Former United States President Barack Obama has said governments around the world would perform better if women were given the opportunity to lead for two years.
Obama made the remark during a conversation with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at Salem State University in Massachusetts on Monday.
the former president was discussing leadership and the importance of creating opportunities for younger generations when he recalled a thought he had while serving 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?” Obama said.
“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,” he said.
C-SPAN shared a clip of the conversation on Friday, after which the remarks circulated online and renewed attention on Obama’s views on female leadership.
The hour-long Salem State Series event attracted about 3,600 people to the university’s O’Keefe Sports Complex, while hundreds of others watched from a satellite venue on campus.
Obama made a similar argument in 2019 during a leadership event in Singapore, where he said he believed countries would improve if women ran every country for two years.
