Global Roundup: Mexico's 1st Woman President Proposals vs Sexism, Palestinian-British Director, Black LGBTQ+ Icons, Jailed Saudi Feminist Activist Stabbed, Lesbian Firefighter Settlement for Bigotry

President Claudi Sheinbaum waves to supporters in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square, during a rally on her inauguration day, Tuesday Oct. 1, 2024. Photo: EFE/Isaac Esquivel

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office this week as her country's first woman leader, announced a package of reforms on Thursday aimed at bolstering women's rights in a country with some of the world's highest levels of gender violence.

On her second full day in office, Sheinbaum said her government had proposed reforms that aim to articulate and broaden women's rights, including a constitutional guarantee of equal pay for equal work.

As Mexico's first woman president, our obligation is to protect women…Unfortunately, sometimes a woman who experiences violence does not know that she is experiencing violence. Or a woman who earns less than a man when doing the same job does not know that her right is to receive the same salary. -President Claudia Sheinbaum

She said the proposed reforms, which will be submitted to a Congress dominated by her ruling party, included guarantees of wage equality, a life free of violence and financial support for women over 60.

The government plans to start distributing millions of booklets next year to women across the country informing them of their rights, including in Indigenous languages, she added.

Declaring "it's time for women," the former Mexico City mayor was sworn in Tuesday as leader of the world's most populous Spanish-speaking country, which has had 65 male presidents since independence.

Sheinbaum's cabinet includes Mexico's first women's minister, who outlined the proposals at the president's morning press conference on Thursday.

Mexico has made recent strides in the representation of women in government and public positions, not only with Sheinbaum's election, but also by installing the first woman to lead the country's Supreme Court, the first female governor of the central bank, and gender parity in Congress.

The new president will govern with a cabinet that is half female and a Congress evenly divided between men and women. Women head the Supreme Court and central bank and run top federal ministries.

A survey by the country's statistics agency in 2022 found that more than 70% of 50.5 million women and girls age 15 and older had experienced some kind of violence, up four percentage points from the previous survey in 2016.

High rates of murder against women and related impunity have also sparked waves of protests.

On average, between 9 and 10 women are killed every day, according to government data, and tens of thousands are missing.