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The United States is still not ready for a female president after more than a century of unsuccessful campaigns for the White House, according to former First Lady Michelle Obama.
“As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” Obama said earlier this month in a live conversation with actor Tracee Ellis Ross that was published Friday.
“That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying,” she said. “You’re not ready for a woman. You are not. So don’t waste my time.”
Ross asked the former first lady whether she felt her role impacted “the room that we’ve made for a woman to be president.”
Obama — who is routinely the subject of speculation over whether she will make her own run for the presidency — said the country has “got a lot of growing up to do, and there’s still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it.”
Michelle Obama recently said Kamala Harris’s 2024 election loss showed America is not ready to elect a female president (Getty)
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to ever hold the role, lost the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump in part because of changing gender dynamics in the vote.
Trump won a majority of men under age 50 in 2024, a shift from when former President Joe Biden captured that same group in 2020, according to Pew Research.
Overall, 55 percent of male voters backed Trump in 2024, up from 50 percent the previous election.
A recent poll found that while large majorities of voters think it’s important to elect more women to high political office, there’s still considerable wariness about a female president.
Nearly one in five voters told an American University survey they or someone they know would not vote for a woman as president, including one-quarter of women under 50 and nearly 20 percent of men under 50.
Beyond just the presidential vote, gender-related issues have played a large part in the Trump administration’s agenda so far.
The Trump administration has blocked gender-inclusive passports, attempted to pull funding for sexual education mentioning gender diversity, restricted gender-affirming medical care, and punished schools for allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports that align with their gender identity.