Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo

First International Women's Day Address as the President of Mexico

delivered 8 March 2025

[Professionally transcribed/interpreted by a human Spanish/English language expert]

Thank you very much. Thank you very much to our head of government Clara Brugada. Thank you for your presence, Clara and for your great work at the head of the city.

Thank you to all the female electoral councilors who are here today, to the president of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal, to the female ministers of the Court, female deputies, female senators, to the heads of the Women's Institutes or Women's Secretariats from all over the country; to all the women of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples who are here with us; to the entire government team: Thank you all for your presence.

On March 8, 1875, several hundred women in a New York textile factory protested and demonstrated against social inequality with respect to their male colleagues. The protests led to a brutal police crackdown that ended with the murder of dozens of women workers. Following the massacre, the first women's union in history was created and unleashed a wave of protests and strikes by women in the textile sector. One of the most important came in 1908 under the slogan “Bread and Roses” (Pan y Rosas) about 15,000 women took to the streets to protest the terrible working conditions they were experiencing. Even in this case, the police cracked down.

The first National Women's Day was celebrated in the United States on February 28, 1909.¹ The then Socialist Party of America designated this day in honor of the 1908 strike of women garment workers in New York. At the second international conference of socialist women held in Copenhagen in 1910, Clara Zetkin proposed and was approved the celebration of Working Women's Day, which began to be celebrated in the following year. The first commemoration was held on March 19, 1911 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We must never forget where March 8, International Women's Day, comes from.

From there on, it spread to several countries. In 1972 the United Nations General Assembly declared 1975 International Women's Year, and invited States to declare, in accordance with their historical traditions and national customs, a day as an international day for women's rights and international peace. We must also never forget that international peace is linked to women.

March 8th commemorates the struggle of women to achieve their rights, labor and justice. Today we are talking about all rights for all women, that is what March 8th is all about.

It has a very deep content. We fight for all rights for all people. All Mexicans should have the right to education, to health, to housing, to healthy food, to a fair salary.

In this framework, we write the struggle for women, for women's rights. But we require more rights to achieve substantive equality. Not only because as women we have our own needs, but because historically we have been treated unequally. So there is a major gap that needs to be filled. For example, women have the right to breastfeeding places in the workplace. Women have the right for caregiving tasks within the family and household to always be shared equally by both partners. Women have the right to education, health, employment, and to earn the same as men. We have the right to own property and to always be treated with dignity. We have the right to participate, to speak, to express our opinions without being treated with contempt, and -- what has become a global outcry -- we have the right to live in peace and free from violence.

We have the right to leave our children in good care so that we can exercise our right to work. We have the right to a proper care system. Poor women have the right to have their rights recognized first.
Our movement -- pardon me for saying it, but it is true -- is the only movement that can truly uphold women's rights, because conservatism views rights as commodities and privileges. These can only be accessed through personal merit. That is condemning women to continued inequality. Because when there is no right to education, those most affected are women. Because when there is no right to healthcare, those most affected are women. Because when there is no access to rights, those most affected are poor women.

Two days after we took office, we submitted a constitutional reform to recognize substantive equality, the right to a life free from violence, and the right to fair wages -- that is, equal work and equal pay.

In addition, seven secondary laws were modified to make these rights a reality. We can say with certainty that today, Mexican women are in the political constitution of the United Mexican States.

This year, we have declared it the "Year of the Indigenous Woman," of our ancestors, of the indigenous women of today. This year helps us to remember our origins, as Mexicans, and the resistance of the indigenous peoples to not lose their lands, their cultures, their languages. It helps us to place the female figure as the protagonist of a past that has been denied to her. Reassigning women's place in the course of history also implies vindicating their place today.

It entails initiating a shift in awareness, in which we feel proud of our role and not silenced by omission, and in which we take pride in the mission that has shaped women's history -- particularly that of the women who lived on these lands, their legacy, and today's Indigenous and Afro-descendant women.

Recognizing the Year of the Indigenous Woman means beginning to rethink the historical perspective, it means beginning to tell the story from another place, it means placing ourselves before our past and therefore, before our present and our future. It means viewing Indigenous women as an essential part of the history of the present and future of the continent. It also means that present and future generations of women can recognize themselves as makers of history. This is the true shift in awareness.

It is an ethical responsibility to rethink the past to transform the injustices of the present. Only in this way can we combat the racism and classism that we experience today. The transformation has to be at the root and therefore we must reposition our historical perspective.

Declaring this year as the "Year of Indigenous Women" -- past, present, and future -- restores the courage and resilience of those who have been silenced for hundreds of years, despite their struggles and resistance, despite being defeated but never surrendering. It is a responsibility that we, Mexican women, take on today. We recognize in our hearts, in our consciousness, in our history, and in the future, the Indigenous women of today.

