Michelle Bachelet | president of Chile | Britannica.com president of Chile Alternative Title: Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria Michelle Bachelet Bernardo O’Higgins Michelle Bachelet, in full Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (born September 29, 1951, Santiago , Chile), Chilean politician who served as president of Chile (2006–10; 2014– ). She was the first female president of Chile and the first popularly elected South American president whose political career was established independently of her husband. Michelle Bachelet, 2006. Ian Salas—epa/Corbis Bachelet’s father was a general in Chile’s air force, and her mother was an archaeologist. In 1973 her father was arrested for opposing the military coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power and was tortured for several months before suffering a heart attack and dying in custody in 1974. Bachelet, then a medical student at the University of Chile, was arrested (along with her mother) and sent to a secret prison, where she also was tortured.

Released into exile in 1975, Bachelet lived in Australia before moving to East Germany , where she became active in socialist politics and studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin . In 1979 she returned to Chile and subsequently completed her medical degree. Although Bachelet’s family history made it difficult for her to find employment in Pinochet’s Chile, eventually she joined a medical clinic that treated victims of torture. After Pinochet was ousted from power in 1990, she became active in politics, particularly in the medical and military fields. In 1994 she was appointed an adviser to Chile’s minister for health, and she subsequently studied military affairs at Chile’s National Academy of Strategy and Policy as well as the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C. Bachelet also was elected to the central committee of the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista).

In 2000 Ricardo Lagos , the candidate of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia; CPD), a group of centre and centre-left parties, was inaugurated as Chile’s first socialist president since Salvador Allende in 1973, and Bachelet was appointed health minister. In 2002 she became the first woman to lead the Defense Ministry. In 2005 Bachelet was selected by the CPD as its presidential candidate. Her campaign focused on meeting the needs of the country’s poor, reforming the pension system, promoting the rights of women, and recognizing constitutionally the rights of the indigenous Mapuche people. She also promised continuity in foreign affairs, especially regarding Chile’s close ties with the United States and other Latin American countries. Important in a country where Roman Catholicism is strong, Bachelet’s campaign had to counter her professed agnosticism and the fact that she was a divorced mother of three. She led the first round of voting in December 2005 but failed to receive a majority, which was required to win outright.

In the runoff on January 15, 2006, she defeated the conservative candidate Sebastián Piñera , winning 53 percent of the vote, and she was sworn in as president in March. Britannica Stories Scientists Ponder Menopause in Killer Whales Months after taking office, however, Bachelet faced domestic difficulties. Students who were dissatisfied with Chile’s public education system staged massive protests, and labour unrest resulted in demonstrations and a strike by copper miners. In 2007 Santiago’s new transportation system, a plan formulated by former president Lagos, was introduced and proved chaotic, sparking much criticism . Bachelet’s popularity fell sharply amid the series of problems, but it rebounded during the second half of her term, largely because of her economic policies. When the price of copper—one of Chile’s main exports—peaked, she directed the government to set aside the profits. The savings enabled the country to easily weather the global financial crisis of 2008 and funded pension reforms, social programs, and a stimulus package to create jobs. Bachelet was also credited with reducing poverty and improving early childhood education.

Largely as a result of those successes, Bachelet found herself among the most popular presidents in Chilean history; however, the constitution prevented her from serving a consecutive term. In 2010, with the end of her term approaching, she oversaw relief efforts after a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile, causing extensive damage (see Chile earthquake of 2010 ). Society Randomizer After leaving office, in 2010 Bachelet became head of the newly established UN Women (formally called the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women). She was again the candidate of the centre-left bloc in the 2013 Chilean presidential election. Although she finished at the top of the nine-candidate field in the first round of voting in November, she fell just short of the absolute majority necessary to prevent a runoff against the second-place finisher, Evelyn Matthei, of the ruling conservative Alianza coalition. Like Bachelet, Matthei was the daughter of an army general, and the two women had been childhood friends. Matthei’s father, however, had sided with and thrived within the Pinochet regime.

