A woman could be Mexico’s next leader. Millions of others continue in shadows as domestic workers.

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Mexico. Women like her play a fundamental role in Mexican society, picking up the burden of domestic labor as a growing number of women professionals enter the workforce. Despite reforms under the current government, many domestic workers continue to face low pay, abuse by employers and long hours.

It is an institution dating back to colonial times, and some researchers equate the unstable working conditions to “modern slavery." Now, with Mexico on its way to possibly electing its first female president June 2, domestic workers hope either former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum or former Sen. Xóchitl Gálvez might shift the balance in their favor. “I’ve never voted all these years, because it’s always the same for us whoever wins.

… When have they ever listened to us, why would I give them my vote?" Alejo said. “At least by having a woman, maybe things will be different." Born to a poor family in the central Mexican state of Puebla, Alejo dropped out of school at age 14, moving to Mexico City as a live-in nanny with two sisters. “It’s like you’re a mother.

The kids would call me ‘mama’," she said. “I would bathe them, care for them, do everything from the moment I awoke to the moment they slept." While some domestic workers live separately from families, many more live with families and work weeks, if not months, without breaks and isolated from family and friends. Alejo said the demands and low pay of domestic work led her not to have children herself.

Others told The Associated Press they were fired from their positions after they fell ill and asked for help from their employers. “When you work in someone else’s house, your life isn’t your own," said Carolina Solana de Dios, a 47-year-old live-in nanny. Their help