Michelle Bachelet
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
| Author | Jennifer Ross |
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200606100313 |
| Subject Matter | Movers & Shakers |
Jennifer Ross
Michelle Bachelet
On election night, 15 January 2006, hundreds of thousands of Chileans
packed the streets of Santiago to celebrate the historic victory of Chile’s first
female president. At a regional level, Michelle Bachelet also became the
first Latin American woman elected entirely on her own merits (and not as
the widow of a former male leader). And she has chalked up yet another
precedent by naming the hemisphere’s first cabinet with gender parity: 10
female and 10 male ministers. Bachelet becomes Latin America’s fourth
elected female president,1 and the only one currently in office. While her
victory is certainly symbolic, many are asking just how it will be different.
In almost every speech since her election, Bachelet has reiterated her
“woman’s word” to make good on her promises and differ from previous lead-
Jennifer Ross is a freelance foreign correspondent, based in Chile, for Canadian and for-
eign print and broadcast media.
1 Previous female heads of state elected in South America include María Estela Martínez de
Peron, who succeeded her late husband Juan Domingo Peron in Argentina (1974-76); Violeta
Chamorro, widow of the popular assassinated Opposition leader Pedro Joaquin Chamorro in
Nicaragua (1990-97); Mireya Moscoso, widow of three-time president Arnulfo Arias Madrid in
Panama (1999-2004); and Janet Jagan, who was elected Guyana’s leader in 1997 after the death
of her husband, the previous president. In addition, Lidia Gueiler was appointed interim pres-
ident in Bolivia (1979-80), and Rosalia Arteaga briefly acted as president of Ecuador in 1997.
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| Michelle Bachelet |
ers by heralding a more “feminine leadership style,” based on consensus-
building, teamwork, and consultation, rather than traditional authoritarian
styles.
“My style will be much more participatory, seeking to coordinate, artic-
ulate and excite people around the tasks ahead,” Bachelet has said. “It’s a
style that could be characterized as more feminine, but which in reality, I
think, is more modern.”
A “ F E M I N I N E ” S T Y L E ?
Conveying feminine roles and qualities is not the norm in politics, explains
Bachelet’s minister for women, Laura Albornoz—who at 38 is one of the
youngest ministers in cabinet. She says women in Chilean politics have
always assumed masculine roles, to be seen as more “competent” among
their male colleagues.
“The world hasn’t had any real models of feminine leadership,” ven-
tures Albornoz, pointing out that many of the world’s female leaders—such
as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—have ruled with an
iron fist. “There have only been intelligent, powerful women under male
leadership styles. So what we’re doing here is a real innovation.”
Albornoz says Bachelet’s approach should also bring more average cit-
izens into politics. “People want to be listened to,” says Albornoz. “And she
looks people in the eye when they speak—which is something quite differ-
ent from the male leaders we’re use to.”
Bachelet’s first public activity after being sworn in as president was to
attend a citizen’s rally in the small town of Casablanca, en route to the pres-
idential palace, La Moneda. She celebrated her victory with a massive street
party, featuring an impressive array of popular Latin American musicians.
Her first public working activity was to open a free public daycare centre in
a poor community in Santiago.
And while populism is not new to Latin America, her maternal
approach to it is novel in a region built on very paternalistic models. Many
Chilean sociologists have suggested that Chile was ready for a motherly
leader—or were in fact seeking one as a form of reassurance.
“When a country is developing quickly, or modernizing, those changes
generate a feeling of insecurity or uprootedness,” explains Pedro Figueroa,
an investigator with the University of Chile’s Institute of Public Affairs.
“That’s when the type of emotional, maternal leadership a woman can offer
becomes subconsciously attractive.”
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| Jennifer Ross |
Bachelet is seen as a no-nonsense, independent woman, with a warm
smile and sincere demeanour. “She’s nice. She laughs, she’s smart. She
looks like one of us in a way,” says David Altman, a political science pro-
fessor at the Catholic University of Chile. She’s also considered down-to-
earth. A single mother who drives her daughter, Sofia, to school, and takes
vacations with her kids and her mother, Altman says such things make
Bachelet a more “human” or “candid” politician.
B A C H E L E T ’ S B A C K G R O U N D
Born 29 September 1951, Bachelet’s official memoirs recount the life of an
obsessive teenager who adored the Beatles so much she saw A Hard Day’s
Night and Help 77 times. She joined Allende’s socialist party (Unidad
Popular) in 1970, during her studies in medicine at the University of Chile.
She was at...
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