Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 7, 2024

Thanks tothree decadesof political innovation in Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, Xchitl Glvez and hundreds of other women received the chance to run for and serve in office. Claudia Sheinbaum of Sigamos Haciendo Historiaor Together We Will Make Historyparty waves at supporters after the first results released by the election authorities show that she leads the polls by wide margin on June 3, 2024, in Mexico City, Mexico. (Hector Vivas / Getty Images)

Mexico just elected its first woman and first Jewish president: former Mexico City Governor Claudia Sheinbaum.

She bested her opponent, Xchitl Glvez, winning between 58.3 percent and 60.7 percent of the vote, according to the National Electoral Institute. Glvezhad between 26.6 percent and 28.6 percent. (Jorge lvarez Mynez of the Citizens Movement party garnered around 10 percent.)

A native of the capital megacity, Sheinbaum is the daughter of two scientists; shes a former student activist and among the countrys few Jewish politicians.

Sheinbaum carries the flag for Morena, the governing party. Founded by current president Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador (AMLO, as he is known), this populist left party holds the most seats in Congress and governs 21 of the countrys 32 states. Mexican presidents cannot stand for reelection, and Sheinbaum bested an otherwise all-male field in Morenas presidential primary.

Sheinbaum holds a Ph.D. in energy engineering, has worked in academia and industry, and served on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She entered politics in 2000, when AMLOthen mayor of Mexico Cityappointed her minister of the environment. She then won elected office: first as head Mexico Citys Tlapan district, and, in 2018, as Mexico Citys chief executive.

We made history! Sheinbaum told a crowd on Monday morning in Mexico City Zocalo square.

Sheinbaum and her main opponent, Indigenous politician Xchitl Glvezanother womanwere well-matched.

Glvez has come a long way. Born and raised in a town with fewer than 12,000 people, she shared one bedroom with her four brothers. Her father abused her mother.

Glvez arrived in Mexico City with a scholarship to study computer engineering. After graduation, she founded a tech company and became a well-known figure in Mexicos start-up and business scene. She also entered politics in 2000, when former President Vicente Fox invited her to lead the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs. She was later elected head of Mexico Citys Manuel Hidalgo district and, in 2018, senator for the state of Mexico City.

Sheinbaum and Glvezs differing class backgrounds notwithstanding, their careers have run in parallel. They are both engineers turned politicians. They both secured prestigious executive appointments and won top electoral races at the same time.Both are ethnic minority women.

Throughout the race, Sheinbaum and Glvez represented the countrys two most significant forces, pulling over90 percentof the vote.

Starting in the 1980s, Mexico underwent a protracted transition to a multiparty democracy, principally by changing its electoral laws to allow for more competition. Each electoral reform offered women candidates an opportunity:

Thanks tothree decadesof innovation, Glvez, Sheinbaum and hundreds of women received the chance to run for and serve in office. Women hold 50 percent of the seats in the Mexican Congress and 31 percent of the governorships. Mexicos parties can no longerclaimlike they did when gender quotas were first introducedthat they dont have any women to run.

In fact, Sheinbaum was Morenas presumptive nominee long before the September 2023 primary. Months before, Sheinbaum had begun using theslogans, The time for women and Mexico with M for women (the Spanish word for women ismujeres).

Parity in everything does not apply to a unitary office like the presidency, but Sheinbaums positioning likely pushed the opposition to nominate a woman. After all, parity had accustomed Mexican voters to seeing women compete among each other for top offices. The alliance coalesced around Glvez, who had already built a reputation for challenging AMLO. Famously, she said a person needed ovaries to confront him.

Yet gender parity cannot mask Mexicos reputation as a femicide nation. Some estimates suggest that 10 women are murdered in the country every day. Less than 10 percent of these crimes are reported or investigated.

GlvezandSheinbaumboth call themselves feminists. Their parties records on violence against womenand womens rights more broadlytell another story.

AMLO routinely ignores feminists demands to end impunity for abusers, calling leaders of the anti-femicide protestsconservativesandbarricading government buildingswhen they march. In March 2020, when COVID-19 trapped people at home and more than 26,000 reports of domestic violence flooded Mexicos emergency hotline, AMLOdismissed90 percent as fake. And when the Mexican Supreme Courtdecriminalized abortionin 2021, AMLOsaidthe decision should be respected but declined to comment further.

The presidents refusal to defend womens rights boxed Sheinbaum into a corner during her campaign. Morenas electoral success hinged on AMLOs popularity and Sheinbaum needed his endorsement to win. She could not afford to contradict him.

As the opposition candidate, Glvez could criticize AMLO freely. She filmed acampaign adwhere she donned Mexicos famouslucha libreboxing costume, telling voters shes ready to fight against infernal insecurity, crushing violence, the power of misogyny and the demons of corruption.

But past presidents from her own party have done no better when it comes to protecting women and establishing security. Under Fox and Felipe Caldern, several Mexican states passed constitutional amendments making abortion illegal. Both presidents escalated the violent confrontations between drug cartels, organized criminal groups, and the security forces. This militarization in turn fueledsharp spikesin the femicide rate. AMLO has continued rather than reversed the course.

On the books, Mexicos 2007 law to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women is deeply progressive. The29-pagestatute envisions not just proportionate punishment for abusers, but justice for victims at every stage of the process. It requires support like free counseling, state assistance in finding shelter, and Indigenous interpreters when victims do not speak Spanish. After all, the law was written by the very women legislators that gender quotas brought into office.

Yet politicians can change laws faster than they can change centuries-old patterns of discrimination and sexism. Attitudes matter, because it is actors that carry out the law.

Gender quotasand now gender paritywork in Mexico because their implementation is straightforward. Penalties are clear: If parties fail to nominate the required number of women, they cannot compete. Enforcement is also clear: A single executive agency, the National Electoral Institute, verifies parties candidate registries. When disputes arise, they are settled by separate, independent electoral courts, which are fewer, smaller, and more professionalized.

By contrast, the agencies and entities charged with implementing the law to protect women from violence are numerous. The coordination required among them is complex. Lawmakers cannot single-handedly engrain the spirit of the law into the minds and actions of every police office, prosecutor, judge and social workeractors that longhave dismissed and minimizedviolence against women.

Voting for a woman also does not require voters to hold feminist attitudes. Candidates do not just represent themselves; they represent parties and party labels matter in Mexico. Sheinbaum and Glvez lead very different political forces. Their task was not to convince voters that women can lead, but that their political coalition offered Mexico the best chance for prosperity and security.

Mexicos women-led presidential race does not reveal a feminist utopia, but it does signal possibility. In a country where womenespecially minority womenstruggle to survive, Glvez and Sheinbaum studied science, shaped policy, and crafted resumes worthy of presidential bids. And one of them just shattered the political glass ceiling.

This article first appeared in the Winter 2024 issue ofMs. magazine. (Join theMs.community today and youll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox.) It was further adapted from this digital version, first published online in February.

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Read more from the original source:

Mexico's Next President Is the Country's First Woman, First Jewish PresidentAnd a Feminist - Ms. Magazine

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