SIPA Welcomes Michelle Bachelet for International Women’s Day

by Christine Heckman

Dr. Bachelet with SIPA students / Courtesy of SIPA

In celebration of International Women’s Day and the launch of UN Women, a new United Nations agency for women’s empowerment and equality, the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) hosted a March 2 event with former President of Chile and Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet.

“A Conversation with Michelle Bachelet,” sponsored by SIPA’s United Nations Studies Program (UNSP), was moderated by UNSP director Elisabeth Lindenmayer. The primary topics of discussion were the goals and vision of UN Women as well as the broader issue of women in leadership.

Speaking to a standing-room-only audience and to an overflow crowd of hundreds listening by speaker in the lobby, Dr. Bachelet emphasized that “women’s rights are human rights.”

However, she also couched the argument for pursuing gender equality in more practical terms, noting that the countries making the slowest progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals are also the countries with the worst gender inequality. She argued that an effective HIV/AIDS agenda cannot take place outside a wider gender equality movement because “HIV/AIDS has the face of a woman,” as women are twice as likely as men to contract the disease. She also highlighted the use of rape as a weapon of war and ending impunity as some of the most urgent challenges facing her office.

Bachelet laid out UN Women’s action plan on women’s empowerment, which focuses on expanding female voices in leadership, economic empowerment and independence for women, strengthening women’s roles in peacekeeping and security and ending violence against women.

In an attempt to streamline and mainstream the UN’s work on gender, the office is the result of merging four existing departments: UNIFEM, the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI).

Describing her leadership style in the context of challenges she faced first as Minister of Defense and later as President of Chile, Bachelet described how she managed to incorporate her personality into her work, a move she admits seemed risky at first, but paid off in the long run.

Initially criticized for her displays of emotion or for greeting military generals with a kiss on each cheek, she was later personally thanked by a constituent for “bringing humanity into politics.” With continual references to empathy and compassion, her message to aspiring young leaders in the audience was to always be genuine and never lose the ability to “talk to the people on the street.”

When asked what drives her, Bachelet responded that “something in her DNA” made her incapable of tolerating inequality and injustice. “There is nothing natural about indignity,” she said, and it is this conviction that keeps her fighting for gender equality.

UN Women has big expectations to fill, and Bachelet acknowledged that she is in something of a “honeymoon phase,” where colleagues offer limitless support and donors are promising the world. However, based on the evidence so far, even once the honeymoon ends, the world’s women will have a powerful advocate in Michelle Bachelet.

Published in RightsNews Volume 29, no. 3, May, 2011.
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