GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Former US President Barack Obama delivers a speech while attending day nine of the COP26 at SECC on November 8, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. Day Nine of the 2021 climate summit in Glasgow will focus on delivering the practical solutions needed to adapt to climate impacts and address loss and damage. This is the 26th "Conference of the Parties" and represents a gathering of all the countries signed on to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Climate Agreement. The aim of this year's conference is to commit countries to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Former United States President Barack Obama has started a fresh debate over women in leadership after saying governments around the world could perform better if women were given control for two years.
Obama stated during a conversation with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at Salem State University in Massachusetts on Monday. A clip from the event was later shared by C-SPAN on Friday and quickly drew attention online.
Speaking about leadership and the importance of giving younger generations opportunities to occupy positions of influence, Obama recalled an idea 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?
“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 former president had expressed a similar opinion in 2019 during a leadership event in Singapore, where he suggested that countries could experience improvements if women were placed in charge for two years.
The latest comments came during the hour-long Salem State Series event, which 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 also weighed in on political divisions in the United States, arguing that the level of division among ordinary Americans was not as deep as political rhetoric 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 were still treating one another with respect.
