Quotes by Michelle Bachelet

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Hope

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.

— Michelle Bachelet

Life

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.

— Michelle Bachelet

Education

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

Wisdom

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.

— Michelle Bachelet

Education

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

Wisdom

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.

— Michelle Bachelet

Education

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

Life

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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.

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

Life

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

Success

I believe that if you want to fight inequality you have to do it starting at infancy.

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Success

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

In artillery exercises, women always win because they're more accurate.

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

In today's interdependent world, a threat to one becomes a menace to all. And no state can defeat these challenges and threats alone.

— Michelle Bachelet

Life

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom

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

— Michelle Bachelet

Wisdom