--- title: Obama Says Men Are Getting on His Nerves, Encourages Women description: Barack Obama is calling on men to do better — and thinks the solution is to for women to be involved in social movements. canonical: https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-18T19:28:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:55.773Z og:title: Barack Obama Says Men Have Been Getting On 'His Nerves' og:description: During a speech at a school in South Africa og:url: https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3244f7776ddae2c3/698935a586f68ea13f6e9acc/obama-men-are-getting-on-mynerves-encourages-empowering-women.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: KENYA-US-POLITICS-OBAMA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Barack Obama Says Men Have Been Getting On 'His Nerves' twitter:description: During a speech at a school in South Africa twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3244f7776ddae2c3/698935a586f68ea13f6e9acc/obama-men-are-getting-on-mynerves-encourages-empowering-women.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Says Men Are Getting On His 'Nerves Recently' and That 'Empowering More Women' Will Help  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 18, 2018 7:28 PM UTC  Former US President, Barack Obama (C) with his step-grandmother Sarah (2R) and half-sister, Auma (L) arrive to unveil a plaque on July 16, 2018 during the opening of the Sauti Kuu Resource Centre, founded by his half-sister, Auma Obama at Kogelo in Siaya county, western Kenya. - Obama is in the east african nation for the first time since he left the US presidency and met with President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga in Nairobi. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP) (Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images) Former US President, Barack Obama (C) with his step-grandmother Sarah (2R) and half-sister, Auma (L) arrive to unveil a plaque on July 16, 2018 during the opening of the Sauti Kuu Resource Centre, founded by his half-sister, Auma Obama at Kogelo in Siaya county, western Kenya. - Obama is in the east african nation for the first time since he left the US presidency and met with President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga in Nairobi. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP) (Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images)TONY KARUMBA—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 18, 2018 7:28 PM UTC [Barack Obama](http://time.com/5340801/barack-obama-speech-trump-mandela/) thinks that more [female leadership](http://time.com/collection/firsts/) when it comes to social movements and governance will improve policies. The former president of the United States said that “men have been getting on my nerves lately” and suggested that the solution might be to empower women, in a speech during a town hall meeting with young African leaders at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. “Everyday I read the newspaper and just think like ‘Brothers, what’s wrong with you guys? What’s wrong with us? We’re violent, we’re bullying. Just not handling our business,'” Obama said. “I think empowering more women on the continent, that… is going to lead to some better policies.” Obama’s South Africa appearance follows his stop in Kenya, where [he shared a dance with his step-grandmother Sarah.](http://time.com/5341833/barack-obama-dancing-kenya/) Watch Obama’s speech above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/"},"headline":"Obama Says Men Are Getting On His 'Nerves Recently' and That 'Empowering More Women' Will Help","datePublished":"2018-07-18T19:28:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:55.773Z","description":"During a speech at a school in South Africa","url":"https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3244f7776ddae2c3/698935a586f68ea13f6e9acc/obama-men-are-getting-on-mynerves-encourages-empowering-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3244f7776ddae2c3/698935a586f68ea13f6e9acc/obama-men-are-getting-on-mynerves-encourages-empowering-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"KENYA-US-POLITICS-OBAMA","caption":"KENYA-US-POLITICS-OBAMA","creditText":"TONY KARUMBA—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/","name":"Obama Says Men Are Getting On His 'Nerves Recently' and That 'Empowering More Women' Will Help"}}]}] ```