Being a spouse to a Latin American leader used to mean playing a visible and powerful part in your husband’s career. But not anymore.
As many of the world’s most populous countries head to the polls this year, the role of women in politics is transforming at pace in many places.
In Latin America, all eyes will be on Mexico – the region’s second-largest democracy could get its first female president.
The two leading candidates are both women, with Claudia Sheinbaum currently at the head of the race.
But the influential non-elected role of the first lady is also changing across the region – not least because Mexico may get a first man instead.
The office has changed since the days of one of the world’s most famous first ladies, Eva Perón. The wife of the Argentine president 75 years ago was one of the most influential political voices in Argentine history.
In recent years, women have been pushing back at the role for a number of reasons.
Some believe it is unfair they should ascend to such a powerful, unelected role while others object to the expectation that they sacrifice their own successful careers for the sake of their husband’s.
One of the most prominent figures to question the job is Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, the wife of Mexico’s current president, who called it elitist.
“We are all women, we all do something important,” she said, adding that there were no “second” women or men.
Ms Gutiérrez Müller advised a fellow first lady, Chilean Irina Karamanos, after her then boyfriend, Gabriel Boric, became Chile’s youngest president in 2022 at the age of 35.
A political leader in her own right and a feminist, Ms Karamanos found herself having to take on a job that she felt went against her principles.
“When the campaign ended, I obviously started thinking, OK, what’s my role?” she told the BBC last year.
The presidential system in both Latin America and the US means the partner plays a visible part in the country’s leadership. Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth US president, is credited with helping to define the role in the early 19th Century well before the term was first used.
Ms Karamanos was given an office inside the presidential palace, her own team, as well as a set of six foundations to preside over. And that was when her doubts began to grow. She started speaking to lawyers, trying to get an understanding of what was expected of her.
“Why me? Why the partner of the president?” she questioned. “Why should she have that much power? Nobody elected her.”
In a country that only emerged from military dictatorship some 30 years ago, Ms Karamanos said it felt very undemocratic for someone like her to suddenly be given all this power. But she took the job.
“I decided that feminist action was more important than feminist image because a lot of criticism came along – that I as a feminist shouldn’t be entering the most conservative place in government,” she said.
“But I was like, look, if you want to actually change something, you have to do it from the inside.”
Irina Karamanos eventually talked herself out of the job – she transferred the foundations to those she felt were more qualified to run them, closed the office down and her team resigned. She stopped working as the first lady in December 2022.
She is no longer with the president but she has left a legacy in Chile – there will be no office for the first lady – or gentleman – for any future presidential partner. But she came in for some criticism over the changes she made.
She says she has no regrets, because democratic institutions need to be legitimised. “One way is to revise all the parts and not keep some parts going, if you notice they are not as legitimate as they deserve to be.”
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68601194