MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s conservative ruling party is gambling that this country known for machismo is ready for a female president and have chosen a devout Roman Catholic and popular former congresswoman who says she sympathises with the causes of the poor.

Josefina Vazquez Mota, a 51-year-old economist, became the first female presidential candidate from any of Mexico’s major parties late Sunday when she convincingly won the National Action Party’s primary.

Her victory marks a milestone for women in Mexico, a country where women were not allowed to vote until 1953. The first female governor did not take office until 1989. Only a handful have been elected since.

National Action hopes Mexico is ready to follow in the footsteps of Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile and other Latin American countries that have elected female leaders recently.

Vazquez Mota, who is still married to her high school sweetheart, won national attention after publishing a 1999 book titled “God, Please Make Me A Widow,” which is described as a call to women to stop being afraid of developing their potential.

She has said she wrote the book based on her own experience of being a woman who chose to work over staying at home to raise her three daughters, defying the role she was expected
to fulfill.