MARCH 8, 2015

President announces creation of Women and Gender Equality Ministry

On International Women’s Day, President Bachelet highlighted the need to continue advancing with gender equality. “We are doing all we can to ensure that women today, especially the younger generation, do not have to wait a lifetime to live in a fairer world”, she said.

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, accompanied by the National Women’s Service Minister, Claudia Pascual and all of the cabinet ministers, hosted an event to celebrate International Women’s Day at the Plaza de la Constitución. The event coincided with the President signing the bill to create the new Women and Gender Equality Ministry.

“Today represents a milestone on this journey. I am delighted that today, on International Women’s Day, we are enacting this bill which will create the Women and Gender Equality Ministry. In doing so we are taking a decisive step towards reclaiming gender equality,” she declared.
The new ministry will have offices in each region of Chile and “will provide the State with more and better tools to give the fight for equality the priority it deserves”, she added.

The setting up of the new ministry will begin right away and all offices and departments are scheduled to be fully operational by March 2016.
The new ministry will be responsible for coordinating the work of the Inter-ministerial Committee on equal rights and gender equality, whose role is to ensure that gender matters are included in all government programs.

“When we talk about more power for women, we are also talking about more opportunities for their children, more wellbeing for their families, more income for their households, more justice for couples, more equality within communities. Equality improves the lives of every member of the family. This is apparent when a woman lives with her partner and is able to contribute financially, but it is even more noticeable in households where women are the sole provider. And of these, there are many”, the President explained.

President Bachelet also referred to the bill that is currently in Congress which seeks to overturn the outright ban on abortion in Chile.
“The bill to decriminalize abortion in three circumstances, which we hope Congress will approve, establishes extreme situations in which abortion should be made available to women: if the mother’s life is at risk; if the embryo or fetus is unviable; or if the pregnancy is the result of rape” she noted.