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Melinda Gates

Former Co-Chairman, Foundation

Search every verified Melinda Gates interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Melinda French Gates has recently discussed her philanthropic work and advocacy around women's health, particularly menopause and perimenopause. In September 2026, she appeared on multiple podcasts and programs, including Marie Claire's "Nice Talk," the "unPAUSED" podcast, and FOX 13's "For the Girls: Women on the Rise." She discussed findings from a survey conducted by her organization Pivotal in partnership with Gallup, noting that a third of women experiencing perimenopause symptoms did not know they were in that stage. She also described her own experience with perimenopause, saying she began to doubt herself during the peak of her career due to symptoms like anxiety and sleep issues. French Gates stated that she believes women's health is interconnected with women's power, saying, "When women have their full health, they can step into their full power." French Gates also discussed her recent funding commitments, including $215 million announced for midlife health as part of a larger $600 million investment in women's health over two years. She called for more government funding for women's health research, saying, "We should expect our national health institutes to put far more funding into women's health." She also commented on the impact of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, describing reproductive health "contraceptive deserts" in the United States and recounting conversations with women in Louisiana who said they could not access clinics due to confusion among providers. Additionally, she discussed a $56 million privately funded revitalization project for Seattle's Myrtle Edwards Park and Centennial Park, and mentioned acquiring a minority ownership stake in the Seattle Kraken. She encouraged women to "surround yourself with others who believe in you," adding that workplaces "were set up for men" and have not been modernized.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“In the reproductive years, what I'm doing is doubling down on investments I had already been making in that space over the course of many years, but as we know today in the state of the system in the United States, we have taken a major step back on women's reproductive health because of the Supreme Court decision. And so consequently, there are reproductive health contraceptive deserts in the United States. And so I”

“Our health care system is not only failing women in general in certain ways it is really failing certain parts of our population. So, I was down in Louisiana late last year and even just to see what the Dobbs decision has done for women who are going through miscarriages who are saying, 'I can't get into the clinics. They don't because they're confused. I would talk to the healthcare providers. They're confused about”

“We should expect our national health institutes to put far more funding into women's health of all the types you mentioned, billions and billions and billions. Because that is how research moves forward. It has been our government funding through the NIH that then goes to all the researchers around the world in the US. So you know again to think that women live nine years unhealthy in life we've misthought oh well th”

“When women have their full health, they can step into their full power and that changes their family, their community, their society. But we have not looked at this area in terms of funding as a globe frankly and yet we are half the population and we all go through this right and so I believe that instead of menopause being something that's neglected and women just need to get through no we can create change for wome”

“Well, the long-term consequences are we live our lives. We know women live an average of 9 years in poor health as compared to a man, and I think we thought in our heads that those 9 years are oh, at her end of her life cuz she lives longer. No, a lot of those years are in your most productive years. And so if women could get answers, then they won't step back from their career, but we're having far too many women sa”

“Because we are half the population, and yet as you just said, this area for women's health has been underfunded, and when something's underfunded, then it's under-researched. And so women aren't getting the answers that they need, and that just shouldn't be. We're half the population.”

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