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
Chile has done a lot to rid itself of poverty, especially extreme poverty, since the return to democracy. But we still have a ways to go toward greater equity. This country does not have a neoliberal economic model anymore. We have put in place a lot of policies that will ensure that economic growth goes hand in hand with social justice.
The 2010 global gender gap report by the World Economic Forum shows that countries with better gender equality have faster-growing, more competitive economies.
There does not have to be trade-off between growth and social protection. A democracy does not mean much if it doesn't respond to the needs and will of its people.
The priority for my government is that there will be development for everyone, equally.
Chile needs to unite behind the goals of reducing poverty and creating more equal opportunities so that everyone can benefit from what the country has to offer,
As women politicians, we talk about the most difficult themes of state security, foreign relations and development models, then ask, 'How do you make it work with your husband?' The interesting thing is that these women - most of them - don't lose the perspective that the focus is not the position but the job at hand.
It isn't that women are less ambitious,but women want to find a balance between work, love, and family.
The respect for human rights is nowadays not so much a matter of having international standards, but rather questions of compliance with those standards.
As a vibrant force in civil society, women continue to press for their rights, equal participation in decision-making, and the upholding of the principles of the revolution by the highest levels of leadership in Egypt.
Women say that my election represents a cultural break with the past - a past of sexism, of misogyny.
In some places women have all the rights they deserve and in others there are big restrictions - in some countries they even mutilate women.
In any area of the U.N. we... have to agree on certain language that can represent the same spirit, but that can be accepted by everyone.
As a major economic force worldwide, India and Indian companies have the opportunity to set the standards in Asia in terms of women's right to decent work.
When women earn the money for the family, everyone in the family benefits. We also know that when women have an income, everyone wins because women dedicate 90% of the income to health, education, to food security, to the children, to the family, or to the community, so when women have an income, everybody wins.