On October 1st Mexico made history when Claudia Sheinbaum was inaugurated as the country’s first woman president. Sheinbaum, from the incumbent left-wing Morena party, has proclaimed that it’s a “women’s moment.” Indeed, her election comes on the heels of the Mexican Supreme Court’s decision last fall to decriminalize abortion.  Mexico, once thought of as the land of machismo, now seems to be leading the United States in these key areas of women’s rights.  What’s going on? And what can we learn from it?

First, a woman has arrived at the presidency in Mexico thanks to feminists and their long histories of feminist organizing.  Starting in the 1980s, the country’s gradual shift from one-party rule to a multi-party system generated debates about democracy and gender equality. In a type of “institutional feminism,” women strategically created alliances across party lines to promote gender quota rules. Aided by Mexico’s adherence to international treaties and resolutions that required authorities to emphasize gender equality in governance, quotas eventually became law in 2002: 30% of congressional candidates had to be women. Since then, quota percentages have grown, and In 2019, Mexico became a global leader when Congress (composed of 50 percent women) reformed the constitution to mandate gender parity in everything. The path for a female president had been paved.

Global research indicates that having women in positions of power is important: it leads to laws and policies that minimize discrimination and expand social services. In Mexico, congresswomen have regularly supported the creation of laws to promote women’s rights. One of their most notable achievements has been the creation of the  General Law of Access for Women to a Life Free of Violence, approved in 2006. Yet despite almost two decades of its existence, it has not been enough to effectively combat alarming rates of gender-based violence. Mexico is ranked 12^th place worldwide for the number of intentional homicides of women (6.2 women per every 100,000 more than double the U.S. rates). Rates and types of violence continue to rise, including gender-based violence against female political candidates. In a country where only 7% of homicide cases are resolved, legal protections for women are not enacted due to negligence, incompetence, and corruption. Despite the mandate that all violent deaths of women be investigated as a possible feminicide (the killing of a woman because she is a woman), authorities only follow this protocol in 27% of cases. 

Daily fears of experiencing gender-based violence in combination with this culture of impunity has caused many women, especially younger ones, to recognize the limits of institutional pathways for change. And recent reforms to the judiciary system—in which all judges will now be elected through popular vote—has deepened, rather than alleviated, anxiety about an effective and functioning justice system. 

As a result, many feminists have moved beyond institutional feminism to explore other ways to promote gender equality. In what is colloquially called “street feminism,” women engage in creative forms of public protest in which they express their anger and denounce institutional failures. For example, in 2019, after a minor was allegedly raped by four police officers in Mexico City and officials botched the investigation, feminists threw bright pink glitter on the city’s security minister when he attempted to calm their protests. The images went viral and the glitter revolution was born. In 2020, women conducted a national strike, in which hundreds of thousands of women stayed home to protest gender-based violence, impunity, and the devaluation of their social reproductive work.

A year later, feminists took over a monument in one of the most iconic roundabouts in the nation’s capital. Where a statue of Christopher Columbus once stood, they erected a wooden cutout of a young woman with her fist raised in the sign of feminist struggle. It was painted purple, the color that symbolizes feminist struggle in Latin America.  In universities across the country, students regularly take inspiration from Mexican artist Monica Meyer’s clothesline project to create “accusation clotheslines,” where they describe the gender-based violence they experience at school on a sheet of paper they pin up “to dry.”  Twice a year, on March 8^th (International Women’s Day) and November 25^th (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women), women crowd the streets to protest violence gender-based violence and demand action. Each year, the marches grow bigger.

Beyond these loud and visible forms of protest are also a host of other forms of daily activism, centered on building relationships of care for other women. Feminists have created non-profit organizations to provide legal and psychological support for women. They have organized collectives, whose goals are as varied as making feminist art to promoting the use of ecological toilets. Women’s taxi services and informal feminist markets help women stay safe and navigate economic challenges. Feminist schools teach women a range of skills from self-defense to basic plumbing. All these activities build solidarity among women, which plays out in small but important care acts like lending someone money or offering a listening ear.

As many American feminists hope for our own “women’s moment” with the arrival of Kamala Harris to presidential power, we would do well to look toward Mexico. Although many Mexican feminists celebrate Sheinbaum’s inauguration, most agree that having a woman president will not be enough to improve women’s lives. What will continue to make Mexico a better place for women are the creative, diverse, and sustained forms of feminist organizing flourishing around the country.  Regardless of who wins at the ballot box on November 5, American feminists would do well to look South and take note. 

Dr. Holly Worthen
Assistant Professor
Instituto de Investigaciones Sociológicas
Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca

Artwork by Nancy Folbre
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