Mexico just elected its next president — and that fact that she’s a woman is a groundbreaking moment in the country’s 200-year history.
Claudia Sheinbaum, 61, will officially serve as Mexico’s first female president after a projected win Monday against opponent Xóchitl Gálvez, who is also a woman (another historic first). Sheinbaum, who is a climate scientist and Mexico City’s former head of government, will succeed the country’s current President Andres Manuel López Obrador, who has been leading the country for six years.
According to CNN, more than 98 million Mexican citizens were registered to cast a ballot in the election. Not only is Sheinbaum the country’s first female president, but she is also the first person with a Jewish background to serve as its leader.
“For the first time in 200 years of our republic, I will become the first woman president…but as I’ve said in other occasions, I don’t make it alone,” Sheinbaum said in a speech reported by NBC News. “We’ve all made it, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.”
Sheinbaum’s win is a significant moment in Mexico’s world of politics, which has notably been dominated by men. The country is known for its machismo culture that has contributed to violence and death against women. The toxic masculine beliefs have also diminished opportunities for women to withhold major political positions — until now.
Sheinbaum will join a relatively small group of female leaders around the world. Judith Suminwa Tuluka became the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first female prime minister in April. And Sandra Mason currently serves as the president of Barbados, the second woman in the country’s history to hold the position.
Europe currently takes the lead as the region with highest concentration of female-led nations, Statista finds. Mette Frederiksen has served as Denmark’s prime minister since 2019 at age 41, becoming the youngest person in the country’s history to serve in that role. And Giorgia Meloni currently serves as prime minister of Italy.
Having women as leaders in the workplace helps improve team collaboration and dismantle stereotypes, psychological research shows. Women leaders are also more likely to inspire employees to go along with an organization’s mission and represent the “good” of the company.
And while a majority of U.S. citizens say they believe the gender of a president doesn’t matter or is neither better nor worse, others still support a woman being president. According to 2023 data from the Pew Research Center, 46% of U.S. adults say that having a woman as president would handle education somewhat or a lot better than a male president. Another 45% of respondents said a female president would do a better job in tackling healthcare than a male president.
While the U.S. still hasn’t had a woman serve as president (Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College in 2016), Mexico’s historic first shows it’s possible to do so. When Sheinbaum takes office in October, she faces tackling Mexico’s biggest issues like crime and violence.
But being a woman, Mexico’s voters have shown, will not impact her ability to do her job.
“I promise that I am not going to let you down,” Sheinbaum said, per the Associated Press.
