‘There is still more to be done’ for women in Mexico, says Sheinbaum: Wednesday’s mañanera recapped

President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to various questions about women at her Wednesday morning press conference.

Mexico’s first female leader has made improving the lives of Mexican women a priority for her government, and recently declared that “there is no limit” to the ambitions of the nation’s women and girls. One of her frequent refrains is that “it’s time for women” in Mexico.

Here is a recap of the president’s March 4 mañanera.

Sheinbaum: Progress has been made for women, but more needs to be done 

Ahead of International Women’s Day (IWD) this Sunday, a reporter asked the president how Mexico is doing with respect to “femicide numbers,” violence against women and wage inequality between men and women.

“There have been many advances for women in our country. Obviously, there is still more to be done,” Sheinbaum said.

“We have not gone far enough. Women still need greater protection from the state and progress in terms of economic autonomy,” she said.

Sheinbaum highlighted that femicides — murders of women or girls on account of their gender — have declined, although there were 721 cases in 2025, and thousands of other women were killed in cases not classified as femicides.

#Mañanera En el marco del 8M, @Claudiashein destacó la disminución del feminicidio, la actualización de protocolos de investigación y la tipificación del acoso en códigos penales.

Añadió que la colocación de vallas busca evitar confrontaciones entre policías y mujeres que… pic.twitter.com/k8EZ1SBl7A

— REFORMA (@Reforma) March 4, 2026

She also said that progress has been made this year on “the protocols for the investigation of femicides,” and highlighted that sexual harassment has been classified as a crime in federal law (that is punishable by prison time).

Sheinbaum, a victim of sexual assault last November, also noted that around 25 million women’s rights pamphlets (Cartillas de Derechos de las Mujeres) have been distributed across the country. In addition, the government led by Mexico’s first female president is the first federal administration in Mexico to have a Ministry of Women.  

With regard to cases of violence against women and the gender pay gap, Sheinbaum said that the government would present relevant data later this month.

Violence against women is a major problem in Mexico, while Mexican women commonly earn less than Mexican men, even when performing the same job, a discrepancy the president sought to eradicate with a 2024 constitutional amendment.

Government will likely put up barriers to protect National Palace on IWD

Sheinbaum said it is “probable” that a barrier will be erected to protect the National Palace on International Women’s Day, when an annual march ends in the adjacent Zócalo, Mexico City’s central square.

In recent years, a metal barrier has been installed around the National Palace in the days leading up to March 8 to protect the building from possible acts of vandalism.

Sheinbaum said that authorities put up such barriers because “the so-called bloque negro” (black block) feminist collective and other “groups that seek to damage the National Palace” often participate in Women’s Day protest marches.

The president said that barriers would also separate female police officers from protesters, and thus prevent possible clashes between the two parties.

Sheinbaum acknowledges recent cases of alleged femicide  

A reporter highlighted that there have been recent protests in Morelos and México state due to the disappearance of young women, at least one of whom was found dead.

“In the first case, there is already a person detained, it’s a person close to the young woman,” Sheinbaum said, referring to Kimberly Ramos Beltrán, a Morelos Autonomous University student whose body was found in Cuernavaca on Monday.

The president subsequently noted that federal Attorney General Ernestina Godoy attended the government’s Wednesday morning security cabinet meeting and told officials that the murder of a madre buscadora (searching mother) in Sinaloa had been classified as a femicide.

A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Rubí Patricia Gómez Tagle, who was a member of a search collective in Sinaloa. Gómez’s son disappeared in Mazatlán last year.