Making gender rights visible: an interview with Michelle Bachelet.

• Position: Interview

As the first female president in one of South America's most conservative countries, Chile, Michelle Bachelet successfully took on the great challenge of making structural changes to gender equality in Latin America. As the first female to be appointed defense minister in a Latin American country, she also promoted reconciliatory gestures between the military and victims of the dictatorship. Later, her presidential campaign focused on increasing social benefits and decreasing inequalities between the rich and the poor. In all cases, her work has pushed barriers to make the invisible visible and to provide a voice to the voiceless. As former executive director of UN Women, Bachelet stressed the need for gender equality not only in political representation but in society as a whole. Despite having held the first global convention on violence against women, Latin America still faces major obstacles for women's empowerment. In the following interview with the Journal, Bachelet helps to unravel the disconnect between law and the lived experience for gender equality in Latin America.

Journal of International Affairs: Considering the geopolitics, culture, and economic environment in Latin America, what do you believe are the main gender equality challenges in the region today?

Michelle Bachelet: Gender equality challenges are considerable in Latin America, but unfortunately they are often invisible from discussions and subsequent policymaking--and that, in a sense, is the first major challenge to be overcome.

Inequality is widely recognized as a huge issue that needs to be tackled, but it is most frequently seen in terms of income inequality. Admittedly, the region is in a relatively healthy economic state; the economies in Latin America will grow at around 3.8 percent during 2013. Indeed, many Latin American countries posted overall positive GDP growth in the last ten years according to the World Bank. Yet, with a mostly middle-income and upper-middle income profile, Gini coefficients continue to demonstrate huge disparities, and there are 167 million people still living below the poverty line.

However, this narrow lens of income inequality can blind us to other forms of inequality, principally gender inequality, which prevents women from living dignified lives and enjoying their human rights. And this gender inequality constitutes an obstacle to full and sustained economic and social development in the region.

Women currently face substantial barriers to full and equal participation in society and the economy. Discriminatory social and cultural norms continue to play a powerful role in justifying and sustaining gender inequality and upholding social hierarchies within countries of the region. These are upheld in many cases by laws and practices that are harmful to women and girls and impede their access to equal participation in society and to justice.

The...