In December Bachelet won the runoff decisively (capturing about 62 percent of the vote to some 38 percent for Matthei) to become the first two-time president of Chile since the end of Pinochet’s rule. She took office in March 2014, promising to raise taxes on corporations, to reform education, to revise the constitution, and to advance both women’s and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, including the legalization of therapeutic abortions. The common thread in those reforms was Bachelet’s belief that the free-market approach, when applied to social policy, had resulted in very uneven societal benefits and in the persistence of gaping income inequalities—even while Chile’s income per capita had risen from $4,400 in 1990 to almost $22,000 in 2013, according to the World Bank .

Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Bachelet’s administration moved ahead rapidly, introducing dozens of bills, including a tax-reform bill, enacted in September, that increased the corporate tax rate from 20 percent to 27 percent and eliminated a large tax loophole, the so-called FUT, used by wealthy Chilean stockholders to shield corporate income from taxation. Much of the anticipated increase in tax earnings was earmarked to finance Bachelet’s education-reform bill, which included state subsidies to make public higher education free for the poorest 70 percent of Chileans, along with encouraging the creation of more public universities in lieu of private for-profit schools. The president’s best-laid plans for the country came into jeopardy in early 2015, however, when a corruption scandal threatened the integrity and efficacy of her administration. Her son, Sebastián Dávalos, was accused of having used influence to help his wife, Natalia Compagnon, obtain a $10 million bank loan that was then used to purchase land that was resold at a profit.

Dávalos was exonerated of any malfeasance by the country’s national bank examiner, but he resigned from his post as the head of a charitable organization anyway. In January 2016 Compagnon was charged with having allegedly issued false invoices to avoid paying some $165,000 in taxes. Although Bachelet maintained that she was unaware of the deal, she watched her approval ratings plummet. Attempting to address the general crisis in confidence in government brought about by that episode and another widespread scandal involving illegal campaign contributions to the opposition Independent Democratic Union party, Bachelet asked her entire cabinet to resign in May 2015. Among those who did not return to their posts in the reconstituted cabinet were the ministers of defense, justice , and labour. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest In 2016, responding to widespread popular protest (as many as hundreds of thousands of Chileans took to the streets in August), Bachelet proposed that Chile’s privately administered pension system be overhauled. The system, created in the 1980s under the dictatorial rule of Pinochet, mandated salary contributions of 10 percent.

It had been intended to pay pensioners 70 percent of their final salaries and was hailed by some international financial institutions, including the World Bank, as a model of sustainability. A commission created by Bachelet, however, reported that some 44 percent of pensioners were living below the poverty level during the period 2007–14. Bachelet’s proposal called for a 5 percent increase in pension payments and for an infusion of about $1.5 billion in state funds into the system, along with an increase in employer contributions. More about Michelle Bachelet 7: Michelle Bachelet - 10 Pioneering Female Politicians | HowStuffWorks 10 Pioneering Female Politicians Brendan Smialowski/ Getty Images Like Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was exiled from her home country by a military dictatorship, Michelle Bachelet was forced to leave Chile in 1975 after first being imprisoned and tortured by Augustine Pinochet's military regime [source: Encyclopædia Britannica ]. After returning to Chile four years later, Bachelet got involved with the Socialist Party and in 2002 was appointed the country's first female minister of defense.

During the 2006 election, the Socialist Party tapped Bachelet to run as its presidential candidate , and the divorced mother of three narrowly won and became the first female president in Chilean history. Deftly steering the nation through the international financial recession in 2008, Bachelet also earned kudos for her government's investment in improving early childhood education and assistance to low-income families [source: UN Women ]. When her term wrapped up in 2010, Bachelet transitioned from national to global politics as executive director of the newly formed UN Women, which seeks to spread gender equity and empowerment for women around the world. Bachelet's longstanding desire to enfranchise others through her work was reflected in her presidential victory speech, in which she said, "Because I was the victim of hatred, I have dedicated my life to reverse that hatred and turn it into understanding, tolerance and -- why not say it -- into love" [source: Gallardo ]. She was re-elected president of Chile in 2013. Fmr. Political Prisoner Michelle Bachelet Elected Chile's First Female President : Indybay Fmr.

