Many years ago I received this advice: “Set your own agenda, or someone else will set it for you.” » I have carried these words with me ever since.
This is why, next week, I will leave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of which I was a co-founder almost 25 years ago, to open a new chapter in my philanthropy. To begin, I’m announcing $1 billion in new spending over the next two years for people and organizations working on behalf of women and families around the world, including on reproductive rights in the United States.
In almost 20 years as an advocate for women and girls, I’ve learned that there will always be people who say that now is not the right time to talk about gender equality. Not if you want to be relevant. Not if you want to be effective with (mostly male) world leaders. As soon as the global agenda becomes busy, women and girls disappear.
It’s frustrating and short-sighted. Decades of research on economy, well-being And governance make it clear that investing in women and girls benefits everyone. We know that economies in which women participate fully have more room to grow. Women’s political participation is associated with reduced corruption. Peace agreements are more durable when women participate in their drafting. Reducing the time women spend in poor health could bring up to $1 trillion to the global economy by 2040.
And yet, around the world, women are witnessing a tremendous increase in political violence and other threats to their security, in conflict zones where rape is used as a tool of war, in Afghanistan where the seizure of power by the Taliban erased 20 years of progress for women. and girls, in many low-income countries where the number of pregnant and lactating women suffering from acute malnutrition is skyrocketing.
In the USA, maternal mortality rates remain unacceptable, with Black and Native American mothers most at risk. In 14 states, women lost the right to terminate pregnancies in almost all circumstances. We remain the only advanced economy without any form of national paid family leave. And the number of teenage girls with suicidal thoughts and persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness is at its highest level in a decade.
Despite the pressing need, only about 2 percent of charitable donations in the United States go to organizations focused on women and girls, and only about half a percentage point goes to organizations focused specifically on women of color.
When we allow this cause to be so chronically underfunded, we all pay the price. As shocking as it may seem, my one-year-old granddaughter may grow up with fewer rights than me.
In recent weeks, as part of the $1 billion in new funding I’m committing to these efforts, I’ve begun awarding new grants, through my organization, Pivotal, to groups working in the United States to protect women’s rights and advance women’s rights. their power and influence. These include the National Women’s Law Center, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Although I have long focused on increasing access to contraceptives abroad, in the post-Dobbs era I now feel compelled to support reproductive rights here at home. For too long, a lack of money has forced organizations fighting for women’s rights to adopt a defensive posture while the enemies of progress took an offensive role. I want to help even the match.
I’m also experimenting with new tactics to broaden the range of perspectives in philanthropy. Recently, I offered 12 people whose work I admire their own $20 million grant fund to distribute as they see fit. This group – which includes former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, athlete and maternal health advocate Allyson Felix, and an Afghan champion of girls’ education, Shabana Basij-Rasikh – represents a broad spectrum of expertise and experience. I look forward to seeing the landscape of funding opportunities through their eyes and the results their approaches uncover.
In the fall, I will introduce a $250 million initiative focused on improving the mental and physical health of women and girls around the world. By making an open call to grassroots organizations beyond the reach of major funders, I hope to spark the emergence of groups with personal connections to the issues they are working on. Those on the front lines should receive the attention and investment they deserve, including from me.
As a young woman, I could never have imagined that one day I would be part of such an effort. Because I have been given this extraordinary opportunity, I am determined to do everything in my power to seize it and establish a program that will also help other women and girls establish theirs.
Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist and founder of Pivotal, an investment and advocacy charity.
Source photographs by Bryan Bedder, filipfoto and Westend61, via Getty Images.
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