CHILE: Women judged more harshly, says Chile's leader

As a woman and a single parent, Michelle Bachelet revolutionised Latin America's socially most conservative country when she was elected President of Chile two years ago. Today she will be one of only three female heads of state to join Gordon Brown and a host of other centre-left leaders for a summit on "progressive governance". But she has strong views on the less than progressive double standards that are still applied to women leaders.


"In my whole political life I have never seen a male candidate whose clothes and hair are discussed" President Bachelet said yesterday in London. "There is a machismo, and a sexism, and it is not just in Latin America ... If a woman talks hard then she is [described as] authoritarian, or else she's soft. It's so polarised. Women combining a political career with running a family are often asked how they manage the children," she complained, adding: "They would never ask that of a man".

As an example of the kind of thinking that irks her, the 56-year-old paediatrician recalled an incident in which her predecessor President Ricardo Lagos became tearful during a speech. "The media said 'It's his sensitive side coming out', but when I did it, they said: 'She's hysterical'. I'm not whining about it, but come on."

President Bachelet also revealed that when tensions between the neighbouring (male) presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela threatened to explode into war recently, it was two women, Ms Bachelet and Cristina Fernández, the Argentinian leader, who intervened to "cool things down". "We spoke to them and Cristina said: 'Usually you think women are hysterical but come on guys, look at me and Michelle'."

She admits that her own "pretty rational" approach to governing a country, which involves setting up consultative commissions and seeking the broadest possible consensus, has been criticised in Chile. "When I started doing this kind of thing, people said: 'We want decisions not commissions' and 'This woman doesn't make decisions'. But it is a different leadership style and every time I think it's necessary, I do it this way."

She has introduced new rules for political parties to encourage more women to move into the corridors of power in a nation still shaking off its dictatorial past. Her first act as President was to swear in a cabinet of 10 men and 10 women.

For working women she has rolled out free nurseries. "If we are talking about inclusive democracy it has to be about giving women opportunities," she said. But the Chilean President admits it is a struggle to convince women to seek office. "Women have to decide if they want public or private life. And because they also have to be in charge of families it is very difficult; they live with guilt, they are abandoning traditional roles."

Her CV reads like a film script. As a young medical student in the 1970s she was arrested and tortured by the Pinochet regime. She fled to Australia, later moving to Berlin where she learnt German and qualified as a doctor. Returning to Chile in 1979 she worked as a paediatrician. She was appointed minister for health in 2000 and became Latin America's first defence minister two years later, before her presidential victory in March 2006.

INDEPENDENT