US President Barack Obama has dedicated a new national monument to women’s equality with the hope of creating a landmark that will stand for hundreds of years.

Obama said that he hoped the historic Sewall-Belmont House and Museum on Capitol Hill would become “a centrepiece for the struggle for equality”. Now known as the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument, the President said he hoped the building could act a symbol for women’s rights.

"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," he said. "I want them to be astonished that there was ever a time when women earned less than men for doing the same work. 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."

The museum had previously welcomed around 10,000 visitors a year. Now assigned a national monument, the National Park Service will manage the site. The building itself was built in the early 1800s by Robert Sewall. The house was almost torn down in the 1970s, but female lawmakers succeeded in declaring the property a national landmark.