I Am A Woman With A Calling

The United Nations Should Become A Proactive Agent In The Dissemination Of Democratic Principles.

The Possibility Of My Presidential Candidacy Emerged Spontaneously In Public Opinion Polls. For My Part, I Noticed People's Affection When I Was Doing Work On The Ground. I Think The Important Thing Is That My Candidacy Was Born From Citizens Themselves, Driven By The People And Which The Parties Picked Up Favourably.

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.

I Made An Effort To Ensure Social Safeguards. But Our Economy Has To Grow - And Chile, With A Population Of 17 Million, Cannot Depend Entirely On Its Domestic Market. Which Is Why The Decision To Focus On Exports, Made At The Beginning Of The Democratic Era, Was The Correct One. We Are Continuing To Do So. For A Long Time, Chile Has Been Successful In Combating Poverty. But Now We Must Focus More On Fighting Inequality.

During My Lifetime, I Realized That Discrimination Was Not Accidental, That There Were Structural Roots And Causes To It. So If We Wanted To Change Women's Lives, We Need To Deal With Those Root Causes.