This year’s US presidential election is once again a battle between two men. But electing a woman as president has become surprisingly common in Latin America, as evidenced by last weekend’s landmark election in Mexico.
Claudia Sheinbaum, who won Mexico’s election by a landslide over another female candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, joins at least a dozen women who have served as president of Latin American countries since the 1970s. .
This growing list includes former leaders of two of Latin America’s largest countries, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as well as leaders of smaller countries such as Nicaragua’s Violeta Chamorro and the current president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro. are included.
This rise in the status of women highlights how some Latin American democracies that emerged from the ashes of authoritarian rule have proven unusually open to breaking down barriers to political representation.
Jennifer Piscopo, a professor of gender and politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, said that in Latin America, when a woman becomes president, she generally follows the pattern of being nominated by the incumbent party, which already enjoys high voter support.
Citing the examples of Ms. Rousseff in Brazil, Michele Bachelet in Chile and Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica, Ms. Piscopo said these parties “get the best of both worlds” by participating in elections first and gaining electoral benefits through strong reputations.
Second, “they may use women to signal newness or change to voters,” Piscopo said.
In Mexico, the ruling Morena party has steadily expanded its presence across the country in recent years and has made gender equality in politics a pillar of its ambitions to bring change in the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country.
Although women in Mexico did not receive the right to vote until 1953, the country now stands out from other countries in the region with a variety of policies and legislation specifically aimed at advancing women into politics.
These efforts gained momentum after landmark elections in 2000 ended decades of authoritarian rule. Quotas allowed more women to run for office, and a 2019 constitutional amendment, supported by a broad coalition of feminists, academics and politicians, set equality goals in the legislature, judiciary and executive branch.
Just a few years later, Mexico not only has a female president-elect, but also has a woman as president of the House and Senate, where women held half of the legislative seats in this election. Women also serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Governor of the Central Bank.
Efforts to achieve equality reverberated through local and state elections. Mirroring the presidential race, two women were seen vying for victory in the Guanajuato and Morelos state gubernatorial races.
More women participating in politics is reflected in landmark policy changes, including Mexico decriminalizing abortion nationwide in 2023. Mexico joins countries like Argentina, Colombia, Guyana and Uruguay in expanding abortion rights.
But Latin America’s recent history also contains cautionary tales of how easily women can fall from tenuous positions of power.
For example, in Brazil, where Ms. Sheinbaum was a protégé of a widely popular male president, the situation was similar to this year’s Mexican election, in which Ms. Rousseff, then chief of staff to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won the 2010 presidential election.
Ms. Rousseff was re-elected in 2014. But a massive corruption scandal and economic weakness linked to her left-wing party led her to face an open revolt among lawmakers. Her backlash led to her impeachment on charges of manipulating the budget to cover up economic problems, and her removal from office in 2016.
The ouster clears the way for Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right figure who has made verbal attacks on women a centerpiece of his rule, to the presidency.
After the impeachment, Ms. Rousseff ran for Senate in 2018 but lost. After Mr. Lula returns to the presidency in 2023, he also re-emerges as president of a development bank established by Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa.
“It’s not just about keeping a position, it’s also about having the power and autonomy to control the legacy and agenda that women want to leave behind,” said Mónica Tapia, founder of Aúna, a political leadership incubator for women in Mexico.
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega Contributing reporting from Mexico City.
