Breathe
By Thelma Elena Pérez Álvarez
In the face of the approval of some and the doubts of others about the fact that Claudia Sheinbaum is the first elected president of Mexico, what we know is that being a woman does not guarantee an intersectional feminist vision or gender perspective, that the instrumentalization of these visions by parties and governments of different colors has reinforced the patriarchal system and that this instrumentalization has generated, for example, 10 femicides a day. We also learn about the trajectory of this Mexican politician and the questions about how and to what extent she will manage to improve the lives of Mexican women during her six-year term.
The current president has declared that she will seek the continuity of the Fourth Transformation or 4T with her own style, a political project with a substantial symbolic load based, for example, on gender, age, class, ethnic and racial inequalities. Therefore, a content and critical analysis of Claudia Sheinbaum's speech read at the presidential inauguration ceremony could cooperate with an approximation of what this style could be.
The importance of analyzing a presidential investiture speech lies in the information it provides about the direction the country will take in the coming years based on lines of action, changes or continuity of previous policies. With this in mind, we analyze Claudia Sheinbaum's speech, understanding it as a social action framed in its context. That is, in understanding, communication and interaction within sociocultural structures and processes, with the objective of recording the words with the highest number of mentions and actions to improve the living conditions of women.
The discourse is composed of a total of 4492 words that articulate 85 paragraphs. From the total number of words, prepositions, nexuses, adverbs, connectors, auxiliary verbs, modals and possessive adjectives were discarded, so that the corpus of analysis corresponds to 231 words.
Some of the results of the content analysis show, for example, that the president made 79 indirect mentions related to men (president, heirs, friend, businessmen), mentioned 41 male names (Benito Juárez, Gabriel Boric, Vicente Guerrero), mentioned Andrés Manuel López Obrador 6 times and made 6 indirect mentions to the same character (you, him).
Regarding the number of mentions of words related to women, he expressed 62 indirect mentions related to women (president, heroines, ambassadors, aunts, grandmothers, all), he mentioned 13 names of women (Leona Vicario, Frida Kahlo, Jill Biden). He also used the word women 14 times and mentioned Mexico 35 times. The following word cloud shows a graphical representation of the frequency of mentions:
Source: own elaboration
The content analysis of the discourse shows that the 231 words expose the imprint of the patriarchal system in the structuring inside and outside the text she read. Likewise, the critical analysis applied to the same text shows, for example, that the positions of power are occupied by men, hence in the speech there are more mentions of presidents, prime ministers, heroes of the country, friends and the outgoing president, but it is not enough to mention women many times, recognize them and thank them, if the first president of Mexico is not explicit about the actions she will carry out to improve the living conditions of women.
For example, what he did mention is the continuity of social programs that include girls and women such as: Universal Pension for the Elderly, Universal Pension for People with Disabilities, Benito Juarez scholarships for public high school students, scholarships for low-income students, Sembrando Vida, Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro, la Escuela es Nuestra and la Clínica es Nuestra.
He also announced 3 new welfare programs: bimonthly support for women between 60 and 64 years of age, scholarships for children in public schools: preschool, elementary and high school. Prevention and health care at home for adults and senior citizens, including the hiring of 20 thousand doctors, doctors, nurses and nurses. Increase of public high schools and universities to make possible 300 thousand more spaces and the construction of one million homes for young people in a rental scheme and then purchase.
In the area of security, he expressed the four axes of his strategy: attention to the causes (with the possibility that young Mexicans have access to all rights), intelligence and investigation, strengthening of the National Guard, coordination with municipalities, states, the Public Ministry and the Attorney General's Office. Intelligence and investigation, strengthening of the National Guard, coordination with municipalities, states, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Attorney General's Office.
What the president did not mention, and here again the patriarchal imprint is evident, are concrete actions to prevent, address, punish and eradicate gender-based violence, to address the crisis of feminicidal violence, to provide resources to women's shelters, to care for searching mothers, to reduce gaps, such as labor, salary and digital, to mention a few.
Because if "only what is named exists", we hope that President Claudia Sheinbaum will act to encourage the understanding that the socio-cultural and socio-economic injustice that women experience, as Nancy Fraser mentions, does not remain only in symbolic recognition, but is accompanied by the redistribution of resources, such as public ones, in a broad sense.
*ThelmaElena Pérez Álvarez teaches digital communication, advertising and marketing at universities in Spain and Mexico. She actively works for the Mexican State to guarantee the human right to media and information literacy.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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