“Every woman in Mexico, from young girls to adults, is a president of Mexico,” declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s first female head of state. “Not one more feminicide, not one more beating, not one more act of violence or verbal aggression against Mexican women.”
Sheinbaum delivered the remarks Sunday from the National Palace in Mexico City to commemorate International Women’s Day, as thousands took to the streets across Mexico and in cities worldwide to celebrate and to demand change.
Officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977, this year’s theme is “Accelerate Action,” a message Sheinbaum touched on in her speech.
“I did not take office alone… all Mexican women took office,” she said, gesturing specifically to the nation’s working women and to Indigenous women across the country.
Sheinbaum acknowledged deep seeded issues of gender inequality in labor and education, and persistent challenges around domestic abuse and violence. According to the United Nations, up to 10 women are victims of femicide each day in Mexico, with some 3,000 such cases in 2023.
Sheinbaum offered up a 10-point plan aimed at tackling these and other challenges impacting women in their daily lives, promising a range of initiatives both symbolic and concrete. They include:
- Establishing 24 calendar dates throughout the year recognizing the contributions of Mexican women in history.
- Establishing a Women in History room in the National Palace.
- Creating and distributing a Women’s Rights Handbook nationwide.
- Establishing a national network of women volunteers aimed at promoting individual rights.
- Expanding the Women’s Well-Being fund to include women between 60 and 63 years of age. (Some one million women ages 63 and 64 already receive this financial subsidy.)
- The construction of 200 infant day care centers across Mexico for working mothers.
- The recognition of women of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
- Greater preference to women in the National Housing for Well-Being program.
- Recognition of agrarian rights for at least 150,000 women.
- Organizing a series of forums looking at what constitutional and legal reforms are needed to address violence against women.
She also cited the need for paid maternity leave, access to spaces in the workplace for breastfeeding mothers, and she urged men to take on more of the daily housework to take some of the burden off working women.
Sheinbaum then pivoted to her party’s policy agenda, known as the Fourth Transformation, declaring that it is the only one among Mexico’s competing political ideologies that explicitly guarantees women’s rights. As president, Sheinbaum is head of Morena, the left-leaning party launched by her predecessor and former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Conservatives, she said, “see rights as merchandise or privileges,” a view, she stressed, that would “condemn women to continue in inequality, because when there is no right to education, those who are most affected are women, because when there is no right to health-care, those who are most affected are women, because when there is no access to rights, those who are most affected are poor women.”
The president recalled that within two days of her taking office, she sent a constitutional reform bill to Congress seeking the recognition of substantive equality, the right to a life free of violence and the right to a just salary.
“We can say with certainty that today, Mexican women are in the country’s Constitution. And we declare this year as the Year of Indigenous Women, of our ancestors, of today’s women,” she said.
During the event, a purification ritual was held in which the president received the ceremonial baton of command from Indigenous authorities.
Minister for Women Citlalli Hernández Mora then took the stage, informing the crowd that the distribution of millions of copies of the Women’s Rights Handbook had begun the day prior. She also announced that her office is working on a collaborative agreement with the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) to implement specific actions for the benefit of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican women.
Hernández then offered up words of praise for Sheinbaum.
“I would not want to let this moment pass without recognizing, Madame President… the way in which we are proud to see you exercise power in a different way. We know that you defend all Mexicans, the people of Mexico, that you defend our sovereignty in an exemplary manner.”
She continued, “Your ability to keep a cool head and make decisions for the common good, not only makes us proud of our country, but also has become a global example,” in reference to the rapidly shifting US-Mexico relationship under US President Donald Trump.
“I call on all our sisters, indigenous and Afro-Mexican women, to move forward, because as our President has correctly said, she has become President, but not she alone, we are accompanying her,” said National Council to Prevent Discrimination President Claudia Olivia Morales Reza.
The head of the National Councilor for Indigenous Peoples, Yaneth Cruz Gómez, described the process of devising the General Law on the Rights of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples. The bill will be subject to a consultation with the Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities to be then sent to the Chamber of Deputies for approval.
“We recognize their effort and commitment to the recognition of our rights, of those rights that currently recognize Indigenous and Afro-Mexican women as a legal category with rights, with their own status and patrimony,” she added.
Cruz Gómez also urged the government to improve its data collection efforts to better reflect the realities of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities.
Finally, the head of Mexico City’s municipal government, Clara Brugada Molina, thanked Sheinbaum for ensuring that women in Mexico “can no longer be erased from history.”
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