Former first lady Michelle Obama said the country isn’t ready to vote a female president into the Oval Office due to sexism.
She argued the results of the 2024 presidential election, which former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump, proved that “we ain’t ready.” And while her name has been floated as a possibility for a future presidential run, Obama said, “Don’t even look at me about running.”
“As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” the former first lady said over the weekend during an event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
“That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not,” Obama added. “You know, we’ve 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.”
It’s not the first time Obama, 60, has waxed about systemic sexism she believes remains threaded into society in the United States. In July, the former first lady said she only recently reached a point in her life where she feels fully secure as a woman.
“This is really the first time in my life where I feel completely me and I can absolutely embrace my wisdom,” Obama said on the IMO podcast she co-hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson. “We, as women, spend most of our lives saying, ‘Well, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.’ We qualify everything.”
“We’re always hedging … because in the back of our minds, we weren’t raised with the certainty of maleness,” she added. “That kind of confidence that young men in their 30s have, which they haven’t earned. They just have it.”
As she stumped for Harris on the campaign trail last fall, Obama held further admonition for men, arguing a Trump win would place “vulnerable” women in jeopardy.
“Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men, who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going through,” she said in October 2024. “The only people who have standing to make these decisions are women.”
Obama recently launched a coalition branded as an effort to ensure girls overcome educational barriers in economically disadvantaged areas.
“These groups are changing the way girls see themselves in their own communities and in our world, helping create the leaders we need for the brighter future we all deserve,” she said in October of the new Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance. “Because when our girls succeed, we all do.”
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Obama had previously sought to squelch speculation she might run for the office her husband held from 2009 to 2017.
“When people ask me would I ever run, the answer is no,” she said in March. “If you ask me that, then you have absolutely no idea the sacrifice that your kids make when your parents are in that role.”