In November 2018, when Ana Helena Saldaña Aguilar, then 23, returned home, a mysterious woman threw liquid in her face. It first felt like water but quickly seared her skin. Her ex-boyfriend had orchestrated an acid attack, leaving her in agony and her face forever scarred. “This was my punishment for having left him,” Saldaña says. She calls it a “way of controlling” her. “It wasn’t just about destroying my life, but destroying my face,” she says. Her story reflects a grim reality in Mexico where over seven in 10 women and girls aged 15 and older report having experienced some form of violence, according to INEGI, the national statistics agency. Authorities rarely intervene, leaving about 95% of violent crimes unpunished.
Last year, Mexicans elected their first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, a 62-year-old environmental scientist and former mayor of Mexico City. Surrounded by female soldiers at her inauguration on Oct. 1, Sheinbaum inspired hope, declaring: “It is time for women,” as she received the presidential sash. Yet, expectations of protecting by Mexican women from gender-based violence could be replaced by disappointment.
The Face of Progress
Sheinbaum’s rise to the presidency has become the ultimate show of the increasing presence of women in positions of leadership. “I do not arrive alone. We all arrived,” she said, referring to the women before her. In 2019, Mexico adopted a constitutional reform mandating “parity in everything,” meaning that women should hold 50% of candidacies and positions in all branches of government. This reform helped achieve gender parity in Mexico’s Congress. In the 2024 elections, both top presidential candidates — Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez — were women. Sheinbaum appointed Mexico’s first women’s minister, Citlali Hernández Mora, and the country recently saw its first female head of the Supreme Court and the first female governor of the central bank.
Sheinbaum was quick at putting her words into action. On her second day in office, she presented plans to modify six constitutional articles and seven secondary laws to reform women’s rights. Through constitutional changes, Sheinbaum will incorporate the right to substantive equality, requiring all laws to consider the specific needs and human rights of women, and mandate that security and justice institutions adopt a gender perspective in their operations. She also presented measures to protect women against digital violence; push aggressors to leave the home instead of women and their children having to go to a shelter; and ensure equal pay and parity in all positions of the federal public administration.
Sheinbaum plans to create a Women’s Rights Charter for nationwide distribution to educate Mexicans about women’s rights. She will create a new pension program providing financial support of 3,000 Mexican pesos (about $150) bimonthly to women aged 60 to 64. She has also promised to provide female lawyers in all public prosecutor’s offices and create specialized prosecutor’s offices that investigate femicide crimes in all states, a model based on her years as a Mayor of Mexico City.
Sheinbaum’s initiatives are part of a broader history of women’s advancement in Mexico, which stem from the feminist movement in Mexico that has taken force over time. Mexico elected its first female president before its northern neighbor. In 2012, it became the first country in Latin America to add femicide to its penal code. In 2020, Mexico became the first country in the global south to introduce a feminist foreign policy.
But Gender-Based Violence Remains Rampant
While such initiatives look promising on paper, laws rarely reflect reality in Mexico. Female representation in politics does not guarantee a change in culture, structures, or policies. Despite progress in political representation, violence against women has worsened. Mexico has one of the world’s highest femicide rates, with about 10 women violently killed every day. The rate of women’s killings has increased by 137% since 2015 — four times that of other homicides. The surge in violence was particularly pronounced during the pandemic when many women were confined to homes with abusive partners, resulting in a 60% increase in calls to emergency hotlines.
“As the first female president of Mexico, our obligation is to protect women,” Sheinbaum said during a ceremony. Yet, women in Mexico feel far from protected.
Mexico has one of the world’s highest femicide rates, with about 10 women violently killed every day.
Saldaña’s acid attack went unpunished because, at the time, such attacks weren’t even recognized as crimes. In response, she and Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, a feminist activist and the Mayor of Cuauhtémoc municipality in Mexico City, started advocating for the creation of an acid law in 2019. Last year, Mexico City became the sixth state to include acid violence in its penal code. “It seemed absurd to me to have to literally survive hell to realize that you were completely alone and without tools to defend yourself just because it wasn’t written in the penal code,” Saldaña says.
