Quote

Women say that my election represents a cultural break with the past - a past of sexism, of misogyny.

Michelle Bachelet

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Michelle Bachelet
Age: 73
Born: 1951
Born: September 29
Epidemiologist
Politician
President Of Chile
Surgeon
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria
Veronica Michelle Bachelet Jeria
Past
Women
Misogyny
Sexism
Represents
Cultural
Election
Break

More quotes by Michelle Bachelet

Image
As a doctor, when I was minister of health and would go somewhere, little girls would come up to me and say, 'I want to be like you one day, I want to be a doctor.' Now, they tell me, 'I want to be president just like you.' All of us can dream as big as we want.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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
Image
When I'm speaking of love, when I'm speaking of reversing hate, I'm speaking not only of reconciliation - even I don't use that word - I use another word in Spanish, that's called 'reencuentro' - it's not reconciliation.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
As the old joke goes, I have all the sins together. I am a woman, a Socialist, separated and agnostic.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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
Image
By including women in decision-making, city governments will be in a better position to fulfill their responsibility to ensure the safety of their residents, especially women and girls.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
Having experienced personally and through my family the tragedy of Chile is something always present in my memory. I do not want events of that nature ever to happen again, and I have dedicated an important part of my life to ensuring that and to the reunion of all Chileans.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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
Image
Having been a head of state gives you the possibility of getting into places others can't go.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
I believe that if you want to fight inequality you have to do it starting at infancy.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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
Image
We have to make sure that women's issues are an essential element on the agendas of all heads of state, all governments.
Michelle Bachelet
Image
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