Let life's many transitions lead you to a marvelous metamorphosis. I'm Sabirah Rayford and this is For the Girls, Women on the Rise.
If we believe in women, we need to invest in them.
From health to power and influence, Melinda French Gates has spent decades laying the foundation. Now—
My word for this year is build.
Pivoting away from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
For many years, you were equal partners on paper, but maybe not necessarily in practice. I knew I had things I wanted to say.
To know that people are living healthier lives because of something I have done, it just warms my heart.
We're going one-on-one with Melinda on the details of what's inspiring this new era.
I'm so glad we got to finally do this.
Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates is used to making headlines. Now she's writing her own: women deserve better. Through her social impact company Pivotal Ventures, she's committed $600 million to women's health. Recently, she announced $215 million of that will solely focus on midlife health, hoping to fill the gaps in perimenopause and menopausal care for women. So, how did she get here? You're really big on feeling seen, feeling understood, but helping make sure other people feel that way.
We all need to help one another be seen and heard.
From an early age, Melinda saw herself as a natural rule follower. In her 2025 book, The Next Day, she reflected on the list of goals she continually set for herself, milestones that always seemed to manifest on cue: from class valedictorian to a computer science and economics degree from Duke University, followed by an MBA, then moving to Seattle, joining Microsoft as one of its few early female managers. In her orderly, rule-bound world, it all made sense. Yet, Melinda is candid that her carefully curated checklist and middle-class Catholic Dallas upbringing couldn't truly prepare her for the woman the world would come to know.
I never expected to be in this incredibly privileged situation I'm in.
For 27 years, the public knew Melinda primarily as a partner, sharing the stage with Bill Gates, one of technology's most towering titans. But by stepping far beyond the rigid doctrine of her past and ultimately ending her marriage, you could say breaking the sacred rules she once never thought to question mended one of her most important relationships: the one with herself. You wrote about being the co-chair of the Gates Foundation, of course, at the time. Yet, for many years, you were equal partners on paper, but maybe not necessarily in practice. And specifically, I'm referencing when you had to push to co-author the Gates Foundation annual letter.
I did. And what it taught me was it was worth pushing for, right? I knew I had things I wanted to say. I knew that work. At the time, I wanted to speak out on reproductive health because I was doing that work deeply and what I saw was it matters. And so sometimes you've got to climb a hill. But again, I had my support, I had my friends saying, "Yes, this is right, keep pushing."
And I would like to talk about presenting strong and presenting, you know, the perfect image. You mentioned it earlier, and even personally I'll share with you, I think people look at the series, or look at press recognition, or my role in the community, and they think, "Man, she's a strong woman and she has it going on and I bet no one messes with her." But that's not always the—
Right. That is not at all the case.
So, I'd like to ask you, what's your message to the women who feel like they're having to push to be treated equally or fairly?
I would say surround yourself with others who believe in you so you can keep making that forward progress. You need to surround yourself with a community that says absolutely you can do this and who catches you on the tough days because society is not always easy for women, and our workplaces weren't set up for us. They were set up for men, right? And we haven't modernized them yet.
So she's putting her money where her passion is. In 2019, she made a $1 billion pledge aimed at expanding women's power and influence in the US through her social impact company, Pivotal Ventures, specifically targeting male-dominated sectors like tech, venture capital, and public office. Then in 2024, after leaving the Gates Foundation, she doubled down, announcing another $1 billion wave of funding directed at global and domestic organizations fighting for women's rights, reproductive freedom, and health. $2 billion in women's power and influence initiative. How is that going? How do you feel about that?
Well, I feel good about the partners that we have selected, that we're in true partnership with them, because I believe philanthropy needs to come alongside the people doing the work on the ground. I'll give you one example: Open Arms Perinatal Services here in Seattle. They surround moms both from the beginning of pregnancy through two years of life of that baby. That is so important because women often fall into symptoms of depression along the way or afterwards. And so to have doula support, care, be seen as a mom, just to really be in partnership with that organization just as one of many feels right for us as an organization.
Melinda's using her own power and influence to create headlines like this one focusing on disparities in midlife healthcare for women. She writes about a staggering fact from McKinsey & Company, stating, "For every dollar spent on medical research and development in the world, 5 cents goes towards women's health." Maybe it's not surprising considering the first federal mandate requiring women to be included in clinical trials was signed into law in 1993.
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 women's health. And so I made this investment to shine a light on it, to start to lead a way with the hopes that many, many others will both advocate and fund this area—both private citizens, but also our government, because so much more is needed. There's so much we don't know yet about this midlife phase for women.
You had a personal perimenopause journey yourself, and did—I think I read or I saw that you said even as you're so open about your resources and your journey, which I think is important, you had trouble. Melinda French Gates had trouble getting adequate wraparound care. Do you mind briefly telling us a little bit about that?
Sure. I experienced perimenopause symptoms earlier than I expected. I only knew what they were because I had older friends who'd talked to me about their journey, thank goodness. So I started seeking care, but it took me the third doctor to actually get the right care that I needed. And this is why I talk about right care at the right time for women, right? If women are experiencing chronic insomnia—I was having some of that—it causes you to not hold on to facts. At least in my case, I started to doubt myself, right? Like, can I go to that meeting with that world leader and be on my toes, have the facts at hand, and be sharp at my game, right? And so, we're seeing today, one in 10 women are saying that they're losing at least a day of work because of menopause symptoms. That just shouldn't be.
Governor Bob Ferguson signed Executive Order 26-01. The directive states that it's going to add more workplace measures such as telework options, flexible dress codes, consistent access to cold water, and temperature control for women going through perimenopause and menopause. What's your reaction, and does this help the push for equity as you just mentioned?
I think it's a great start. I believe in policy. We need great policy around all of our health, women's or men's. But for so long, we haven't had it for women. I believe that one that he signed covers Washington state employees.
So he is pointing a light and a way forward. Now we ought to do more things, which is have insurance and Medicaid coverage for women's menopause symptoms.
Yeah. What do you get when you give? What do you personally get when you give?
You get so much more when you give. You receive so much more than you would think. To know that people are living healthier lives because of something I have done, it just warms my heart. Like I never expected, when I wrote this health op-ed a couple of months ago or a month ago, I never expected the stories that women were willing to share about their lives and the number of comments that we got. And so I'll be approached at times with people on the street or I go to an event, and for a woman to be able to share her journey and feel seen, it just brings me so much warmth.
And what do you hope is the headline out of this investment?
The headline I hope is that women's health matters at every single stage of their lives. If we believe in women, we need to invest in them.
And she's not done investing. Coming up, Melinda is exclusively sharing with us her plans to continue to call Seattle home.
It is a remarkable place to live.
Her philanthropic dollars are flowing from the waterfront to the Kraken at Climate Pledge.
I want to make sure that we have gathering spaces for connection and community. It matters.
You're not imagining it. You don't have to just endure it and get through it.
During a woman's midlife, menopause is a natural transition. Yet—
Women will come and say, "You're the seventh doctor that I've seen and I'm not being listened to."
Cycled systems of inadequate training and a lack of research impacting hundreds of millions of women a year. Now, we're getting your questions answered from a Seattle doctor who's teamed up with Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry.
