Michelle Bachelet

b 29 September 1951

Chilean paediatrician and socialist,tortured as a young woman by the Pinochet regime (1975), President of Chile (2006-2010), now Head of UN Women.

 

I am the embodiment of an entire history. There were dark, bitter moments, but ... today Chileans live better and more free than before.

Inuguration speech, March 2006

 

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

 

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

NY Times 29 Oct 09

 

Where there is poverty the state cannot be neutral.

 

The state is at the service of people, not the opposite.

Guardian Interview, 2 April 2006

 

I know from my own experience that there is no limit to what women can do.

Speech launching UN Women, 24 February 2011

 

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