Philanthropist Melinda French Gates is taking a big step to support women’s rights.
Gates, who is the former wife of Bill Gates, announced today her plans of donating $1 billion over the next two years to people and organizations supporting women and families across the globe. The donation will also support women’s reproductive rights in the U.S, “where maternal mortality rates continue to be unconscionable,” she wrote in a New York Times opinion essay.
“In nearly 20 years as an advocate for women and girls, I have learned that there will always be people who say it’s not the right time to talk about gender equality,” says Gates, whose net worth is approximately $11.1 billion. “Not if you want to be relevant. Not if you want to be effective with world leaders (most of them men). The second the global agenda gets crowded, women and girls fall off.”
As part of the announcement, Gates will also step down in June from her position as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a nonprofit she and her ex-husband created in 2000 to fight global diseases, poverty and inequity. Throughout its existence, the private foundation has implemented several program strategies, including women in leadership, which aims to create equitable and sustainable ways for women to get into leadership positions.
In her opinion essay, Gates cites several challenges young women and girls currently experience in the U.S., including total abortion bans in 14 states, along with the lack of national paid family leave. Rising suicidal ideation and feelings of depression in teenage girls is also a problem, she adds. According to a 2023 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in three teen girls seriously considered attempting suicide, up about 60% from 10 years ago. Additional CDC data also shows that in 2021, three in five teen girls felt persistently sad or hopeless.
And while these statistics are troubling, Gates revealed that only about 2% (1.8%) of charitable donations in the U.S. go to organizations supporting women and girls. Still, Gates is trying to change that.
Under her new organization Pivotal Ventures, Gates is directing grants to several nonprofits supporting women’s rights, power and influence, including the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Women’s Law Center. She also provided 12 women each with a $20 million grant-making fund, including Allyson Felix, a former track athlete who actively raises awareness about the country’s maternal mortality crisis amongst Black women after experiencing her own medical emergency while 32-weeks pregnant.
And if that’s not enough, this fall Gates will introduce a $250 million global project to improve the mental and physical health of women and girls. For Gates, helping the lives of women around the world is something that she “could have never imagined,” she says. It is also something that research suggests makes the world a safer place. According to UN Women, peace treaties had a 20% increased chance of lasting for at least two years when women were involved in the process.
“Because I have been given this extraordinary opportunity, I am determined to do everything I can to seize it and to set an agenda that helps other women and girls set theirs, too.” Gates said. Now that’s girl power.
