Michelle Bachelet describes her challenging new role as Executive Director of UN Women during her visit to Berkeley.
There is something momentous about Michelle Bachelet’s appointment as the Executive Director of UN Women. As Chile’s first woman president, she is herself an example of the transformative potential of women’s political leadership. During her long career, Bachelet fought for reproductive rights and social protection programs for poor women, including a women’s pension and public preschools. Now applying her experience in Chile to advance women’s agendas globally — her visit to Berkeley came between trips to Somalia and Panama — Bachelet engages in exactly the kinds of transnational partnerships she sees as central to women’s mobilization. In her talk for UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies, she argued passionately for women’s potential as powerful agents of social change and appealed to the audience to become champions of women’s rights.
