Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Galvez. El País / Getty
The political life of Mexico today unfolds with a large presence of women on the most notorious billboards. In the absence of definitive results, two women are leading the battle for the presidential seat, a circumstance that often turns the debate onto gender issues. Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez and progressive Morenista Claudia Sheinbaum not only raise the possibility of placing a female name in Mexico’s highest representation for the first time, but also accuse them of the discrimination they suffer as women in a still very masculinized world. Politics is a war without mercy, and it doesn’t always make sense to hide behind the female constitution to ward off enemy fire. But the line is fluid, and while the experts surveyed note that the priority is to acknowledge those who claim to be a victim and to rely on the opinion of specialized courts, they also warn that overuse of this shield could blur the noble purpose of addressing gender grievances when they are true and painful, which in most cases it still is.
In Mexico, where there is progressive law on the subject, gender-based political violence is when a woman sees her right to hold or hold public office being undermined on grounds of gender, but violence or not, discrimination or not, there are also reprehensible behaviors due to her apparent machismo, rich in gender stereotypes. Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez has twice denounced President Andrés Manuel López Obrador because he thinks his public statements soak up the stigma stalked women who choose public jobs when he says she is a candidate imposed by a group of men who lead the coalition party she is running for. “The President doesn’t accept that a woman like me doesn’t have an owner because he feels like he owns his Corcholata [Claudia Sheinbaum]. He puts it there, nobody put me but my merits and my skills. “It insults me by implying that a man brought me here, downplaying the efforts of so many women we’ve had a hard time reaching, and carrying the stigma that we came because men put us there,” the PAN candidate said recently, echoing the same charge she defends that the President put Sheinbaum up as a candidate.
The National Electoral Institute (INE) has exonerated the president on the grounds that his words are typical of a political debate and not linked to a sexist attitude. But not all voices agreed. The President of the Complaints and Complaints Commission, Claudia Zavala, considered that López Obrador invalidates the complainant’s “history and professional career” and “perpetuates the notion that women are incapable of deciding our lives and projects”. So he voted against. She wasn’t the only one.
In previous elections, there were different verdicts for very similar cases. In June 2021, the electoral court forced the candidate for governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García, to take a course on sexist violence because he insinuated that his opponent in that contest, Clara Luz Flores, was a “mandada” and owed her place to the merits of her husband. The case was considered political violence. Since 2020, the INE has received 341 complaints of gender-based political violence and imposed sanctions on 297 people.
“We cannot label every behavior that bothers us as political violence that is dangerous and blurs the true crimes, abuses and atrocities. Perhaps we women suffer from excessive questioning, but that’s not necessarily violence. If Xóchitl Gálvez or Claudia Sheinbaum are not final candidates for any reason, because of their parties or the polls, that is not necessarily discrimination,” says analyst Paola Zavala, president of Community Occupation for Peace, Occupy.
A recent interview by Sheinbaum in Tabasco, in which he accused a friendly but insistent moderator of being somewhat violent during his interrogation, was controversial. She then posted a tweet saying, “Women have a voice, we know how to use it to defend our ideas.” “You can’t use womanhood as a shield to avoid being questioned,” says Zavala. “Whether the interview was violent or not, it was definitely about legality and not a woman’s condition,” she adds.
The parameter to determine whether or not women suffer gender discrimination in politics is to analyze “whether men have had to go through all these issues that women face or not,” says Martha Tagle, former Movimiento Ciudadano lawmaker and gender and human rights advisor. And it’s not enough for a man to be the aggressor, because “in such a machismo-ridden society, misogyny can happen to some women, too,” she says. He believes that it is fundamental “to value the word of the victims and let the law decide.” The price for women to go into politics is still very high. It is not excessive to take precautions and take this issue seriously,” he says.
Tagle believes that from the moment it has focused on counteracting women, this campaign is already a trap of patriarchy, which is to fight each other so that they win, it’s macho logic, women don’t get along, that’s macho logic. And he qualifies: “Confrontation is always necessary in politics, but it is only counteracted, also by the media, and there are more candidates,” he says. When asked if some candidates don’t sometimes go too far and use the fact that they are women as a shield, she replies: “I myself told Rosario Robles, when I was a government minister and appealed on a matter of gender-based violence, that a woman does not exempt you from being interrogated for corruption.”
A prominent feminist in Morena’s ranks is Lorena Villavicencio, and when asked about the excesses candidates (or other politicians) might commit by appealing to gender-based violence, she affirms that she would rather excess be a sin than a mistake. “Given the reality we live in, we’re left behind,” he says. “There is a need to get the message across to society, and people in particular, that attribution and merit are not being undermined.” Any action that reinforces that message is positive,” he says.
In the case of Xóchitl Gálvez, he says it was “something strange” at the time of the election campaign. “This law is applied when exercising a right to vote and you have to have the status of a candidate,” which has not happened yet, but regarding the president’s attacks on Gálvez, he says: “I am against using a presidential podium to discredit anyone, especially women.” “It is necessary to contact the relevant authorities if illegal behavior is suspected,” Graben said. Political Violence? “It is important that a decision is made as to whether this is appropriate treatment or not, the authority will decide that.”
Regarding the limits, Villavicencio opines that “it is not right to put private life above public life, compromising integrity should not be part of competition, neither for women nor for men.” What you need to do is to contrast political projects and know the biographies, but with regard to their actions in public life. There is a fixation on gender as if we are an object, anything that reinforces stereotypes needs to be eliminated.”
In his opinion, all of these campaigns are “infused with a very macho narrative where the perennial question is whether they are qualified to hold the position they are running for.” This country is still steeped in misogyny and machismo. Everyone has to be accountable for their actions. Dignity cannot be violated. To where? There has to be an evaluation,” he adds.
Gálvez has said he would go to court if INE didn’t agree with him. The last word has not yet been spoken.
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