Women empowerment

Their history is the history of Chile. Michelle Bachelet and Evelyn Matthei were childhood friends whose fathers became top generals on opposite sides of the country's deep political divide.

Bachelet's father supported socialist President Salvador Allende until the 1973 coup ended one of Latin America's oldest democracies. Matthei's father ran the military school where Gen. Alberto Bachelet was tortured to death for refusing to line up behind dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Lindy Boggs was only 24 when she arrived in Washington as the top political adviser to her husband, newly elected to Congress.

Thirty-two years later, the seat became hers after Hale Boggs was presumed dead in a plane crash, and she made her own mark as an advocate for women and minorities.

Boggs died Saturday at the age of 97, according to ABC News, where Boggs' daughter Cokie Roberts is a political contributor.

A group of non-governmental organizations has come up with a programme to ensure that women safely participate in the forthcoming elections.

The programme, called The Women's Situation Room, will see women across the country and from different political parties receiving help as soon as they dial a toll free number that is set to be launched next July 29, if they experience any problems during the election period.

With constitutional quotas for interest group seats in their favour and all political parties legally bound to respect women's quota of at least 30 per cent of their parliamentary nominees, women may retain or even widen their majority in the Chamber of Deputies after the upcoming September elections.

Before Anthony Weiner cannonballed into the 2013 New York City mayoral race, the storyline of the election had been whether mayoral frontrunner and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn would become the city's first female mayor (and its first openly gay mayor to boot).

Canada's premiers are backing a call by aboriginal leaders to launch a national public inquiry into the case of missing or murdered aboriginal women, CBC News has learned.

"The premiers at the table agreed to support the call of the Native Women's Association of Canada for a national public inquiry on this very, very important issue," Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said.

Michelle Nunn has electrified Georgia Democrats by announcing she will run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) has electrified Texas Democrats with her standup leadership in the Texas Senate. Hillary Clinton inspires Democrats everywhere with her prospects for the presidency in 2016.