The Janus Face of AMLO’s Feminist Foreign Policy: Rhetoric Abroad, Patriarchal Realities at Home
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32870/mycp.v15i45.970Keywords:
Mexico, feminist foreign policy, Populist, AMLO, personalityAbstract
Mexico has been embracing the Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) practice narrative since 2020 under the populist leadership of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). However, the general pattern of countries with an FFP agenda is generally ranked higher in the gender equality index globally. In this case, Mexico proves to be divergent by embracing FFP while sitting in the middle rank of the gender equality index. This article examines those paradoxes of Mexico’s FFP by arguing that the decision to cast an FFP narrative is rooted in the populist agenda of President AMLO rather than a strategic and ideological projection of the nation. Through qualitative document analysis and leadership personality theory, the study reveals a performative dimension to Mexico’s FFP: high-level female appointments and global feminist discourse are juxtaposed with domestic policies that marginalize feminist civil society, ignore femicide, and militarize public security. AMLO’s leadership, rooted in a binary populist logic of “the people” vs. “the elite,” casts feminist activists as political adversaries, impeding genuine gender equality. This research highlights the limitations of feminist branding within populist governance and advocates for a more profound alignment between discourse and transformative feminist praxisDownloads
References
Abarca, J. F. (2022). Las protestas feministas en México durante el 2020. Causas y consecuencias. Campos en Ciencias Sociales, 10(2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.15332/25006681.7933
Aggestam, K., & Bergman-Rosamond, A. (2016). Swedish Feminist Foreign Policy in the Making: Ethics, Politics, and Gender. Ethics & International Affairs, 30(3), 323–334. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0892679416000241
Aggestam, K., Rosamond, A. B., & Kronsell, A. (2019). Theorising feminist foreign policy. International Relations, 33(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117818811892
Aggestam, K., & True, J. (2020). Gendering Foreign Policy: A Comparative Framework for Analysis. Foreign Policy Analysis, 16(2), 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1093/fpa/orz026
Badour, M. (2025). Feminist Theory and Leadership: Integrating Perspectives for Inclusive Organizational Practices. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.35763.90409
Baitenmann, H., Chenaut, M. V., & Varley, A. (Eds.). (2007). Decoding Gender: Law and Practice in Contemporary Mexico. Rutgers University Press.
Cerva, D. (2024). Formas de represión a las protestas feministas en México entre 2019 y 2022: “Me cuidan mis amigas, no la policía”. La Manzana de la Discordia, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.25100/lamanzanadeladiscordia.v17i1.13627
Chryssogelos, A. (2020). State Transformation and Populism: From the Internationalized to the Neo-Sovereign State? Politics, 40(1), 22–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395718803830
Córdova-Plaza, R. (2025). The Gender Violence Alert mechanism: Women’s vulnerability in Mexico. In Women, Organizations and Vulnerability (pp. 91–102). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032627175-11
Destradi, S., & Plagemann, J. (2019). Populism and International Relations: (Un)predictability, personalisation, and the reinforcement of existing trends in world politics. Review of International Studies, 45(5), 711–730. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210519000184
Drezner, D. W. (2020). Immature leadership: Donald Trump and the American presidency. International Affairs, 96(2), 383–400. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaa009
Ebrard, M. (2019, September 28). Statement by Mr. Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico at the General Debate of the 74° Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (Unofficial Translation). Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. https://mision.sre.gob.mx/onu/images/discursos2019/AGONU74/MEXICO_74_AGONU_Ebrard_REVunofficial_translation.pdf
Ebrard, M. (2020, January 9). Mexico Adopts Feminist Foreign Policy [Press release]. Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Gobierno de México. https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/mexico-adopts-feminist-foreign-policy
Enloe, C. (2004). The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire. University of California Press.
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS), & The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). (2023). Women, Peace, and Security Index 2023/24: Tracking sustainable peace through inclusion, justice, and security for women. GIWPS; PRIO. https://giwps.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/WPS-Index-full-report.pdf
González, G., & Morales, R. (2018). La agenda pendiente de México en América Latina y el Caribe: consideraciones y recomendaciones. In J. A. Schiavon, R. Velázquez Flores, & H. Garza Elizondo (Eds.), La política exterior de México 2018–2024: Diagnóstico y propuestas (pp. 57–64). CIDE; UABC; UANL; FCPyRI.