Political Prisoner Michelle Bachelet Elected Chile's First Female President by Democracy Now (reposted) Tuesday Jan 17th, 2006 8:49 AM In Chile, former political prisoner Michelle Bachelet has become the country first-ever female president. Running on the Socialist ticket, Bachelet beat her billionaire rival in Sunday's election. Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured and died in prison after Augusto Pinochet seized power in 1973. She too was imprisoned by Pinochet's regime before fleeing into exile. We speak with Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman, Chilean torture survivor Emilio Banda as well as Joyce Horman, the widow of a U.S. journalist who was killed by Pinochet forces. In Chile, Socialist presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet was elected to be the country's first female leader in a runoff election Sunday. Bachelet won 53 percent of the vote beating out opposition candidate, billionaire Sebastian Pinera. She spoke to supporters in Santiago on Sunday after the election results were announced. * Michelle Bachelet: "My government will be a government of unity.

I will be the President for all Chileans." Bachelet is a 54 year-old medical doctor who was imprisoned and tortured under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Her father was an air force general who was arrested and tortured for opposing the 1973 US-backed coup that overthrew democratically-elected president Salvador Allende. Her father died of a heart attack in prison. A medical student at the time, Bachelet was also arrested, along with her mother. They were blindfolded, beaten and denied food for five days while their cellmates were raped. They were later forced into five years in exile, first in Australia, then communist East Germany. Current President Ricardo Lagos, who was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, made her his health minister six years ago, then in 2002 named her defense minister. She will be the fourth consecutive president from the center-left coalition known as the Concertacion that has run Chile since 1990. An agnostic single mother of three, she was not an obvious choice for leadership in Chile, a socially conservative Roman Catholic country.

Bachelet told a news conference on Monday that she would strive to root out Chile's embedded social divide and pledged to name a cabinet with an equal number of men and women. On foreign affairs, she said she would try to improve relations with neighboring countries and said she supported the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. In her victory speech Sunday, she promised tolerance saying "Because I was the victim of hatred, I have dedicated my life to reverse that hatred and turn it into understanding, tolerance and -- why not say it -- into love." * Ariel Dorfman, Chilean-American professor of Literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University. He is the author of numerous books, including "Other Septembers, Many Americas" and "Exorcising Terror, The Incredible Unending Trial of General Augusto Pinochet." He was on the staff of Chilean President Salvador Allende on the day of the 1973 coup. * Emilio Banda, a former student union leader from Chile. In 1986, he was arrested by Pinochet forces and imprisoned for six months where he was tortured. He left Chile in 1993.

* Joyce Horman, her late husband, Charles Horman, was a US journalist in Chile during the 1973 coup. He was detained in Santiago days after Pinochet came to power. His body was found later, buried in a cement wall. He was 31 years-old. For years, Joyce Horman fought to uncover the full story of her husband's death. She sued Gen. Pinochet and other Chilean officials. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was listed as a witness. Her story was the subject of the 1982 Academy-Award winning movie "Missing." In 1999, she obtained classified State Department documents that proved US officials played a role in her husband's death. LISTEN ONLINE: President - Gobierno de Chile President a Childhood Michelle Bachelet was born in Santiago on September 29th, 1951. She is the daughter of Alberto Bachelet, a General in the Chilean Air Force, and anthropologist Ángela Jeria; she is mother to Sebastián, Francisca and Sofia.

During her childhood, Bachelet lived with her parents in Quintero, Antofogasta, the commune El Bosque in Santiago and the United States. Youth In 1964, Bachelet returned with her family to Chile, finishing her secondary studies as a distinguished and active student at Liceo N° 1, Javiera Carrera High School in Santiago. In 1970 she began studying in the Medical School at the University of Chile and became an active member of the Youth Socialist group, channeling her drive to serve others and her dedication to helping build a better country Coup d’état and Exile Following the coup d’état and while coping with the murder of her father in March of 1974, which came as a result of torture and excessive interrogations, Michelle Bachelet had to endure the plights of DINA agents at the Villa Grimaldi and Cualro Álamos detention centers where she was held with her mother. In 1975, both Bachelet and her mother were expelled from Chile. She lived in exile in Australia and Germany where she continued to study medicine and married Chilean architect Jorge Dávalos.

