Rousseff promises gender equality

Dilma Rousseff, who is elected as Brazil’s first female president, says she will set her priorities on gender equality and fighting poverty after she takes the office in January.

“I would like very much today for fathers and mothers of daughters to look in their eyes and tell them: ‘Yes, a woman can,’” she said in her victory speech.

She also promised to lift 20 million Brazilians out of poverty.

“I reiterate my fundamental promise: the eradication of poverty,” she said, adding that “we must not rest while there are Brazilians going hungry.”

She also vowed to maintain outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s policies, which have brought prosperity and financial stability to Brazil, lifting 29 million people out of poverty over the past eight years.

Rousseff, 62, won Sunday’s presidential run-off election with 56 percent of the vote to opponent Jose Serra’s 44 percent. Serra had got 33 percent of the vote in the first round.