Claudia Sheinbaum: Here comes Mexico’s first female president

On Tuesday, October 1, 2024, history was made again when Mexico inaugurated its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Like Sheinbaum’s speech after her swearing-in ceremony: “It’s time for change, and it’s time for women,” it is indeed a great time to be a woman. When the world is about to catch its breath from the excitement of Americans supporting a woman for the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket, another vibrant horsewoman won the presidency in Mexico. Although Bangladesh’s runaway Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cast women in a bad light in August 2024 when she fled, the world is still anticipating what the fresh ideas of having women leaders would look like. The 62-year-old, now female president of Mexico thanked her charismatic predecessor, whose popularity helped her to a clear victory in the elections in June. “It was an honor to fight with you,” she told López Obrador.

A number of high-ranking diplomats and representatives were in attendance, including the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States. Ms. Sheinbaum — the country’s first president of Jewish descent — plans to continue López Obrador’s program, including his social spending and expansion of the rail network, while pursuing her own priorities. Her first task, however, is to tackle a natural emergency in Acapulco in the southern state of Guerrero, where Hurricane John has killed dozens of people and left large areas underwater. Other major issues facing the new administration include the country’s powerful drug cartels and tensions over migration and trade with the United States, Mexico’s northern neighbor. Sheinbaum, a former physicist and climate scientist, has the support of López Obrador’s Morena party, which controls both chambers of Mexico’s Congress. Although the tasks ahead are enormous, the world, and especially the people of Mexico, are optimistic that she will bring about a great change, as she said in her speech. Mexico’s first female president will be sworn in in October. Will the month of November 2024 go down in American history as the month in which a woman won the presidential election in the United States of America? Before Sheinbaum led and won the presidency of Mexico, she was the first female mayor of the Mexican capital Ciudad de México. Before Sheinbaum made history as the country’s first female president, he served as governor of Mexico City from 2018 to 2023.

While taking on the role, she also made history as the first female mayor of Mexico City. She first entered the political sphere in 2000, when Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the former Mexican president and governor of Mexico City, appointed her as environment secretary for the country’s capital. In 2015, she also made history as the first woman elected for Mexico City’s Tlalpan district. During her role in government in Mexico City, Sheinbaum successfully reduced the number of homicides and other violent crimes, with the number of intentional killings falling by 51 percent during her time in office. She improved public transport with projects such as the Cablebús and expanded cycle paths, targeting disadvantaged areas. However, these achievements were overshadowed by accidents in the city’s metro, including a deadly collapse on Line 12. She launched initiatives such as ‘Pilares’, which provided community spaces for education and skills training in marginalized areas. While some programs were celebrated, others, such as the controversial replacement of daycare centers with cash benefits, were criticized. Claudia Sheinbaum studied at UC Berkeley. The politician also has ties to American universities, more specifically the University of California, Berkeley. Sheinbaum spent her time at UC Berkeley as a researcher while pursuing her PhD at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in the 1990s. She spent four years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), working in the Energy Technologies Area. During her tenure, Sheinbaum analyzed energy consumption in buildings and Mexico’s transportation sector, contributing to research on sustainable energy practices. This academic and research experience at Berkeley, along with her Ph.D. in Energy Engineering, environmental sustainability and energy policy shaped her focus throughout her political career, especially during her tenure as Governor of Mexico City. 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Claudia Sheinbaum was part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) team that, along with former US Vice President Al Gore, received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.