Former President Barack Obama stated that governments around the world would be better if women were placed in charge for two years. He made the remarks during a conversation with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at Salem State University.
Obama described a long-held idea from his time in office. “Even when I was president, I sometimes fantasized 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?” he said.
He continued: “I have a strong belief that things would — they wouldn’t be perfect. But they’d be better.” When Goodwin affirmed the point, Obama replied, “But they’d be better. I’m confident about that. I really do.”
The sold-out event drew 3,600 people to the university’s O’Keefe Sports Complex. Hundreds more watched from a satellite venue on campus. The discussion covered leadership, political renewal and related topics.
Obama has expressed similar views before. In December 2019 at a leadership event in Singapore, he said women are “indisputably better” than men as leaders and that living standards and outcomes would improve significantly if women ran every nation for two years.