was named Secretary of Public Education, the first woman in the job. Josefina had vied for the Secretaría de Gobernación position but she was offered to return to SEDESOL or to head the Secretariat of Public Education. She chose the latter as a new challenge. Her time there was marked by confrontations with the powerful head of the national teachers’ union, Elba Esther Gordillo. Some reports state that these confrontations caused problems with Calderon’s advisors with Calderon ready to remove her from the position, but this has not been confirmed. She won election to the Cámara de Diputados once again, this time becoming the Coordinator of the PAN Parliamentary Group. This gave her position to run for her party’s nomination for the 2012 presidential elections. She was in charge of PAN’s parliamentary group from 2009 to 2011. In 2011, she left the legislature when she won her party’s nomination as candidate for president. She won the nomination over Calderón’s choice of Ernesto J. Cordero, with 55% of the vote in the primary. She was the first female candidate for president of PAN, and the first female candidate for president from a major political party in Mexico’s history. She ran not only as “different” from the other contenders but also different from her party, which had been in power for the previous twelve years. She was the least-known of the candidates from Mexico’s three main parties (PAN, PRI and PRD). One of her campaign pledges was life sentences for politicians found guilty of corruption related to organized crime, more scholarships for students, and labor-law reforms, which she said would incorporate 400,000 people each year into the formal economy. She also promised to fight discrimination against women. She did not come out against the policies of her predecessors, Calderón and Fox. and stated that military personnel should be withdrawn only when the area has a “trustworthy” police force. She is also the National Political Advisor (Consejera Política Nacional) of PAN. She placed third in the election, drawing 25.4% of the vote. References External links Official Site Federal Deputies PAN of the LXI Legislature Josefina Vazquez Mota Twitter Biography at CIDOB site (in Spanish) |- |- 1961 births Living people Politicians from Mexico City Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico) Mexican economists Mexican women economists Mexican Secretaries of Social Development Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico) Universidad Iberoamericana alumni 21st-century