The presidential election in the US this yr is, but once more, a contest between two males. However in Latin America, as Mexico’s milestone election confirmed over the weekend, electing a girl as president has change into remarkably routine.
Claudia Sheinbaum, who gained Mexico’s election in a landslide in opposition to one other feminine candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, joins no less than a dozen different girls who’ve served as presidents of Latin American international locations for the reason that Nineteen Seventies.
This rising record consists of previous leaders of two of Latin America’s largest international locations, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, and people in smaller nations like Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua and Xiomara Castro, the present president of Honduras.
The ascension of girls to such heights spotlights how some democracies in Latin America that emerged from the ashes of authoritarian rule have confirmed exceptionally open to ripping down boundaries to political illustration.
Jennifer Piscopo, a professor of gender and politics at Royal Holloway, a university on the College of London, mentioned that girls who had change into president in Latin America typically adopted a sample of being nominated by incumbent events already having fun with excessive ranges of voter assist.
Citing the examples of Ms. Rousseff in Brazil, Michele Bachelet in Chile and Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica, Ms. Piscopo mentioned such events “get pleasure from the very best of each worlds,” first by reaping electoral advantages from their robust repute going into an election.
And second, “they will additionally use girls to sign novelty or change to the voters,” Ms. Piscopo mentioned.
In Mexico, the governing social gathering, Morena, has steadily expanded its energy across the nation in recent times whereas enshrining gender parity in politics as a pillar of its ambitions to deliver change to the world’s largest Spanish-speaking nation.
Whereas girls in Mexico didn’t acquire the best to vote till 1953, the nation now stands other than others within the area with an assortment of insurance policies and laws aimed particularly at opening the best way for ladies in politics.
The efforts picked up steam after a landmark election in 2000 ended a long time of authoritarian rule. Quotas allowed extra girls to run for workplace, then a 2019 constitutional modification, supported by a far-reaching coalition of feminine activists, students and politicians, set parity objectives in legislative, judicial and government branches.
Just some years later, Mexico not solely has a feminine president-elect but additionally girls on the helm of each homes of Congress, the place girls held half the legislative seats going into this election. Girls additionally function chief justice of the Supreme Court docket and governor of the Central Financial institution.
Efforts to realize equality reverberated by way of native and state elections. In a mirrored image of the presidential race, contests for governor in Guanajuato and Morelos states additionally noticed two girls vying to win.
The entry of extra girls into politics is mirrored in landmark coverage shifts, similar to Mexico’s decriminalization of abortion nationwide in 2023. Mexico joined international locations similar to Argentina, Colombia, Guyana and Uruguay which have moved to increase abortion rights.
Nonetheless, Latin America’s latest historical past additionally holds cautionary tales about how simply girls can fall from rarefied positions of energy.
In Brazil, for example, an analogous scenario to this yr’s election in Mexico, the place Ms. Sheinbaum was the protégée of a broadly widespread male president, performed out in 2010 when Ms. Rousseff, the previous chief of employees to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, gained the presidential election.
Ms. Rousseff went on to win re-election in 2014. However within the wake of big corruption scandals involving her leftist social gathering and financial weakening, she then confronted an open revolt amongst lawmakers. The backlash resulted in her impeachment on fees of manipulating the finances to hide financial issues and her removing from workplace in 2016.
The ouster paved the best way for the rise to the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right determine who made verbal assaults on girls a staple of his rule.
After her impeachment, Ms. Rousseff ran for a Senate seat in 2018 and misplaced. After Mr. Lula returned to the presidency in 2023, she additionally re-emerged, as chair of a improvement financial institution based by Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa.
“It isn’t nearly holding the place,” mentioned Mónica Tapia, founding father of Aúna, a Mexican incubator of political management for ladies, “It’s additionally about having the ability and autonomy to manage the agenda and the legacy girls need to depart.”
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting from Mexico Metropolis.