Grut, B. J. C. (2024). Charismatic Leadership in Left Populism: The Missionary Politics of Andrés Manuel López Obrador [Doctoral dissertation, University of Leeds]. White Rose eTheses Online. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/36051/
Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas (INPI). (2020, January 4). Diálogo con los pueblos otomí, náhuatl, totonaco y tepehua. Pahuatlán, Puebla [Official document]. Gobierno de México. https://www.gob.mx/inpi/galerias/dialogo-con-los-pueblos-otomi-nahuatl-totonaco-y-tepehua-pahuatlan-puebla-231181
Joachim, J. (2022, July 13). What difference does a feminist foreign policy make? The Clingendael Spectator. https://spectator.clingendael.org/en/publication/what-difference-does-feminist-foreign-policy-make
Kark, R., & Buengeler, C. (2024). Wo~men and leadership: Re-thinking the state of research on gender and leadership through waves of feminist thinking. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 31(3), 245–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/15480518241257105
López Obrador, A. M. (2023, March 8). Versión estenográfica. Día Internacional de las Mujeres. Mensaje del presidente de la República [Official speech transcript]. Gobierno de México. https://www.gob.mx/amlo/articulos/version-estenografica-dia-internacional-de-las-mujeres-328499
Lugo, C. (1984). Mexico. In R. Morgan (Ed.), Sisterhood is Global: The International Women’s Movement Anthology (pp. 444–456). Anchor Press/Doubleday.
Maldonado, C. S. (2021, September 29). López Obrador señala a las feministas de querer “afectar” su Gobierno y las califica de “conservadoras”. EL PAÍS. https://elpais.com/mexico/2021-09-29/lopez-obrador-acusa-a-las-feministas-de-querer-afectar-su-gobierno-y-las-califica-de-conservadoras.html
Manetto, F. (2021, March 8). El conflicto de López Obrador con el feminismo marca un 8 de marzo de indignación y protesta. EL PAÍS. https://elpais.com/mexico/2021-03-08/el-conflicto-de-lopez-obrador-con-el-feminismo-marca-un-8-de-marzo-de-indignacion-y-protesta.html
Marcos, S. (1999). Twenty-five years of Mexican feminisms. Women’s Studies International Forum, 22(4), 431–433. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5395(99)00036-9
Meyer, M. K., & Prügl, E. (Eds.). (1999). Gender Politics in Global Governance. Rowman and Littlefield.
Momsen, J. H. (1991). Women and Development in the Third World. Routledge.
Morgan, R. (Ed.). (1984). Sisterhood is Global: The International Women’s Movement Anthology. Anchor Press/Doubleday.
Nagels, N., & Pozos, A. (2022). Igualdad de género en el diseño del Programa de Transferencias Condicionadas Progresa. Clepsydra, (23), 271–291. https://doi.org/10.25145/j.clepsydra.2022.23.14
Neft, N., & Levine, A. D. (1997). Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries 1997–1998. Random House.
Organization of American States. (1994). The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women “Convention of Belém do Pará”. https://www.oas.org/Juridico/english/treaties/a-61.html
Olcott, J. (2022). Surfing The New Wave: International Women’s Year and the Geopolitics of 1970s Mexican Feminism. Korpus 21, 2(4), 201–218. https://doi.org/10.22136/korpus21202279
Ortiz-Delgado, F. M. (2023). The Philosophy of Trans-Historic-History Followed by President López Obrador. Revista de Filosofía de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 62(163), 75–85. https://www.aacademica.org/francisco.m.ortizdelgado/2
Philipson, D. (2023, October 19). Mexico’s Feminist Foreign Policy: In Search of Accountability and Participation. IPI Global Observatory. https://theglobalobservatory.org/2023/10/mexicos-feminist-foreign-policy-in-search-of-accountability-and-participation/
Philipson, D., Arceta, D., & Velasco, A. (2023). Mexico’s Feminist Foreign Policy | A Brief Evaluation. Internacional Feminista. https://www.wo-men.nl/kb-bestanden/1681218249.pdf
Remo, R. (Ed.). (1995). The World: A Third World Guide. Instituto del Tercer Mundo; Oxfam.
