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For me, a better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect but to be elected.

Michelle Bachelet

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Michelle Bachelet
Age: 73
Born: 1951
Born: September 29
Epidemiologist
Politician
President Of Chile
Surgeon
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria
Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria
Vote
Democracy
Women
Better
Right
Elect
Elected
Empowering

More quotes by Michelle Bachelet

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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.
Michelle Bachelet
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It was said that Chile was not ready to vote for a woman, it was traditionally a sexist country. In the end, the reverse happened: the fact of being a woman became a symbol of the process of cultural change the country was undergoing.
Michelle Bachelet
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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.
Michelle Bachelet
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The respect for human rights is nowadays not so much a matter of having international standards, but rather questions of compliance with those standards.
Michelle Bachelet
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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.
Michelle Bachelet
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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.
Michelle Bachelet
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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.
Michelle Bachelet
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I am a woman with a calling for social struggle and public service.
Michelle Bachelet
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Gender equality will only be reached if we are able to empower women.
Michelle Bachelet
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Violence against women in all its forms is a human rights violation. It's not something that any culture, religion or tradition propagates.
Michelle Bachelet
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Because I'm a doctor, I know when you have an injury it will heal if it's clean enough to heal if your injury is dirty, it won't heal. And so when you are talking in societies, we are also talking in healing processes, and for a good healing process, you need to make things right.
Michelle Bachelet
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My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push for women's economic empowerment and political participation.
Michelle Bachelet
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You all want to know what is my dream? Very simple. To walk along the beach, holding the hand of my lover.
Michelle Bachelet
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The challenge is for us to reinvigorate the relationship with the Chilean people and to give state institutions new legitimacy. But this is also a universal phenomenon. There's also disenchantment with politics in Europe.
Michelle Bachelet
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Violence ravaged my life. I was a victim of hatred, and I have dedicated my life to reversing that hatred.
Michelle Bachelet
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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.
Michelle Bachelet
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Women say that my election represents a cultural break with the past - a past of sexism, of misogyny.
Michelle Bachelet
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The 2010 global gender gap report by the World Economic Forum shows that countries with better gender equality have faster-growing, more competitive economies.
Michelle Bachelet
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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.
Michelle Bachelet
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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.
Michelle Bachelet