeated five men to secure the nomination of the governing party, MORENA, its officials announced Wednesday. If the leftist candidate triumphs in the election next June, she also will set another precedent, as Mexico’s first Jewish head of state.

Her victory came days after an opposition coalition, the Broad Front for Mexico, nominated Xóchitl Gálvez, 60, a business executive and senator of Indigenous origin.

“This is a feminist’s dream,” said Maricruz Ocampo, a women’s rights activist in the central city of Querétaro. The 2024 race, she said, “is going to signify a turn in the way that we see women in politics.”

The matchup underscores how dramatically women have moved into political leadership in the past few years. A woman is chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court. Women lead both houses of Congress. Women have made up 50 percent of the legislature since 2021, when Mexico became the largest nation to achieve gender parity.

It’s not quite Barbie Land — but the progress is remarkable in a country where women couldn’t even vote until 1953.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

Related: A Historic First for Mexico as Two Women Vie for the Presidency (The New York Times)

Related: Mexico’s Former Foreign Minister Threatens to Leave Party Over Candidate Selection Process (Associated Press)

Related: Mexico Ruling Morena Party Tries to Avoid Pre-election Split (AFP)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!