Monuments, statues, street names, and the decision to dedicate a year to a cause in our country are legacies we leave for future generations. They are historical markers that should remind us of our past with dignity. The historical memory we strive to preserve cannot -- and must not -- be merely a vision. Historical silence is a form of violence that subjugates, annihilates, and defines the present. Historical silence becomes an anchor that invites complicity and hinders change. That is why today, March 8, 2025, is dedicated to with pride and dignity to all the women of Mexico's native peoples, because they represent us.

Today, March 8, in reaffirmation of this historical memory, both present and future, and in defense of women's rights, I want to tell you that we are also announcing 10 actions today.

First: Establishing 24 commemorative days to recognize women in history. How is it possible that we go through 365 days of the year with practically no recognition of Mexican women in history? It is women's time, and it is time to recognize women in history.

Two: Opening of the Hall of Women in History, here at the National Palace.

Three: Millions of Women's Rights Booklets distributed throughout the country.

Four: The creation -- and we want all of you to help us with this -- of the National Network of Women Weavers of the Homeland. Volunteer women across the entire country, who weave together the homeland, weave sovereignty, and weave the rights of women and all Mexicans. So, we invite you to build this network of millions of women weavers of the Homeland.

Five: We already have the women's welfare pension. One million women, aged 63 and 64, already receive the “women's welfare pension.” It is a recognition of the work that we, as a women, have done and continue to do through household labor. But I announce that starting August 1st of this year, it will also include women aged 60 to 63. Therefore, by the end of the year, all women between 60 and 64 years old will receive the pension, as we committed.

Six: The construction of at least 200 Education and Child Care Centers for working mothers, so they can leave their children well cared for, well-fed, and able to start their educational process while the mothers exercise their right to work. Moving away from the outsourcing practices of the past, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) will also include all women who previously lacked or currently lack social security. Through this initiative, IMSS regains its role as a public social security institution, a process that began in December 2018. As you know, we have already started the censuses for women working in maquiladoras² and agricultural day laborers. At least 200 centers will be established nationwide as part of the National Care System.

Seven: Permanent recognition of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women throughout the six-year term.

Eight: The housing program will prioritize women as homeowners.

Nine: Recognition of lands rights for at least 150,000 women.

Ten: This week, I have asked Citlalli [Hernández] to begin forums and consultations throughout the country to determine the actions we must undertake to implement the constitutional and legal reforms we have made. No more violence against women!

Not one more femicide; not one more blow; not one more violent word or action against Mexican women. Women have the right to a free and fulfilling life. We have the right to dream, and that is why the government exists, to guarantee the rights of all women.

I conclude by reading the words from when I took office as the first woman President in the history of our blessed and beloved Mexico. I said that I wanted to recognize not only our nation's heroines, whom we will continue to honor, but also all the anonymous heroines, the invisible women, whom we make visible with these words.

With our arrival to the presidency, all those women arrived with us: those who fought for their dreams and achieved them, and those who fought but did not.

Those who raised their voices, and those who could not.

Those who had to remain silent and later cried out alone -- the Indigenous women, the workers, the Afro-descendant women, the domestic workers who left their villages to support other women, our great-grandmothers who never learned to read or write because schooling was not meant for them.

Our aunts who found in their solitude the strength to endure.

The anonymous women, those heroines who fought to witness this moment from their homes, streets, or workplaces.

Our mothers, who gave us life and then gave us everything again.

Our sisters, who overcame their circumstances and achieved their emancipation.

Our friends arrive, our beautiful and brave daughters, and our granddaughters arrive. They arrive, those who dreamed of a day when it would not matter if we were born as women or men -- when we could achieve our dreams and desires without our gender determining our destiny. They arrive, all of them, those who envisioned us as free and happy. To the presidency of the Republic, all women have arrived.

There are women presidents in the Chamber of Deputies. There are women presidents in the Senate. There are women presidents in the classroom. There are women presidents in the street. There are women presidents at home. There are women presidents in companies. Thank you, Altagracia.³ There are women presidents all over our country.
From young girls to adult women, we are all presidents of the United Mexican States.

I did not arrive alone, we arrived together, all Mexican women.

Long live the Indigenous women of Mexico!

[Audience: “Long live!”]

Long live Afro-descendant women!

[Audience: “Long live!”]

Long live women!

[Audience: “Long live!”]

Long live Mexico!

[Audience: “Long live!”]

³  Referent uncertain but possibly Altagracia Gómez Sierra, coordinator of the Advisory Council for Regional Economic Development and Relocation (CADERR). She was present at the meeting, as reported on the dedicated page of the Government of Mexico [https://www.gob.mx/presidencia/prensa/a-la-presidencia-de-la-republica-llegamos-todas-presidenta-claudia-sheinbaum-presenta-10-acciones-a-favor-de-las-mujeres-en-el-marco-del-8m?idiom=en]

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