I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens.

Lagarde was the first woman ever to become finance minister of a G8 economy and is the first woman to ever head the IMF. Her appointment is the 11th consecutive appointment of a European to head the IMF. " In making general "payback" comments about peripheral eurozone countries having "had a nice time" Lagarde appeared to be unaware that for example Spain had actually been running budget surpluses for three consecutive years going into the financial crisis while Ireland had been running surpluses for five consecutive years going in as her own organisation's data shows.

On 28 June 2011 Christine Lagarde was named as the next MD of the IMF for a five-year term starting on 5 July 2011 replacing Dominique Strauss-Kahn. A noted antitrust and labor lawyer Lagarde became the first female chairman of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie.