As a child, I saw on TV that a woman had won Chile’s presidency. It was the first time I remember realising that a woman could occupy such a position. I immediately ran to tell my dad the big news. His response was simple: “It is time for women.”
That memory stayed with me for more than two decades. It resurfaced recently when I found myself standing at the United Nations in front of the same woman who had once inspired me — and who now has the potential to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations: Chile’s former President, Michelle Bachelet.
But this moment is much bigger than Bachelet.
In its 80-year history, the United Nations has had nine Secretaries-General. Every single one of them has been a man. Now, as the organisation prepares to choose António Guterres’s successor, five women from Latin America and the Caribbean are among the candidates: Bachelet, from Chile; Rebeca Grynspan, from Costa Rica; María Fernanda Espinosa and Ivonne A-Baki, from Ecuador; and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, from Guyana. For the first time, the possibility that a woman (especially one from my region) could occupy the UN’s highest office feels tangible.
