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MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Claudia Sheinbaum takes office Tuesday as Mexico\u2019s first female president<\/a> in the nation\u2019s more than 200 years of independence.<\/p>\n The 62-year-old former Mexico City mayor and lifelong leftist campaigned on a promise of continuity, of protecting and expanding the signature initiatives of her mentor, former President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador.<\/p>\n In the four months between her election and inauguration she held that line, backing L\u00f3pez Obrador on issues big and small. But Sheinbaum is a very different person; she likes data and doesn\u2019t have L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s backslapping personal touch.<\/p>\n Mexico now waits to see if she will step out of his shadow.<\/a><\/p>\n What\u2019s Sheinbaum\u2019s background?<\/p>\n Sheinbaum\u2019s background is in science. She has a Ph.D. in energy engineering. Her brother is a physicist. In a 2023 interview with The Associated Press<\/a>, Sheinbaum said, \u201cI believe in science.\u201d<\/p>\n Observers say that grounding showed itself in Sheinbaum\u2019s actions as mayor during the COVID-19 pandemic, when her city of some 9 million people took a different approach from what L\u00f3pez Obrador espoused at the national level.<\/p>\n She comes from an older, more solidly left tradition that predates L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s nationalistic, populist movement.<\/a><\/p>\n Her parents were leading activists in Mexico\u2019s 1968 student movement, which ended tragically in a government massacre of hundreds of student demonstrators<\/a> in Mexico City\u2019s Tlatelolco plaza just days before the Summer Olympics opened there that year.<\/p>\n Sheinbaum is also the first president with a Jewish background<\/a> in the largely Catholic country.<\/p>\n What did her victory look like?<\/p>\n Sheinbaum led wire to wire and won convincingly in June with almost 60% of the vote<\/a>, about double the number of her nearest competitor, X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez.<\/p>\n As L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s chosen successor, she enjoyed the boost of the high popularity he maintained throughout his six years in office.<\/p>\n The opposition\u2019s coalition led by G\u00e1lvez struggled to gain traction, while support for the governing party carried over to Congress<\/a>, where voters gave Morena and its allies margins that allowed it to pass important constitutional changes before L\u00f3pez Obrador left office.<\/p>\n Where does she stand on recent contentious issues?<\/p>\n Before passage of a controversial constitutional overhaul of Mexico\u2019s judiciary<\/a> that will make all judges stand for election, Sheinbaum stood with L\u00f3pez Obrador who had pushed it.<\/p>\n Sheinbaum said \u201cthe reforms to the judicial system will not affect our commercial relations, nor private Mexican investments, nor foreign ones. Rather the opposite, there will be a greater and better rule of law and democracy for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after, when L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s proposal to put the National Guard under military command was being considered, Sheinbaum defended it against critics. She said it would not militarize the country and that the National Guard would respect human rights.<\/p>\n And just days before she took office, Sheinbaum stood with L\u00f3pez Obrador in his long-running diplomatic spat with Spain<\/a>. She defended her decision to not invite Spain’s King Felipe VI to her inauguration, saying in part that the king had failed to apologize for Spain\u2019s conquest of Mexico as L\u00f3pez Obrador had demanded years earlier.<\/p>\n How important is her election for Mexican women?<\/p>\n Sheinbaum\u2019s victory came 70 years after women won the right to vote in Mexico.<\/p>\n The race really came down to two women, Sheinbaum and G\u00e1lvez, but Mexico\u2019s prevailing machismo still pushed both women to explain why they thought they could be president<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since 2018, Mexico\u2019s Congress has had a 50-50 gender split, in part due to gender quotas set for party candidates. Still, Sheinbaum inherits a country with soaring levels of violence against women.<\/p>\n There are also still many parts of the country, especially rural Indigenous areas where men hold all the power<\/a>. And some 2.5 million women toil in domestic work<\/a> where despite reforms they continue to face low pay, abuse by employers, long hours and unstable working conditions.<\/p>\n Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that national laws prohibiting abortions are unconstitutional and violate women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n Although the Mexican ruling orders the removal of abortion from the federal penal code and requires federal health institutions to offer the procedure to anyone who requests it, further state-by-state legal work is pending to remove all penalties.<\/p>\n Feminists say that simply electing a woman as president does not guarantee she will govern with a gender perspective. Both Sheinbaum and L\u00f3pez Obrador have been criticized before for appearing to lack empathy toward women protesting against gender violence.<\/p>\n ____<\/p>\n Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n