Return and support for victims of the dictatorship In 1979 she returned to Chile and received her Medical Degree in Surgery and, thanks to her grades and publications, received a scholarship from the Chilean Association of Medicine to specialize in Pediatrics and Public Health at Roberto del Río Hospital. During the 1980’s, Bachelet held several social services positions in institutions such as the Pidee NGO, which is dedicated to providing professional help to children of those detained and victimized by the military regime in Santiago and Chillán Public service Beginning in 1990, and in conjunction with the return of democracy, Bachelet worked in the Westen Metropolitan Area Health Service; was incorporated into the National AIDS Commission (Conasida); was a consultant for the Pan-American Health Organization (OPS) and worked in the Ministry of Health on topics related to bettering primary care and management of services. In 1996, interested in participating in the remerging of the civil and military worlds, she specialized in topics related to National Defense, completing two courses on military strategy and continental defense. She later became an advisor to the Ministry of Defense.

Health minister In March of 2000, Michelle Bachelet became the Health Minister in Ricardo Lagos Escobar’s government, where she headed up an important improvement process for reducing waiting times and laid the foundation for beginning an overhaul to the Chilean healthcare system. In a widespread and participative process that included citizen forums and round table discussions where users, businesspeople, experts, academics, professional associations, and health unions agreed upon and presented the first legal proposal for the Reform of Health Care Workers’ Rights and Responsibilities. Defense minister In 2002, she became the Defense Minister, making her the first woman to hold this position in Chile and Latin America. Under her direction, important changes were made to the Compulsory Military Service, the role of the Ministry and the Military Staff was strengthened, rights for women in the Armed Forces, Police and Investigatory Police were improved, and more Chilean peacekeeping forces were deployed across the world. President of Chile In March of 2006, after winning widespread support in elections the previous year, Bachelet became the first female President of the Republic, marking the beginning of a period where the government focused on achieving greater equality and social inclusion in Chile.

Fundación Dialoga In 2010, after finishing her presidential term marked by record citizen support and approval, she created the Fundación Dialoga (Dialog Foundation) in order to continue contributing to the renewal of ideas from center-leftists and to serve as a motivational space for new leadership to form. International leadership In 2010 she becomes the President of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, a joint-initiative with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) that works to promote social policies that stimulate economic growth and social cohesion. Under her leadership in 2011, the Council published a report titled “Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization,” which currently serves as a guide for the United Nations in this material. UN Women On September 14th, 2011, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named Michelle Bachelet the first Director of the recently created UN Women agency, an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of women and girls internationally.

On March 23rd, 2013, after two and a half years of service dedicated to increasing women’s political participation, women’s economic empowerment and fighting to put an end to violence against women, she resigns from the organization to return to Chile. Return and Presidential Candidacy On March 27th, 2013, Michelle Bachelet returned to Chile and publicly shared her decision to once again become a Presidential candidate, confirming her dedication to public service and to those Chileans who feel she possesses the necessary leadership skills that the country needs. ¡Síguenos! Life’s Work: Michelle Bachelet Life’s Work: Michelle Bachelet Life’s Work: Michelle Bachelet Loading... Michelle Bachelet was as a young woman tortured and exiled by the Chilean government. She went on to become the country’s first female president, in 2006. Trained as a pediatrician, an epidemiologist, and a military strategist, she also led Chile’s ministries of health and defense. She is now the executive director of UN Women. Interviewed by Katherine Bell Listen to the interview this piece is based on.

