FIRST LATIN AMERICAN WOMAN PRESIDENT IN CHILE

Jan 22, 3:30 PM (ET)
By EDUARDO GALLARDO


SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Michele Bachelet's rise as the first Latin American woman to be elected president without a powerful husband appears to be galvanizing women in Chile and around the region, prompting demands not only for more political power, but social equality, too.

Chilean women are hoping her victory will help solve all sorts of problems, from a paucity of day care to domestic violence. They are also calling for equal pay with men and other signs of respect.

A political cartoon in a Santiago newspaper captured the feeling by showing a housewife leaving her husband at home: "When I get back, I want the house clean and dinner ready."

There remains only a handful of women with political power in Latin America. Among them are Argentina's first lady, Sen. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and Lourdes Flores, a former congresswoman running for president in Peru who predicts Bachelet's success will help her win.

"With what has started in Chile ... history in Latin America will be different and we will be two women leading our countries," Flores told the Chilean newspaper La Segunda.

There have been at least a half dozen female presidents in Latin America, but Bachelet is the first to win her place without the help of a husband's political career in a region where many countries were slow to give women the vote. Bachelet, a socialist pediatrician, is a separated mother of three.

Chilean women have high expectations for her presidency, which begins March 11.

"This is a major change," said Congresswoman Maria Antonieta Saa, a Bachelet supporter. "This represents pressure on Michelle. She needs a very clear agenda to try to end all forms of discrimination against women."