Mexican voters are expected to make history Sunday by electing their first woman president, a milestone in the crime-plagued country where gender-based violence and discrimination have long been rampant.

Ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and a scientist by training, had a 17 percentage point lead over her main
opposition rival Xochitl Galvez on the eve of the vote.

The only man running, centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez, was trailing far behind as a particularly violent campaign season marked by a string of candidate murders drew to an end.

It means that, barring a huge surprise, a woman is almost certain to break the highest political glass ceiling in Mexico, where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day.

That prospect motivates other women to succeed and to think “yes you can,” said Blanca Sosa, a 31-year-old store worker in Mexico City.