Co-Chairman, Gates Foundation
Melinda Gates - “The Moment of Lift” and Giving Back on a Global Scale | The Daily Show
Melinda Gates explains how empowering women can have a ripple effect around the world and how birth control can be an anti-poverty tool.
Subscribe to The Daily Show:
/ @thedailyshow
Follow The Daily Show:
Twitter: / thedailyshow
Facebook: / thedailyshow
Instagram: / thedailyshow
Watch full episodes of The Daily Show for free: http://www.cc.com/shows/the-daily-sho...
Follow Comedy Central:
Twitter: / comedycentral
Facebook: / comedycentral
Instagram: / comedycentral
About The Daily Show:
Trevor Noah and The World's Fakest News Team tackle the biggest stories i...
About Melinda Gates
Melinda French Gates announced a $215 million increase in her women’s health funding, bringing her total commitment to $600 million, with a focus on reproductive health, menopause, and mental health. She stated that women’s health has been “ignored and underfunded for far too long” and expressed concern about the rollback of reproductive rights in the United States, saying she never thought the country would “roll back a law that was on the books for US women.” She also said she has not directly spoken with HHS Secretary RFK Jr. about vaccine misinformation, but that the foundation has “engaged in that discussion and it has not gone well.” French Gates became a minority owner of One Roof Sports & Entertainment, the parent organization of the Seattle Kraken, and discussed the role of sports in community building and youth development. She said she has voted for candidates from both major parties and described herself as a centrist. She also spoke about her philanthropic approach, stating that 70% of Pivotal Ventures’ funding is focused on women’s power in the United States, and argued that “having the richest country in the world...but not having women all the way to the places they ought to be able to go in society does not make any sense.”
Transcript (15 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
H
Host0:00
Welcome to the show. Thank you. It is so good to have you here, especially considering the book that you've written. I would like to talk about your journey from the very beginning, because you've lived a really, really interesting life. For some people, you popped up as Melinda Gates, but you genuinely have lived an interesting life. For instance, I didn't know that you were offered a job at IBM, and you turned it down to go work at a little company known as Microsoft. When you look back at that, do you ever think to yourself, 'That was a moment that changed everything'?
M
Melinda Gates0:32
It was one moment that changed everything. Just like the moment when I had a teacher who saw computers and decided to go to the head nun of our all-girls school when nobody had computers and say, 'Let's get six of them to help these girls learn how to code.' That just didn't happen back then. So, there are all these forks that happen in life, and that happened to be a major one for me.
H
Host0:50
It really is a story of forks. It's a story of decisions, and that's what it feels like this book is about. The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. One thing that I loved is I know that you are from Dallas, Texas. And I went there. I was there doing shows a week ago. And when I was driving around, so many people have stories of how many things you've done for the community that you came from. Giving back is a big part of your life. It seems like a stupid question, but why?
M
Melinda Gates1:18
I think in high school, I learned... I had a very, a set of very liberal nuns. I went to an all-girl Catholic school. The motto of the school was Serviam, that is, 'to serve.' And they sent us out into the local public school, the Dallas County Courthouse, the hospitals, and they taught us that if you are lucky enough to live in the United States and to be able to get a good education, you need to give something back. And even one person giving something back of their time can help change lives of others, and it was our responsibility to do that.
H
Host1:51
It seems like a responsibility that you've taken on as an opportunity, as well. You know, you enjoy it. And what I do like about this book is you answer a question that many people have in opposition to the idea, empowering women. Some people hear that as an attack on men. They go, like, 'Oh, so what about men? Don't men deserve to be empowered?' But in this book, you're arguing about how empowering women empowers everybody. Why?
M
Melinda Gates2:15
Yeah. If you empower a woman, she is often the center of the family. And so when she has more economic means or when she has her voice or can take a decision, she makes different decisions on behalf of her family. That lifts up her family, a society, an economy. And it's why now, when we go to the United Nations, prime ministers and presidents show up, to talk, finally, about women and girls and getting them a great education. Because it will help their economy.
H
Host2:41
When we look at some of the details in the book, there are so many issues that women face as part of their communities, but then there are issues that women will face just because you are a woman, issues that men don't face-- you know, maternal issues, newborn health, your mortality, women and girls' education and the disparity between the two. You've done a lot of work in Africa. And one of the key things you've been working on is getting communities to empower their women. That's not easy. I know that, coming from the African continent, there are some communities that go, 'No, a woman has her place.' But we've started seeing the change. How did you get people to embrace those ideas?