Download this podcast HBR: How did the horrific treatment of your family by the Pinochet regime affect your ideas about leadership? Bachelet: It reinforced the idea that we always need to fight against fundamentalism. There is no good and bad, no monopoly of one side or another. You need to ask yourself, Are people struggling for an idea or vision that is against the human drive, and what will be the cost? I’m not advising that you should compromise on everything and not make decisions. But you need to make them considering all factors, and to try to produce agreement. How did organizing activists in exile prepare you to lead the government? I have been organizing things since I was born—camping trips, picnics, music festivals. I was always proposing ideas and implementing them. Exile was a continuation of that. We did what we needed to do, what we thought should be done. That time opened my mind to different cultures, which in turn enriched my capacity to see through the eyes of others when I analyze issues. When you are a leader, it’s very important to understand why other people do not think as you do.

You’ve tackled major reforms in every ministry or agency you’ve led, and you’re doing that again, bringing several agencies together at the U.N. What do you think makes organizations willing and able to change? There’s always resistance to change in organizations that have been functioning for a long time. First of all, as a leader, you have to clearly establish the vision and objectives of the new organization. And then you ask yourself, Is this structure conducive to achieving those goals? If not, you have to identify the obstacles and define a new kind of architecture. Then you need to socialize this new point of view. You need people to be convinced that this is the way we have to do things. It’s not a waste of time to have all the necessary meetings and communication. This is not an easy matter. You need time, persistence, and patience. You have to push hard all the way around. You studied medicine and military strategy. What lessons did you take from those disciplines? Medicine taught me to look as deep as possible, to try to understand the roots of a problem before proposing solutions. It taught me to consider all the different options and find a “medicine” that will really solve the problem and not just look like you solved it.

And from my military studies I learned that when you make a decision, you not only have to make sure it is grounded in evidence, in good information and good arguments, but you also have to put yourself in the shoes of the people who will be impacted by the decision. At the same time, opportunity is essential. You can’t lose momentum. What do you think made you successful as the first woman defense minister and president in a conservative country? Before I held those roles, I served as Chile’s first female minister of health, but that was linked to the kind of activities women always perform. Everybody saw me working hard and speaking the truth. When I was appointed minister of defense, power was the issue. They saw I was in command. I had the knowledge, and I was very active—flying planes, riding on a tank. When I became president, my nonconfrontational way of working was important. I pulled people to the center, understanding that the system has to adjust to the people and not the contrary. That created a lot of credibility and helped us implement reforms. You promised to and did appoint women to 50% of the positions in your cabinet. How did that turn out?

Parity was a principle not only in the cabinet but all over the government—it applied to all the politically appointed positions. I always asked for many names so that I could choose the best people on the basis of their CVs and their capacities and skills. In some areas, of course, we didn’t have enough women and in other areas we had too few men. But if you looked at the whole government, we achieved parity. I think this is very important because a female president is not enough in terms of changing mind-set and culture. We needed to progress even faster in terms of how people were perceiving women. What should women do to address the pay gap? If you approach the problem individually, it’s a very long way to go. It’s very important that women organize with other women, and develop networks and new organizations if necessary, so that they can share experiences and learn from good practices and know that they are not alone. It’s important for women to understand that this gap in opportunities is not a personal issue, it’s a structural issue, and you need to make changes at a structural level. For that you need to show force, and so creating networks will help a lot.

Also, try to bring aboard a lot of men who can really understand the importance of a better world for both women and men. As a single mother, how did you manage your work and home schedules? I am always trying to do everything perfectly, but of course I wasn’t perfect. I did my best. I tried to be very well organized and teach the kids how to live in an environment where Mom is working a lot. I would cook for the whole week and put notes on the kitchen table explaining everything: what the kids have to do, and who to call in case of what, and, of course, I’d make sure that if it was necessary they could always reach me. It’s not easy, but it can be done. Chile suffered a massive earthquake in your last days in office. How did you handle that? Everybody told me that you need to avoid the tendency to do as much as you can before you leave office because your time has ended and now is the time for the new people. But of course the last 16 days of my presidency I was completely dedicated to the earthquake and all its consequences, and I had to be involved until the last minute. That was not only my job but my duty.

Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s first female President – Metro Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s first female President Michelle Bachelet: “Gender equality is good business” Michelle Bachelet is a crusading feminist: she was Chile’s first female President, and its first female Defense Minister. Two years ago she was appointed the first-ever Executive Director of UN Women, the UN organ representing the world’s female population. And gender equality isn’t just about doing the right thing, she says: it makes economic sense. As a Chilean refugee in East Germany, Michelle Bachelet never thought she’d become her country’s president. But she did. In much the same fashion, says Bachelet, Senegalese women can transform their country – by fishing. In an exclusive interview Bachelet, an exceptionally friendly woman with an easy smile, tells Metro why supporting women is smart. Gender parity policies are much more likely to be adopted if they bring financial benefits. Is gender equality good for the bottom line? One of the things 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. The 2010 global gender gap report by the World Economic Forum shows that countries with better gender equality have faster-growing, more competitive economies. Norway has a 40% quota for female board members, and now after five years the boards’ performance is better than without women. 54% of farmers in the developing world are women. If these women had access the same access as men to resources like credit, water, technological support and storage capacity, it would increase the food production by up to 4%. That could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million. So, there are big economic benefits. And look at violence against women: of course it’s a human rights violation, but it also comes at a high economic cost to governments. Violence against women costs the Australian government an estimated 13.6 billion Australian dollars every year. At the same time, the Australian government has a 10.4 billion dollar plan to stimulate the economy. Violence against women has a huge cost, even bigger than the cost of stimulating the economy!

Gender equality is the right thing to do, but it’s also a smart thing to do. In most of the industrialized world, women now make up more than 50% of university graduates and have access to great careers. Mission accomplished? Yes, it’s true that many women are getting a great education. But is that enough? Of course not. Educational equality doesn’t equate good outcomes. There are still glass ceilings and ‘leaky pipelines’ that prevent women from getting ahead in the workplace. And if you’re a mother of young children, economically it may not be worthwhile to work outside the home. In addition, the workplace often penalizes women who take a break to look after their children or elderly relatives. As long as women continue to be in charge of unpaid household tasks and caring for family members, it’s very difficult for them to realize their full potential in the workplace. But many women have reached the highest political office in their countries… Yes, but we need more women in decision-making positions. Globally less than 20% of parliamentarians are women, and we only have 18 elected female heads of state and government.

Across the world, only 31 countries have parliaments where women make up at least 30% of the members. And among the Fortune 500 companies, there are only 18 female CEOs. It’s far from mission accomplished! If world leaders don’t address sustainability issues like clean water and biodiversity, how will women be affected? Women’s daily lives are affected by sustainable development – or the lack of it. Women are dependent on oceans, rivers and agriculture for their livelihoods. Women are the ones who have to walk to collect water and firewood. Often young girls do these tasks, at the risk of being raped. Each year two million people die from smoke inhalation because they use traditional stoves. 85% of them are women and children. Renewable energy would benefit not just such women, but also be a catalyst for economic development, environmental protection and gender equality. And imagine the development that would be possible if each village had a healthcare clinic with access to electricity! Then medicines could be refrigerated and medical equipment could be operated. 800 women die every day from complications during pregnancy or childbirth. Gender equality is vital for sustainable development. Which countries are the best examples of this? There are lots of smaller ones.

For example, in terms of political participation the country that has the highest percentage of female parliamentarians is Rwanda, with 55%. India has a ‘Barefoot College’, which trains illiterate women as solar engineers. They learn to produce solar panels, then go back to their villages and build them, and teach other women to do it too. In Senegal, women got the right to fish. Now they’re catching more fish than the men! Sigmund Freud famously asked what women want. What do they want? And do they want the same thing? Of course women aren’t homogenous. But we all want the basic things, like access to education and equal pay for equal work. Women want the right to educate their children and access to good healthcare. And women want to live free of violence. Even in Europe, rape victims don’t have 100% access to justice. Which country is women’s nirvana? The Scandinavian countries are good, but no country has complete equality. And when it comes to women’s opportunities for political participation and leadership, every country can do better. What motivates you? I always tell myself, don’t forget who you’re working for. My job is to improve women’s lives.

