“I want young girls and boys to come here 10, 20, 100 years from now to know that women fought for equality, it was not just given to them," President Obama said Tuesday. Obama: I want people to be 'astonished' there had not been a woman president

In his speech Tuesday commemorating the designation of a new national monument honoring women's equality, President Barack Obama said he looked forward to the day when future visitors to the Washington, D.C., site would be "astonished" that at one point in time, a woman had never been president.

“I want young girls and boys to come here 10, 20, 100 years from now to know that women fought for equality, it was not just given to them. I want them to come here and be astonished there was ever a time when women could not vote," Obama said during his remarks at the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, which served as the headquarters of the National Woman's Party since 1929. "I want them to be astonished that there was ever a time when women earned less than men for doing the same work."


Obama, speaking on Equal Pay Day at the site now known as the Sewall-Belmont House, then spoke of the increasing role of women in business and in government.

"I want them to be astonished that there was ever a time when women were vastly outnumbered in the boardroom or in Congress, that there was ever a time when a woman had never sat in the Oval Office," he remarked.

The comments from Obama follow an interview that Vice President Joe Biden gave with Mic that published Monday, in which he said, "We’re gonna be able to elect a woman in this country. I would like to see a woman elected.”

Staff members could then be heard telling the interviewer the time was up for the interview, though the vice president's office later said that had nothing to do with the substance of the question but rather with Biden's schedule.

Neither Obama nor Biden have endorsed a candidate in the Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

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