The 2010 global gender gap report by the World Economic Forum shows that countries with better gender equality have faster-growing, more competitive economies.

You have to be doing things that matter - responsibility, but also responsibility with epic and beautiful and noble tasks.

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

There's full consensus in the military that women shouldn't be in person-to-person combat. I don't know if we have enough experience to know whether this is the right approach. But women can be elsewhere. We have mandatory military service in Chile. I pushed for women in all areas.

The priority for my government is that there will be development for everyone, equally.

Violence against women in all its forms is a human rights violation. It's not something that any culture, religion or tradition propagates.

I was not born in a home where there were stereotypes. So that was very useful because it gave me the sense of possibilities, of flying, if I may say, of making my hopes and dreams a reality.