Category: Latin America

Michelle Bachelet Jeria, former President of Chile; first Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women

Empowering Women to Meet New Challenges, from National Development to Conflict Prevention and Post-Conflict Recovery

Michelle Bachelet is the first Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, which was established on July 2, 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly.  Under Bachelet’s leadership, UN Women will lead, support and coordinate the work on gender equality and the empowerment of women at global, regional and country levels.

Prior to this appointment, Bachelet served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010, becoming the first woman to ever hold this post.  A long-time champion of women’s rights, she has advocated for gender equality and women’s empowerment throughout her career.  One of her major successes as President was her decision to save billions of dollars in revenues to spend on issues such as pension reform, social protection programs for women and children, and research and development, despite the financial crisis.

Ms. Bachelet also held ministerial portfolios in the Chilean Government as Minister of Defense and Minister of Health. As the first female Defense Minister in all of Latin America, Ms. Bachelet introduced gender policies intended to improve the conditions of women in the military and police forces. As Minister of Health, she implemented health care reform, improving attention to primary care facilities with the aim of ensuring better and faster health care response for families.