Former first lady Michelle Obama was dispatched by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 to rally female voters.
But despite Obama's high popularity, millions of women voted against the first woman to win the nomination for a major party. And Obama is still not okay with that. She told a crowd in Boston this week that she believes women who voted for Trump voted “against their own voice.”
She said: “quite frankly we saw this in this election. As far as I'm concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice in a way. To me, it doesn’t say as much about Hillary ― and everybody’s trying to wonder. Well, what does it mean for Hillary?
No, no, no. What does it mean for us as women? That we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, ‘That guy. He’s better for me. His voice is more true to me.’ Well, to me that just says you don’t like your voice. You like the thing we’re told to like.”
The former first lady's view is in part rooted in her own view of what is best for American women and how Trump disagrees. For example, Trump campaigned as an antiabortion candidate and at one point seemed to suggest that women who got abortions should be punished.
Once in the White House, Trump ended the Obama administration's gender gap wage data collection to help monitor the pay disparities between women and men along with the White House Council on Women and Girls, which monitors the impact of policy on women and girls.
But in addition to having differing politics, Obama doesn't believe Trump is for the voice of women because he was recorded bragging about using his power and fame to grab women's genitals without their permission. During his campaign he made degrading comments about a female political rival's appearance and a female debate moderator. And he has a history of making sexist comments about his employees.
Many women still agree with Obama and have made it known at events like the Women's March, on social media and at political events.