Rojas, J. D. (2022). AMLO and Mexico’s Fourth Transformation. American Affairs, 4(4). https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/11/amlo-and-mexicos-fourth-transformation/
Rovira-Sancho, G. (2015). De las redes activistas a las multitudes conectadas: Movilización social, protesta global y tecnologías de la comunicación. Revista Internacional de Pensamiento Político, 10, 157–170. https://www.upo.es/revistas/index.php/ripp/article/view/3591
Rovira-Sancho, G., & Morales-i-Gras, J. (2022). Femitags for feminist connected crowds in Latin America and Spain. Acta Psychologica, 230, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103756
Sánchez, M. (2020). Mexico 2019: Personalistic Politics and Neoliberalism from the Left. Revista de Ciencia Política, 40(2), 401–430. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-090X2020005000113
Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. (2024, August 20). Secretary Bárcena discusses Mexico's foreign policy at President López Obrador's morning press conference. Gobierno de México. https://www.gob.mx/sre/articulos/secretary-barcena-discusses-mexico-s-foreign-policy-at-president-lopez-obrador-s-morning-press-conference
Squires, J. (2013). Gender in Political Theory (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Schiavon, J. A. (2011). Las relaciones México-Estados Unidos. Prioridades constantes, modelos teóricos variables. BUAP.
Schiavon, J. A. (2022). Mexican foreign policy. In A. Thompson (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.684
Tickner, J. A. (1992). Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security. Columbia University Press.
Tricontinental. (2025, September). Mexico and the Fourth Transformation (Dossier n° 92). Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-mexico-fourth-transformation/
United Nations. (2015, October 21). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1) [Resolution]. https://docs.un.org/en/A/res/70/1
Wehner, L. E., & Thies, C. G. (2021). The nexus of populism and foreign policy: The case of Latin America. International Relations, 35(2), 320–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117820944430
Winter, D. G. (2003). Personality and political behavior. In D. O. Sears, L. Huddy, & R. Jervis (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology (pp. 110–145). Oxford University Press.
Zhukova, E., Rosén Sundström, M., & Elgström, O. (2022). Feminist foreign policies (FFPs) as strategic narratives: Norm translation in Sweden, Canada, France, and Mexico. Review of International Studies, 48(1), 195–216. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210521000413
Downloads
Published
Versions
- 2026-08-27 (2)
- 2026-08-27 (1)
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 México y la Cuenca del Pacífico
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides open access to all its contents, in adherence to the principle that making research freely available supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
MyCP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, also known as CC BY-NC.
Contents are published in both PDF and XML formats.
Authors who publish in México y la Cuenca del Pacífico must accept the following conditions:
Pursuant to Mexican copyright laws, México y la Cuenca del Pacífico acknowledges and respects the authors’ moral right and ownership of property rights, which will be assigned to the University of Guadalajara to publish the articles in an open-access mode.
México y la Cuenca del Pacífico does not charge the authors any fees for receiving and processing their articles.
Authors are permitted to enter into other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article version published in México y la Cuenca del Pacífico (for example, publishing it in an institutional repository or in other printed or electronic media) as long as they clearly state that the piece was originally published in México y la Cuenca del Pacífico.
Pursuant to the above, once the article is approved for publication, authors must send the Assignment of Rights Agreement form duly filled and signed. This form must be sent to mycp@administrativos.udg.mx as a PDF file.
Readers/users of México y la Cuenca del Pacífico can freely access the journal new issues as soon as they are uploaded. Readers/users are allowed to cite, share (both electronically and physically), print and distribute the material, provided they expressly state that the work was originally published in México y la Cuenca del Pacífico. Contents are to be properly cited and never for commercial purposes.
