Former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama criticised the role of women in electing President Donald Trump, suggesting that his victory showed a lack of women’s empowerment, reported CNN on Monday. She was the keynote speaker at United State of Women Summit in Los Angeles.
“In light of this last election, I am concerned about us, as women, and what we think about ourselves and about each other,” she said. “What is going on in our heads where we let that happen. So I do wonder what are young girls dreaming about, if we’re still there?”
She said, “When the most qualified person running was a woman, and look what we did instead, I mean that says something about where we are.” In the 2016 US election, 54% of women voted for Hillary Clinton, though that figure was sharply divided by race, reported The Hill.
Obama also dismissed the idea of running for president in 2020. “When I hear people say ‘you run,’ it’s part of the problem. We still didn’t get ‘Yes, we can’ right. Until we get that right, it doesn’t matter who runs.”
Obama said that women are held to a higher standard than men. “I wish that girls could fail as bad as men do and be okay because let me tell you, watching men fail up, it is frustrating to see a lot of men blow it and win.”
She also had advice for parents raising daughters. “Because the workplace you work in – the times you turn your head, you look the other way, the times you’re sitting at a table where there are no people of colour, no women,” she said, according to Variety. “If you are tolerating that, that’s the workplace that is going to be waiting for your little girl.”
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