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
During my lifetime, I realized that discrimination was not accidental, that there were structural roots and causes to it. So if we wanted to change women's lives, we need to deal with those root causes.
I took a gamble to exercise leadership without losing my feminine nature.
My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push for women's economic empowerment and political participation.
There is no city or country in the world where women and girls live free of the fear of violence. No leader can claim: 'this is not happening in my backyard.'
In today's interdependent world, a threat to one becomes a menace to all. And no state can defeat these challenges and threats alone.
Having been a head of state gives you the possibility of getting into places others can't go.
In artillery exercises, women always win because they're more accurate.
People see I am a mother and head of a household. Today in Chile, one-third of households are run by women. They wake up, take the children to school, go to work. To them I am hope.
Having more women in company boards, in senior management, supervisory positions and workers in the formal sector is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do. It's good for the bottom line.
My message to women is: Women: We can do it. We are capable of doing almost anything, but we must learn we cannot do it all at once, we need to prioritize.
Women's strength, women's industry, women's wisdom are humankind's greatest untapped resource. The challenge then for U.N. Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all.
Gender equality must become a lived reality
I was a woman, a divorcee, a socialist, an agnostic . . . all possible sins together.
I believe that if you want to fight inequality you have to do it starting at infancy.