Daily Quote: Michelle Bachelet on the global internet gender gap

"I have no family to take care of, I have no child to inherit my properties. You, the people, are my only family and to make you happy is the reason I do politics."
- Park Geun-hye, first elected woman president of South Korea

South Korea elects first female president

"I find a lot of similarities, We're roughly the same age, we both have two brothers -- mine are annoying -- we both grew up in middle-class homes with spirited, big-hearted mothers who encouraged us to do something valuable and interesting with our lives. We both went from public high schools to distinguished women's colleges ... We both went on to graduate school at Yale."

“Where Hillary aimed her life and where it landed was evident very early on. While I was a cheerleader, she was the president of the student government. Where I was the lead in all three musicals, people who know her tell me she should never be encouraged to sing. Regardless, she has turned out to be the voice of her generation. I’m an actress, and she is the real deal.”

Merly Streep introducing Hillary Clinton at the Women in the World Summit in March 2012. They met again last night at the 2012 Kennedy Centre Honors

Hillary Clinton and Meryl Streep take 'selfies' at the 2012 Kennedy Centre Honours

“I am so looking forward to next year. I just want to sleep and exercise and travel for fun. And relax. It sounds so ordinary, but I haven’t done it for 20 years. I would like to see whether I can get untired. I work out and stuff, but I don’t do it enough and I don’t do it hard enough because I can’t expend that much energy on it.”

Hillary Clinton in an interview with The New York Times. Click the image to read the full interview.

Hillary Clinton on her retirement plans

"I think for the most part people accept that women are as competent as men. And yet I still think we can celebrate our differences, too. I think we’ve gotten to that point."

Katie Couric at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards

"Sexism is alive and well! We were saying this forty years ago. I'm an optimist, so I like to think we've progressed in some ways — in Australia, we get equal pay. But yeah, it's disappointing to think that still goes on. Do you think Kristen Stewart got into trouble because Robert Pattinson was so loved? I remember I was a little girl when Elizabeth Taylor stole Eddie Fisher from America's Sweetheart, Debbie Reynolds, and the reaction back then was enormous! And Angelina Jolie was in trouble, too, for taking a husband away from another America's Sweetheart. Don't take husbands from America's Sweethearts."

Jacki Weaver on slut shaming and sexism in Hollywood, in an interview with Vulture.com. Click the image to read the full interview

Jacki Weaver on slut shaming and sexism

"Bullying hurts too many young Australians, in some cases so badly they don’t see the point of continuing their lives. Bullying is a great tragedy, and a great moral wrong – but it’s also a phenomenon we can do something about”.

Click the image to watch the video

Prime Minister Julia Gillard fronts an anti-bullying campaign for The Community Brave Foundation

“I didn't run to make history. I ran to make a difference... but in choosing me to tackle those challenges, the people of Wisconsin have made history."

Tammy Baldwin's victory speech. Click the image to read the full speech.

Tammy Baldwin on becoming the first openly gay female senator in the US

"That's one of the things that makes it worth it for me -- so many women were out there thinking it was their fault. Many have had to make compromises they didn't expect to make and they feel like failures and they're not failures, it's the system.

We have not enabled people to have children and be with those children and still stay on the career track in ways that allow them to rise over the course of a lifetime."

Anne-Marie Slaughter to Fortune. Click the image to read the full interview.

Anne-Marie Slaughter on the response to her article

“There’s no need to be feminist in my generation... There are pioneers who opened the breach. I'm not at all an active feminist. On the contrary, I'm a bourgeois. I love family life, I love doing the same thing every day."

Carla Bruni in an interview with  Vogue Paris for the December issue

Carla Bruni: 'My Generation Doesn't Need Feminism'

My idea of a leader would be somebody like Sherry Lansing. You know why? Because she has this gift, like so many of you here today do, of organising large groups of people in order to achieve a common goal.

"And Sherry's particular brand of leaders, you know, that kind of leader has to be charismatic and intelligent and attractive, but most of all persuasive - and that's not me."

-Diane Keaton accepted the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award during The Hollywood Reporter's 21st Annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast

Diane Keaton on her idea of a leader

“With more women than men taking their final school exams, more women than men successfully completing their studies, nobody can tell me that not even roughly as many women as men can take over management responsibility...This can’t be explained to anybody and that’s why companies are now under pressure to take action.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Merkel said at a conference of her Christian Democratic Union party in Hanover, Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’s losing patience with the failure of corporate boards to increase the participation of women

"For most, the days of Mum being able to spend months at home preparing for Christmas are long gone. Today Dad's do more than simply go out and buy the tree. Our Mum's and Dad's, adult sons and daughters all play a role in scrambling to get ready, but when we get to Christmas day, it's still a time of joy."


Click the image to watch Julia Gillard's Christmas message to Australia

Prime Minister Gillard wishes Australia a Merry Christmas and pays tribute to those spending the day without loved ones

"We can't just hope that the last shooting tragedy will prevent the next"

"This country is known for using its determination and ingenuity to solve problems, big and small. Wise policy has conquered disease, protected us from dangerous products and substances, and made transportation safer. But when it comes to protecting our communities from gun violence, we're not even trying — and for the worst of reasons."


- Marking the second anniversary of the Tucson shooting in which she was shot in the head, Gabrielle Giffords and husband Mark Kelly reveal their new initiative to curb gun violence, "Americans for Responsible Solutions" in an op-ed for USA Today.

Giffords pictured at the DNC on September 6, 2012 (image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords takes on US gun lobby