During my election campaign I was not giving out empty promises, but invited every member of society to join the efforts to work for a better life in Lithuania.

During conflicts and tense situations, women often work in a more collaborative way, include a larger variety of viewpoints, and function more frequently outside traditional hierarchical means. Women leaders often take a consolidated and reconciliatory position in the society.

I am a person of action. If I see I can bring a positive change, I will go for it, never mind that something might be hard to achieve.

During my election campaign I was not giving out empty promises, but invited every member of society to join the efforts to work for a better life in Lithuania.

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.

Traditionally, women have a lot of different roles in society. It is very difficult to balance all these roles and at the same time to compete with men. A leading, successful woman has to put in much bigger efforts to be more competent and faster, more dynamic and organized, than a successful man.

While I am a lawyer by profession and have travelled to several countries, working and educating myself, I came from a rural background in a Third World country at a time when women were told what their place was and whose mothers enjoyed even less.