The mayor of Montevideo, Caroline Cosseparticipated this Thursday as a speaker in the second Women’s Forum that was carried out by the executive club on the 40th floor of the World Trade Center (WTC) and addressed the theme of leadership. During her intervention of approximately 10 minutes, there were moments in which the mayor was on the verge of tears.
In his dissertation, Cosse reminded his family nucleus and their teachers. “I feel lucky because I had something important that has marked my life: my mother, my father, my grandmother and the teachers,” she said.
The hierarch said that her parents convinced her that she could become whatever she wanted, “even an astronaut” if she wanted to.
When she was a girl, for his grandmother “it was sacred” the time dedicated to his studies and that she created an atmosphere of silence —even when some visitors came to her house— so that no one would interrupt her. “My grandmother came from the countryside very young; she was able to do up to the third year of school and that made her ashamed,” she narrated.
Besides, the mayor recalled her third-grade teacher, who “made her fall in love with geometry”despite the fear that mathematics caused him in the first instance, and described that course as the trigger to “find a way”.
The mayor of the capital pointed out that these people make up your “root” and that she always carries them with her.
However, he expressed: “I was raised with love, but this is not the reality of all.”
Cosse said that in his journey, which goes from his time at the university, doing politics and starting a family, he learned that “never enough” with messages of encouragement for the women.
“I was privileged, I grew up in love. In life I have tried to overcome obstacles, and, on this path, of constant examinations, one thinks that life is just that, and that anyone can do it,” she developed. “You have to learn to listen,” she added.
And he continued: “But I learned that the world is more than that, more than my house, my school. There are women who cannot, the vast majority cannot alone“. This is because there are “women who have been raised in complex situations or have resources, but do not know what they want.”
“This goes beyond the neighborhoods or sectors,” he pointed out.
Cosse decided to close his speech on leadership with an experience that happened to him recently. “Recently a woman, educated, professional, with work, requested an audience with me, and was a victim of violence” in her home, she began by saying herself.
The mayor expressed that due to prejudices she did not approach the mayor’s policies to deal with this situation, due to her economic and social situation. But she one day she decided to go. “She had requested the audience with me to thank” and “offer help,” Cosse said.
To which the mayor replied that it was enough for her to disclose her experience to her inner circle. “While listening to her I began to take mental note of everything she said to me,” she added. And she remarked that the situations in which women suffer gender violence (to a greater or lesser extent) do not depend on their social or economic conditions.
The mayor promised to bring these aid networks to more neighborhoods and sectors.
As leaders in the public sector “we have a responsibility not to look to the side and make the State open doors” to provide opportunities, he said.
“When we give something, that person —who brings out the best of his humanity— gives it back a thousand times. And he gives us back the vital energy to continue and not give up,” Cosse concluded.
