Chile’s first female president begins her term in office
On Saturday Michelle Bachelet began her official term as the first female president of Chile.. and the first female to win any normal round of presidential elections in Latin America. The handful of women who have lead Latin American countries in the past have done so as interim presidents, or as acting leaders, after the deaths of their presidential husbands. Michelle Bachelet is an unusual winner. She is a single mother, a divorcee, and an agnostic. Chile is a strongly Catholic and male-dominated country, where divorce only became legal in 2004. International media has hailed Bachelet’s victory as a huge breakthrough for gender equality in a continent infamous for discrimination against women. However, Kirsten Sehnbruch a visiting scholar at the Centre for Latin American Studies in Berkeley, says that her term is less than revolutionary.