My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push for women's economic empowerment and political participation.

Gender equality must become a lived reality.

Women's strength, women's industry, women's wisdom are humankind's greatest untapped resource. The challenge then for U.N. Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all.

As more and more women, men and young people raise their voices and become active in local government, and more local leaders take action for the safety of women and girls, change happens.

I believe that if you want to fight inequality you have to do it starting at infancy.

U.N. Women was created due to the acknowledgement that gender equality and women's empowerment was still, despite progress, far from what it should be. Transforming political will and decisions, such as the Member States creating U.N. Women, into concrete steps towards gender equality and women's empowerment, I think is one of the main challenges.

Women say that my election represents a cultural break with the past - a past of sexism, of misogyny.