By IANS/EFE,
Rio de Janeiro : Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said that she has opened the way for every girl in the country who dreams of being president.
“What is most important about my being president is that now all girls can aspire to be president and it will be seen as completely normal in Brazil that a woman becomes president,” the head of state said Tuesday on the popular Globo TV programme “Mais Voce” (More You), during which she cooked a cheese omelette.
Her participation in the programme, which was filmed Monday, was part of a campaign that Rousseff is launching to celebrate March as Women’s month.
Rousseff said that her taking office as president represents the breaking of a paradigm and blamed the macho mentality for spreading an image of her as a “tough” woman.
“Did you ever see a man who became leader of the country being called ‘tough?'” the president asked, adding that “women are expected to be fragile, at least the image people have is that women are fragile… and when a woman takes a position of leadership, of authority, she’s seen as stepping outside her proper role”.
Rousseff said the most difficult time of her life was in 2009 when, on the eve of launching her electoral campaign, she was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, from which she is recovering.
The president took advantage of the interview with the popular host Ana Maria Braga, a fellow cancer survivor, to express her gratitude for the solidarity she received when she was fighting against the illness.
Rousseff, who was elected last October and took office in January, said the most negative part of being president is not being able to walk down the street as before to talk to people and get their take on things.
She said that since poverty in Brazil is worst among women and children, she will adapt government programmes for combating destitution to make them favour women more, especially single parents.