Michelle Bachelet Quotations

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.

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.

I was not born in a home where there were stereotypes. So that was very useful because it gave me the sense of possibilities, of flying, if I may say, of making my hopes and dreams a reality.

Gender equality will only be reached if we are able to empower women.

The respect for human rights is nowadays not so much a matter of having international standards, but rather questions of compliance with those standards.

My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push for women's economic empowerment and political participation.

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.

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.

My father respected and admired my mother and was a person who was always standing by my side, encouraging me to do more and believed in my capacity. So in that sense, my own experience was very good in becoming an empowered woman. From early on, I carried that strong message: 'You can do it.' So I never had any doubt that women can do a lot.

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.

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'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.

The United Nations should become a proactive agent in the dissemination of democratic principles.

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.

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 current global landscape is quite different from the not-too-distant past. The process of globalization has intensified, and the world is moving towards new forms of governance.

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.

As more and more women, men and young people raise their voices and become active in local government, and more local leaders take action for the safety of women and girls, change happens.

You all want to know what is my dream? Very simple. To walk along the beach, holding the hand of my lover.

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.

As the old joke goes, I have all the sins together. I am a woman, a Socialist, separated and agnostic.

I took a gamble to exercise leadership without losing my feminine nature.

I don't like stereotypes - no kind of stereotypes.

Violence ravaged my life. I was a victim of hatred, and I have dedicated my life to reversing that hatred.

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 am a woman, a socialist, separated and agnostic - all the sins together.

Today is the day of the citizens. It's their decision. We're very calm and very optimistic.

It isn't that women are less ambitious, but women want to find a balance between work, love, and family.

I was a woman, separated, a socialist, an agnostic ... all possible sins together.

My commitment will be to travel with you on yet another stretch of this great promenade of freedom we have been opening.

Who could have thought 20, ten or five years ago, that Chile would elect a woman to be president!

We have to look at how much the coffer holds to calculate the percentage rate by which we can increase it.

Who would have thought 20, 10, five years ago, that Chile would elect a woman president? ... Thank you for inviting me to lead this voyage.

Who would have said, 10, 15 years ago -- that a woman would be elected president!

We will continue to do well what we have been doing well, maintaining a stable economy.

What is important is that we guarantee decent and dignified work to all Chileans ... what is important is that everybody has the same rights and the same opportunities.

Together we recovered democracy for Chile. Now I invite you to be a part of another historic moment by electing Chile's first ever woman president. Let's make history.

Today, men and women are valued the same.

We want a more prosperous, more just, more equal, more inclusive future. I shall keep my word. I shall tell you what I think and I shall do what I say. I give you my word as a woman.

The world would be better off with more people like you.

I want there to be more jobs, and I will not commit to a million jobs because we have already created 150 thousand new jobs this past year.

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.

In this welcome meeting we expressed our willingness to work together on a bilateral agenda.

Chile has taken an enormous step in creating a country by everyone and for everyone. My commitment is we will work in every possible way without rest very close to all of you.

The change of the binominal system is without a doubt, a great advancement, it will allow us to be better represented and have better ideas.

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.

I'm working for the women in the world, today; that's my essential issue.

Violence against women in all its forms is a human rights violation. It's not something that any culture, religion or tradition propagates.

The possibility of my presidential candidacy emerged spontaneously in public opinion polls. For my part, I noticed people's affection when I was doing work on the ground. I think the important thing is that my candidacy was born from citizens themselves, driven by the people and which the parties picked up favorably.

We have had scarce investment in women... One of my tasks is that everyone spends much more on women.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You have to be doing things that matter - responsibility, but also responsibility with epic and beautiful and noble tasks.

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.

We simply can no longer afford to deny the full potential of one half of the population. The world needs to tap into the talent and wisdom of women. Whether the issue is food security, economic recovery, health, or peace and security, the participation of women is needed now more than ever.