We simply can no longer afford to deny the full potential of one half of the population. The world needs to tap into the talent and wisdom of women. Whether the issue is food security, economic recovery, health, or peace and security, the participation of women is needed now more than ever.
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.
As more and more women, men and young people raise their voices and become active in local government, and more local leaders take action for the safety of women and girls, change happens.
Gender equality will only be reached if we are able to empower women.
You have to be doing things that matter - responsibility, but also responsibility with epic and beautiful and noble tasks.
Violence ravaged my life. I was a victim of hatred, and I have dedicated my life to reversing that hatred.
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.
I believe that if you want to fight inequality you have to do it starting at infancy.
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.
It was said that Chile was not ready to vote for a woman, it was traditionally a sexist country. In the end, the reverse happened: the fact of being a woman became a symbol of the process of cultural change the country was undergoing.
I am a woman with a calling for social struggle and public service.
There does not have to be trade-off between growth and social protection. A democracy does not mean much if it doesn't respond to the needs and will of its people.
Gender equality must become a lived reality.
Women's strength, women's industry, women's wisdom are humankind's greatest untapped resource. The challenge then for U.N. Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all.
In today's interdependent world, a threat to one becomes a menace to all. And no state can defeat these challenges and threats alone.
As a doctor, when I was minister of health and would go somewhere, little girls would come up to me and say, 'I want to be like you one day, I want to be a doctor.' Now, they tell me, 'I want to be president just like you.' All of us can dream as big as we want.
As the old joke goes, I have all the sins together. I am a woman, a Socialist, separated and agnostic.
I was a woman, a divorcee, a socialist, an agnostic . . . all possible sins together.
Violence against women in all its forms is a human rights violation. It's not something that any culture, religion or tradition propagates.
Given political history in Chile, it seemed to me that there was a critical task of consolidating a democracy and creating healthy civic-military and political-military relationships.
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.
In some places women have all the rights they deserve and in others there are big restrictions - in some countries they even mutilate women.
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.
When I'm speaking of love, when I'm speaking of reversing hate, I'm speaking not only of reconciliation - even I don't use that word - I use another word in Spanish, that's called 'reencuentro' - it's not reconciliation.
I took a gamble to exercise leadership without losing my feminine nature.
