Bachelet warns of democratic setbacks and their impact on women's rights

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said that democracy is currently under threat in many parts of the world, which also endangers women's rights.

In a keynote address at the 7th Ordinary Conference of the Association of Women Electoral Magistrates of the Americas (AMEA), former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet also emphasized the vital importance of reflecting, critiquing, and constructively identifying the proposals women should continue to promote to defend their rights.

"Democracy is under threat, and as democracy is under threat in many places, women's rights are also under threat," she warned.

From the Alcázar of Chapultepec Castle, the former Chilean president also warned about the existence of extreme groups that are explicitly misogynistic, as they carry an anti-women rhetoric and have also grown in many parts of the world among young people with misogyny and anti-feminism.

"So we are at a moment in history where we have to defend democracy, and we need many more women to do that," she emphasized.

In this context, and sharing what she described as some of her lessons learned from her career in national politics and as former president of Chile , she emphasized that women have "been excluded from many spaces that were highly masculinized, and many still remain highly masculinized, even though we have made progress."

Therefore, she insisted that the diagnosis is clear: we need more women in all positions of power, while lamenting that structural barriers persist, such as political gender violence, which, she said, has evolved, especially in the digital sphere, while in many places women face alarming setbacks.

"In only six countries do women hold half of parliamentary seats, and only nine countries have achieved gender parity in their ministerial cabinets. 87% of female ministers head portfolios related to gender and equality, with less than 15% leading areas such as agriculture, energy, defense, or transportation.

"I say this for two reasons: we need inclusion, we need more space, but we don't need to always be seen as caring for others or only concerned with women's rights," she emphasized.

She also emphasized that while the presence of women in cabinets has increased, it is still much less so in the so-called "hard" issues, as she warned that a limited view of the leadership that women can exercise persists. "We are associated with social issues, with caregiving, with assistance, with the so-called soft skills. Societies often look for leaders considered strong, and that is assumed to be male leadership," she stated.

Therefore, he concluded by stating that this is not just a question of justice and equality, but also of improving the quality of politics and decision-making, and strengthening our democracy.

"The active presence of women in politics often leads to policies that promote gender equality," she stressed.

For her part, in closing the proceedings of the 7th Ordinary Conference of the AMEA , Judge Soto Fregoso said that women must become aware of the paths they can open to others, and asserted that "we want the power to transform, from our perspective, what we want from the environment and from societies, from the spaces in which we can influence."