Some countries need extra stimulus in specific areas. Something has to be done against high youth unemployment in Greece and Spain, for example. But in the end, there is no way around it: The debt levels have to come down.

If we take into account that women have had the right to vote only for some 100 years - in some countries even less - and that we have already won seats in governments or presidential offices, I understand that men look at this rise with some anxiety.

The precondition of success and entry to the top politics is primarily one's will - that is, making one's own decisions, because it means having to leave your home or move your family, quit social networking and build new contacts, [since] central governments are seated in capitals.

It was my mother, despite the limitations placed on women of her time by society, who insisted I be allowed to go abroad to study, in sturdy defiance of the male elders of the family, who protested and decided that I should be married off instead.

If there were more women heads of state in the world, the world would be more peaceful and better focused on the improvement of the overall quality of life and welfare.

I don't subscribe to that school of thought that leadership can be altogether defined by gender.

I have learned from my own experience that if you work hard you will succeed.