Obama: We're closer than ever to closing the gender pay gap

Obama says we are close to closing the wage gap.

(Image credit: Michael Reynolds - Pool/Getty Images)

published 12 April 2016

While lamenting the gender pay gap, President Obama remained hopeful about women's future as he marked Equal Pay Day on Tuesday by dedicating the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum as a national monument. "If you don't believe we're going to close the wage gap, you need to come to this house, because this house has a story to tell," Obama said, referring to the Washington, D.C. building that's housed the National Women's Party — which is responsible for writing hundreds of pieces of local, state, and federal legislation supporting equal rights for women — since 1929.

Obama predicts that in the future, people will 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."

"I don't know how long it will take to get there," Obama continued, "but I know we're getting closer to that day."