Michelle Bachelet
Michelle Bachelet
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeriais a Chilean Socialist Party politician who has served as the President of Chile since 11 March 2014. She previously served as President from 2006 to 2010, becoming the first woman in her country to do so. After leaving the presidency and while not immediately re-electable, she was appointed the first executive director of the newly created United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In December 2013, Bachelet was re-elected as President of...
NationalityChilean
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth29 September 1951
CitySantiago, Chile
CountryChile
We have had scarce investment in women... One of my tasks is that everyone spends much more on women.
Educational equality doesn't guarantee equality on the labor market. Even the most developed countries are not gender-equal. There are still glass ceilings and 'leaky pipelines' that prevent women from getting ahead in the workplace.
I wouldn't be honest if I told you that in some moment of my life I had a lot of rage - probably hate - I'm not sure of hate, but rage. But you know what happens is that then you realize you cannot do to others what you think nobody has to do to anybody. Life is important for me and not any kind of life, quality too of life.
Today it is time to give the government a new lease of life and this new phase which is as demanding as it is inspiring requires renovated energy and new faces.
I am a woman with a calling for social struggle and public service.
One of the factors a country's economy depends on is human capital. If you don't provide women with adequate access to healthcare, education and employment, you lose at least half of your potential. So, gender equality and women's empowerment bring huge economic benefits.
You all want to know what is my dream? Very simple. To walk along the beach, holding the hand of my lover.
U.N. Women was created due to the acknowledgement that gender equality and women's empowerment was still, despite progress, far from what it should be. Transforming political will and decisions, such as the Member States creating U.N. Women, into concrete steps towards gender equality and women's empowerment, I think is one of the main challenges.
There's full consensus in the military that women shouldn't be in person-to-person combat. I don't know if we have enough experience to know whether this is the right approach. But women can be elsewhere. We have mandatory military service in Chile. I pushed for women in all areas.
There has been a cultural shift. It is difficult to measure all that right now, but Chilean women have seen my presidency as a source of pride. Women are performing in jobs in Chile now that 20 or 30 years ago nobody would have dared to imagine.
We have to make sure that women's issues are an essential element on the agendas of all heads of state, all governments.
I don't like stereotypes - no kind of stereotypes.
Given political history in Chile, it seemed to me that there was a critical task of consolidating a democracy and creating healthy civic-military and political-military relationships.
As the old joke goes, I have all the sins together. I am a woman, a Socialist, separated and agnostic.