The lack of laws was not Saldaña’s only challenge — the lack of enforcement was too. She recalls the Prosecutor’s Office losing her case file and evidence multiple times. “The only thing they [the Mexican justice system] have done is lose documents, the only thing that has helped me is the law I reformed myself.”
Experiences like Saldaña’s are not uncommon. Extreme levels of impunity in Mexico mean that less than 3% of femicides are prosecuted and just about 1% result in a conviction.
Melissa Ayala García, a lawyer specializing in human rights and feminist legal theory, explains that the few women who manage to report their cases often face slow processes and re-victimization, leading many to abandon their cases. “That’s part of why many cases never reach a conviction.” Ayala explains that it is not uncommon for her clients to be asked what they were wearing when an aggression occurred or to be told they are partly responsible for the violence they have endured.
At the same time, gender laws are sometimes misused. Rojo de la Vega experienced this firsthand after her election victory in Cuauhtémoc municipality was challenged on accusations of political violence based on gender. “As a feminist and as a woman, I’m extremely offended because I think that the very laws that are necessary for us are the same laws being used to attack our political and electoral rights,” says Rojo de la Vega. Feminists rallied in her support, and ultimately the case against her was ruled inadmissible.
A Context of Violence and Inequality
Mexico has become a more violent country overall. Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador handed over power to Sheinbaum following the deadliest presidential term in history with 180,000 killings. The United States military estimates that over a third of Mexican territory is now controlled by criminal groups. Violence against women has increased even more than for men and has some unique explanations.
Ayala notes that gender-based violence is deeply intertwined with broader gender inequalities in Mexico and Latin America, with low-income or Indigenous women being particularly vulnerable. “The socioeconomic factor plays a significant role, and greater inequality leads to a greater possibility of creating breeding grounds for gender-based violence,” she explains.
Mexican women earn about 15% less than their male counterparts, and they spend more hours per day on unpaid labor than in any other OECD country. This limits women’s financial independence and possibly affects their chances of escaping abusive relationships.
Saldaña has not found peace after the acid attack. She sought refuge in Canada, but her ex-partner continued to pursue her. “I don’t know what his limits are,” Saldaña says.
Such continuous persecution is not uncommon. Wendy Figueroa Morales, director of Mexico’s National Network of Shelters for Women, explains that aggressors often track down women who have “disappeared,” even seeking help from government institutions to find them.
What More Can Be Done
To truly protect women, Mexico needs more than just new laws — it needs robust enforcement and public policies backed by adequate resources. “In terms of laws, we’re in a good place [in Mexico], but when you get to the prosecutor’s office, there is no staff, no experts, and no agreements,” Rojo de la Vega says.
Ayala calls for judicial reforms that include a gender perspective. She also advocates for strengthening the public health system, including access to psychological support, and reinforcing the network of shelters for women in need.
Maricarmen Medina-Mora, director of institutional development at La Cana, a social enterprise supporting incarcerated women in Mexico, highlights that most current efforts to combat gender violence focus solely on women, with few organizations tackling the machismo and toxic masculinity that perpetuate gender-based violence. “That is where the problem lies,” Medina-Mora says.
Figueroa Morales suggests a budget law to ensure sufficient funding for shelters. “In Mexico there are powerful laws, but they are not backed by a budget,” she says.
Ayala agrees. “What is most important is that initiatives are accompanied with funding.”
In Sheinbaum’s new government, this vital funding seems to be lacking. While Sheinbaum has laid out an ambitious reform agenda, she has also slashed the budget for gender policies, particularly for the country’s women’s shelters which provide essential support for female victims of gender violence.
A female leader is a significant step forward for Mexico, but it will take much more for the country’s women to feel safe.