Obama says women-led governments could improve performance

Former United States President Barack Obama has said governments around the world would perform better if women were placed in charge for two years. Obama made the comment during a conversation with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at Salem State University in Massachusetts on Monday. C-SPAN shared a clip of the discussion on Friday, after which the remarks circulated online.

While discussing leadership and the need to give younger generations opportunities to hold positions of influence, Obama recalled a thought he had during his time in the White House. He said he had imagined what might happen if women led every government for two years. “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?” Obama said.

He added that conditions would not be perfect, but said he was confident they would improve. The former president expressed a similar view in 2019 during a leadership event in Singapore, when he said countries would see improvements if women ran every country for two years. Obama also addressed political divisions in the United States during the Salem State event.

He said the country was less divided at the grassroots level than its politics and media might suggest, arguing that people across the country continued to treat one another with respect. The hour-long discussion attracted about 3,600 people to the university’s O’Keefe Sports Complex, while hundreds more watched from a satellite venue on campus. The event provided the setting for Obama’s renewed comments on female leadership and his assessment of political discourse in the United States.