Women's lib

So, Chile has finally done what many deemed impossible in this conservative, Catholic country. It's elected it's first female president, someone who defies the stereotypes, but is apparently helping ordinary Chileans to reconcile themselves with the past and move on. Michelle Bachelet is the highest profile politician in Chile to have been tortured during Pinochet's military dictatorship. Her father, an air force general, even died after being arrested and tortured for supporting Pinochet's predecessor Salvador Allende. When Michelle Bachelet came back from exile in Australia and Communist East Germany, she rose up the ranks of the Socialist party, ultimately becoming Defence Minister and effectively controlling the same military that had killed her Dad. As well as this, she is an agnostic single mother of three kids by two different fathers and it's quite something to be that and become president here in a sexist country, traditionally dominated by the male political and business elite. But, as well as providing proof that Chile can move on from the horrors of the Pinochet era, Chile's new president has managed to woo the marginalised sectors of society - the middle and lower classes, the indigenous people, women -- precisely because she belongs to part of that group. But, she's not a totally new slate for Chile. She does represent the ruling coalition, which has been in power since the end of the Pinochet regime in 1990 and her popularity was certainly boosted by the success of the current government, whose policies mean Chile now has one of the fastest growing economies in the region. But, for all that, she has done something no other women has done before, something quite extraordinary, by representing those in Chile who regard themselves as ordinary.