Former United States President Barack Obama has said he believes governments worldwide could see improvements if women were given the opportunity to lead for two years.
Obama made the comment while speaking with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin during a Salem State Series event at Salem State University in Massachusetts on Monday. C-SPAN later shared a clip of the discussion on Friday, prompting renewed attention to his remarks.
The former president was discussing leadership, political divisions and the importance of creating opportunities for younger generations when he recalled an idea he had during his time in the White House.
“Even when I was president, I sometimes fantasised about if you put women in charge of every government for like two years and then just kind of saw, all right, how are things going?
“I have a strong belief that things would — they wouldn’t be perfect. But they’d be better. I’m confident about that. I really do,” Obama said.
The hour-long event attracted about 3,600 people to the university’s O’Keefe Sports Complex, while hundreds of others followed the programme from a satellite venue on campus.
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Obama had expressed a similar position in 2019 during a leadership event in Singapore, where he said he believed countries would improve if women were given control of their governments for two years.
During the Salem State conversation, Obama also addressed political divisions in the US, arguing that the level of division among ordinary Americans was not as pronounced as the country’s political discourse and media coverage might suggest.
“We’re not as divided as our politics or our media would indicate,” he said, adding that Americans across the country continued to treat one another with respect.