And if their lives improve, men benefit too. FACTBOX: Michelle Bachelet Age. 60 Background. Bachelet’s father, an Air Force General, was tortured to death by Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Bachelet, a socialist student activist, fled to East Germany. Later returned to Chile and trained as a doctor. Appointed Health Minister in 2000. Later appointed Defense Minister. In the news. Chile’s first female President, 2006-2010. Appointed Executive Director of UN Women in 2010. Family. Separated; three children. Admires. Nelson Mandela Interesting fact. Though she’s said she’s not running, Bachelet is the front-runner for Chile’s presidential elections next year. By Elisabeth Braw, Metro World News Case studies All you need to plan your next campaign – insights into our working urbanites. Plus, see how other brands are using Metro creatively and effectively. Michelle Bachelet Michelle Bachelet First Woman President of Chile Chilean President Bachelet Visits Berlin, 2014.

Sean Gallup / Getty Images Dates: September 29, 1951 - Elected president of Chile, January 15, 2006; inauguration March 11, 2006, served until 11 March 2010 (term limited). Elected again in 2013, inauguration March 11, 2014. Occupation: President of Chile; pediatrician Known for: First woman elected as president of Chile; first woman minister of defense in Chile and Latin America About Michelle Bachelet: On January 15, 2006, Michelle Bachelet became Chile's first woman president-elect. Bachelet came in first in the December 2005 election but did not manage to win a majority in that race, so she faced a runoff in January against her nearest opponent, billionaire businessman, Sebastian Pinera. Earlier, she was minister of defense in Chile, the first woman in Chile or all of Latin America to serve as a minister of defense. Bachelet, a Socialist, is generally considered a center-leftist.

While three other women have won presidential elections in the Americas (Janet Jagan of Guyana, Mireya Moscoso of Panama, and Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua), Bachelet was the first to win a seat without first becoming known through a husband's prominence. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge (Isabel Peron was her husband's vice-president in Argentina and became president after his death.) Her term in office ended in 2010 because of term limits; she was reelected in 2013 and began serving another term as president in 2014. Michelle Bachelet Background: Michelle Bachelet was born in Santiago, Chile, on September 29, 1951. Her father's background is French; her paternal great-grandfather emigrated to Chile in 1860. Her mother had Greek and Spanish ancestry. Her father, Alberto Bachelet, was an air force brigadier general who died after being tortured for his opposition to Augusto Pinoche's regime and support of Salvador Allende. Her mother, an archaeologist, was imprisoned in a torture center with Michelle in 1975, and went into exile with her.

In her early years, before her father's death, the family moved frequently, and even lived in the United States briefly when her father worked for the Chilean Embassy. Education and Exile: Michelle Bachelet studied medicine from 1970 to 1973 at the University of Chile in Santiago, but her education was interrupted by the military coup of 1973, when Salvador Allende's regime was overthrown. Her father died in custody in March of 1974 after being tortured. The family's funds were cut off. Michelle Bachelet had worked secretly for the Socialist Youth, and was imprisoned by the Pinochet regime in 1975 and held in the torture center at Villa Grimaldi, along with her mother. From 1975-1979 Michelle Bachelet was in exile with her mother in Australia, where her brother had already moved, and East Germany, where she continued her education as a pediatrician. Bachelet married Jorge Dávalos while still in Germany, and they had a son, Sebastián. He, too, was a Chilean who had fled the Pinochet regime.

In 1979, the family returned to Chile. Michelle Bachelet completed her medical degree at the University of Chile, graduating in 1982. She had a daughter, Francisca, in 1984, then separated from her husband about 1986. Chilean law made divorce difficult, so Bachelet was unable to marry the physician with whom she had her second daughter in 1990. Bachelet later studied military strategy at Chile's National Academy of Strategy and Policy and at the Inter-American Defense College in the United States. Government Service: Michelle Bachelet became Chile's Minister of Health in 2000, serving under socialist President Ricarco Lagos. She then served as Minister of Defense under Lagos, the first woman in Chile or Latin America to hold such a post. Bachelet and Lagos are part of a four-party coalition, Concertacion de Partidos por la Democracia, in power since Chile restored democracy in 1990. Concertacion has focused on both economic growth and spreading the benefits of that growth throughout segments of society.

After her first term as president, 2006 - 2010, Bachelet took a position as the Executive Director of UN Women (2010 - 2013). More women's history biographies, by name: Chile’s New President Could Signal A Shift In One Of The Countries That Still Bans All Abortions Senior Editor at ThinkProgress. Contact me: tculp-ressler@thinkprogress.org Dec 17, 2013 Chile’s New President Could Signal A Shift In One Of The Countries That Still Bans All Abortions Chilean President-Elect Michelle Bachelet CREDIT: AP PHOTO/ LUIS HIDALGO Michele Bachelet, who became Chile’s first female president in 2006 and led the country for the next four years, was re-elected in a landslide on Monday. She’ll take over from the conservative Sebastian Pinera, and leftists hope that her return to power could advance some more progressive goals in the South American nation — perhaps, for instance, easing the total abortion ban that’s currently in place.

Chile is one of the seven countries in Latin America — along with the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Suriname and El Salvador — that ban abortion entirely, without any explicit exceptions for cases when a pregnancy is endangering a woman’s life. In addition to denying women reproductive autonomy, those laws have led to the imprisonment of hundreds of women who are suspected of attempting to induce an illegal abortion. For years, Amnesty International has pressured these nations to amend their draconian abortion policies. The Guttmacher Institute’s research has found that harsh bans on abortion don’t actually lower abortion rates . Instead, they simply encourage women to risk their lives to end a pregnancy illegally. An estimated 47,000 women around the world die each year from unsafe abortions. This past July, Chile made national headlines after denying an abortion to an 11-year-old rape victim who became pregnant from prolonged sexual abuse perpetrated by her mother’s boyfriend. Doctors warned that forcing the young girl to continue the pregnancy could be traumatic for her body, but she had no other options under the country’s stringent anti-abortion laws. During that controversy, Bachelet indicated that she would work to amend the abortion ban if she won the presidential election.

“The option of abortion, in this case, for rape, seems to be the right solution,” Bachelet said in a radio interview at the time. So, now that she has won, is change on the horizon? Perhaps. Bachelet, who has spent the past several years heading the UN’s agency for women’s rights , has pushed to advance other reproductive health policies in Chile. In 2006, she approved a new law making emergency contraception available at state-run hospitals. Although she got significant push-back from Catholic leaders — who compared her administration to a “totalitarian regime” attempting to regulate its citizen’s private lives — Bachelet pointed out that too many of the country’s births are concentrated among poor mothers under the age of 18, and she wanted “to guarantee that all Chileans have real options in this area.” And the president-elect’s most recent campaign also suggested that she’s getting bolder specifically on abortion policy. During her first run, Bachelet didn’t really mention her support for loosening the country’s harsh abortion ban. But this time around, she brought it up more frequently . There are also some signs of progress on this issue on the international stage.

Ireland, another country that used to ban abortions in all cases, finally added an exception to its harsh policy in June, following global outrage about a woman who died after being denied an emergency abortion . Reproductive rights advocates praised Ireland for updated its abortion policy for the first time since 1867 , but continue to push for more access to this critical type of reproductive health care. The same type of push forward in socially conservative Chile will likely be an uphill battle. This past year, the legislature rejected three different bills that would have amended the total ban. And the Associated Press points out that there was a relatively low voter turnout for this week’s election — so even though Bacehlet cinched a decisive victory, she may still “lack a clear mandate to push for radical change when she begins her second turn in the office next year.”

Question: In 2006, Michelle Bachelet became the first female president of which country?
Answer: Chile