The presidential election in the USA 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 turn into remarkably routine.
Claudia Sheinbaum, who received Mexico’s election in a landslide towards one other feminine candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, joins at the very least a dozen different ladies who’ve served as presidents of Latin American nations for the reason that Nineteen Seventies.
This rising listing contains previous leaders of two of Latin America’s largest nations, 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 ladies 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 limitations to political illustration.
Jennifer Piscopo, a professor of gender and politics at Royal Holloway, a school on the College of London, mentioned that girls who had turn 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 most effective of each worlds,” first by reaping electoral advantages from their robust fame going into an election.
And second, “they will additionally use ladies 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 carry change to the world’s largest Spanish-speaking nation.
Whereas ladies in Mexico didn’t acquire the precise 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 girls in politics.
The efforts picked up steam after a landmark election in 2000 ended many years of authoritarian rule. Quotas allowed extra ladies to run for workplace, then a 2019 constitutional modification, supported by a far-reaching coalition of feminine activists, students and politicians, set parity targets in legislative, judicial and govt branches.
Just some years later, Mexico not solely has a feminine president-elect but in addition ladies on the helm of each homes of Congress, the place ladies held half the legislative seats going into this election. Ladies additionally function chief justice of the Supreme Court docket and governor of the Central Financial institution.
Efforts to attain equality reverberated by native and state elections. In a mirrored image of the presidential race, contests for governor in Guanajuato and Morelos states additionally noticed two ladies vying to win.
The entry of extra ladies into politics is mirrored in landmark coverage shifts, reminiscent of Mexico’s decriminalization of abortion nationwide in 2023. Mexico joined nations reminiscent of 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 ladies can fall from rarefied positions of energy.
In Brazil, for example, the same 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 workers to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, received the presidential election.
Ms. Rousseff went on to win re-election in 2014. However within the wake of giant 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 expenses of manipulating the funds 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 ladies a staple of his tenure.
After her impeachment, Ms. Rousseff ran for a Senate seat in 2018 and misplaced. After Mr. Lula returned to the presidency final yr, she additionally re-emerged, as chair of a improvement financial institution based by Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa.
“It’s not nearly holding the place,” mentioned Mónica Tapia, founding father of Aúna, a Mexican incubator of political management for girls. “It’s additionally about having the ability and autonomy to regulate the agenda and the legacy ladies need to go away.”
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.