M
Melinda Gates3:18
Well, you can only go in and educate communities and get them to decide it's something they want to do. And you have to do it in very culturally sensitive ways, with people who've been working with that community, often, for 30 years. But once they start to understand-- Even a husband understands that his children will be better off if his wife has certain amounts of income and he'll be better off, then he often will start to make changes. And so it takes very thoughtful discussion. It takes discussion over a long period of time. And then you also introduce ideas and tools that we have here in the United States. And they start to say, 'Yes, I would like to try that for my family.'
H
Host3:59
I find it really interesting that the conversations you're having with many people in developing countries is a conversation in and around basic services, you know? You talk in the book about communities that you've lived with, where some of the women will say to you, 'Melinda, I need a vaccine. I want my children to live. I don't want them to die from diseases that have technically been eradicated all over the world.' You then look at America and the news today of the measles outbreak being the largest that it's ever been since measles was eradicated in the U.S. And it really does raise the question-- is it a form of privilege where people say, 'Oh, I don't need a vaccine?' when people in developing nations are saying, 'We're literally dying for these same vaccines'?
M
Melinda Gates4:41
It's absolutely a privilege. First of all, to live in this country is a privilege. And then, to have basic vaccines and a decent health care system is a huge privilege. And so, I think so often we forget about our past in the United States. We forget that people used to have polio in my mom's generation, or that people used to get small pox. We've eradicated that now. Or measles kills children or people who are immune-compromised. So, we need to remember our history, and we need to learn from other people. I talk to women in so many countries in Africa, and they've walked ten kilometers in the heat to get a vaccine for their children because they know-- they will tell you-- 'This will save the life of my child.'
H
Host5:23
When you talk to these women, one thing that has been apparent in the book, and it's a really powerful story, is how you get women who say, 'One of the biggest things that's changed my life is having access to birth control. Being able to choose when and how I have a child helps me define my life as a woman.' That was a really powerful moment for me in the book, because it's something I always thought I knew, but I fully didn't comprehend until I read some of those stories. Why is that so crucial for people to understand? And how does that change a woman's life?
M
Melinda Gates5:54
This was something that completely surprised me. When I first started travelling to Africa and many different countries, I would be there to talk to women about vaccines and basic health services for their children. And when I would stay long enough, they would say to me, 'But what about my health? What about birth control? I used to be able to get it in this tiny clinic where I can still get vaccines. Why can't I?' And it turned out that what they were asking the world for we just had stopped delivering because of politics, mainly in our own country, and religious beliefs. And yet, over 200 million women were asking us for them because what they will tell you is, 'It is a life-and-death crisis. It's not fair for me to have another child to the one I just had if I have five and I can't feed or educate these.' And so, it is the greatest anti-poverty tool we have, and I just didn't realize until I really listened to women that this is something that is a life-and-death emergency for them, and we need to deliver it as a world.
H
Host6:53
There's one part of this book that genuinely surprised me. I've known about your work. I've known about your philanthropy. I know that you are gonna be giving away all of your money to people like me. And... there was one thing that really surprised me in the book, and I know it sounds like a strange thing to say, but I didn't ever know about Melinda Gates the woman. You know? I've spent so long learning about Melinda Gates the businessperson, the philanthropist, the leader, but as a woman you have faced challenges yourself. You share very candid stories about being in an abusive relationship before you were with Bill. You share candid stories about how even... how you faced challenges of being with Bill where people would only address him when the two of you were in a room. What do you think you've had to do in your world... Because challenges are different, don't get me wrong. I would never compare it to, you know, you and a woman in Africa. But... for yourself, in a world where people think you have everything, what are the challenges you have to constantly try and overcome as a woman?
M
Melinda Gates7:53
I think, as a woman, women all over the world need to face the fact that sometimes they are labeled a certain thing, they're labeled as just a mother or just a working woman or, in my case, just a wealthy woman. No, I'm a woman with a full life. I have three children, I have a loving relationship and husband, but I have faced challenges. And I think we need to look at the full picture of women's lives. One of the reasons I do write a whole page on abuse and abusive relationship I was in was not necessarily just to share my story, but it's to say to people: that can happen to absolutely anyone. And if someone faces abuse and all these barriers we have in society, you silence women, you silence their voice, you stop their self-confidence, and we need to open up society and we need to lift these barriers, and when we do that as men and women, everybody will rise together. And so I hoped, in sharing my personal story, people would see me as a whole human being, not just one of these categories they might see me in.
H
Host8:55
I'll tell you, one thing I enjoyed about the book is it's illuminating, it's fascinating, and most importantly, it has answers. So thank you very much for being on the show. Thanks for having me. Wonderful having you. The Moment of Lift, truly inspiring read, is available now. Melinda Gates, everybody.