Mexico Elects First Woman President – Claudia Sheinbaum Wins Historic Landslide Election Victory

June 3, 2024

Following a historic election held on June 2nd 2024, Mexico announced its first woman president. In a landslide victory, Claudia Sheinbaum (a member of Morena, Mexico’s current ruling political party) was elected president. The election outcome was expected, Sheinbaum has been the leading contender for the country’s top leadership position for some time. Known affectionately as “President Claudia” or “Es Claudia,” she has won over the minds and hearts of a Mexican populace demanding for a change in current policies. Specifically, Sheinbaum has proposed government plans to continue to support reforms initiated by her predecessor former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.¹

Mexico’s historic election of a woman president is not unexpectedly garnering a lot of international attention. This is partly due to the close geographic proximity of Mexico and current immigration tensions with the United States. But there’s also another very obvious question — why hasn’t the United States elected a woman president ever? The answer is complex but Mexican law may have something to do with it. In 2014, Mexico passed an amendment to article 41 in its Federal Constitution to constitutionalize gender parity. A few years later, Mexico approved major “parity in everything” constitutional reform thereby extending gender parity to include all elected positions beginning in 2019². In other words, Mexico signed into law gender quotas for political positions³. Mexico has enacted key policies to further establish gender equality. Other Latin American countries have also championed advancements in this area — Costa Rica, Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador have initiated similar political reforms². As a result, political parties are incentivized to embrace woman candidates. In fact, the two leading candidates for Mexico’s presidential election were both women⁴. Claudia Sheinbaum is a highly accomplished individual both academically and politically. Here’s what we’ve learned about Mexico’s first woman president so far :

Claudia Sheinbaum — 10 Things About Mexico’s First Woman President

Born : Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, Mexico City June 24, 1962⁵
Education : National Autonomous University of Mexico
Degree: Physics with a Ph.D. in Energy Engineering
Married twice, divorced once
Is the second of three children⁶
Climate activist; worked on U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore³
Religious background : Jewish secular⁷
Political party = Morena
First elected female mayor, Mexico City’s Head of Government (from 2018 to 2023)⁸
First elected female Mexican President June 2024