Melinda French Gates, a prominent philanthropist and advocate for women’s rights, is currently promoting her new book titled “The Next Day.” Now 60, she has spent most of her adult life working in philanthropy. As an advocate, she brings fierce dedication to her work on behalf of women and girls everywhere. She has promised billions of dollars for her charge. Illustration by Annie Zhao In 2015, after her departure from the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her former spouse, Bill Gates, she started Pivotal Ventures.
Despite her previous interaction with former President Donald Trump during his first term, French Gates has expressed skepticism about the potential for productive discussions with him now. During that same recent meeting, which Bill Gates described as “quite wide-ranging,” French Gates said she was dissatisfied. She thought they really lost the ball in terms of achieving bold progress. She is particularly damning about the Trump administration’s severe cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). These cuts led to personnel figures—mostly at the state level—crashing from more than 10,000 down to 290.
French Gates has been candid about the fact that she has no plans to meet Trump again. She has crystalized her opposition. Her advocacy for USAID is powered by a passion for equity and a desire to provide women around the world equitable access to necessary essential services. As she explained it, “every Republican and Democratic administration had been for this. Make no mistake, this administration has chosen their values and their donors over the needs of the American people. Because of this, 17 million women will lose access to maternal mortality services next year.
My work has convinced me of the vital importance of high-quality leadership, and its power to shape public will and policy. She added, “Leadership really does make a difference. The leaders we have in the wrong positions right now are catastrophic, but that’s not shocking. Reading the world from this perspective highlights her continued commitment to the building women’s rights and ensuring women’s full access to health services into the future.
As her choice to exit the Gates Foundation proved, her advocacy was just getting started with an even greater impact. She concluded that leaving the foundation would allow for more time and less institutional resource investment for her to devote to this fight. For the first time in her philanthropic career, it would give her full control over how to deploy those resources. This change signifies her dedication to making sure women and girls, especially, are provided every resource possible.