--- 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: 2026-10-12T09:34:50.614Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Says Men Are Getting On His 'Nerves Recently' and That 'Empowering More Women' Will Help > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b697a91e-374d-4d4d-9d66-fca4a204a960&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Obama Says That "Men Have Been Getting On My Nerves Lately" [Watch (HLS stream): Obama Says That "Men Have Been Getting On My Nerves Lately"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HXYq6RfA.m3u8) (0:32)  _Published 2018-07-18. Obama Says That "Men Have Been Getting On My Nerves Lately"_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 18, 2018 7:28 PM UTC Obama Says That "Men Have Been Getting On My Nerves Lately"  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":"2026-10-12T09:34:50.614Z","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":"https://time.com/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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Obama Says That \"Men Have Been Getting On My Nerves Lately\"","description":"Obama Says That \"Men Have Been Getting On My Nerves Lately\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HXYq6RfA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-18T18:46:46.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HXYq6RfA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/","duration":"PT32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5342196/obama-on-men-south-africa/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```