Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates
Melinda Ann Gates, DBE is an American businesswoman and philanthropist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth15 August 1964
CountryUnited States of America
africa babies false grieve love perception simply somehow women
There's a false perception that women in Africa somehow don't love their babies they way we do, don't grieve their loss the way we would. That is simply not true.
choice conscious daughter learning start turned
So I made a conscious choice that when our daughter turned one, I would get back into those interests, those issues, and start learning them.
absolutely attracted careers switch trying
There are absolutely lots of teachers who are trying to come into the profession, but they are not attracted enough to say, 'I'm going to switch careers to do it,' or they are often not retained... because the salaries and the compensation aren't there to make it happen.
life
I want to live as private a life as I can because of our children.
home
We talk a lot in our home together about where we're going, what I'm doing.
We started this mostly from an intellectual place.
ask belly carrying democratic driving huge load men people republic shoes start street
We would be driving down the street in a place like Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and started to see, my gosh, the only people that have shoes are men. Why does that woman have a baby in her belly and one on her back, and she's carrying a huge load of bananas? You start to ask these questions.
believe taking
But we also believe in taking risks, because that's how you move things along.
children normal people respectful
People are respectful when we're out with the children on a normal evening, and it couldn't be a better place to live for those reasons.
girl school boys
If you can't go to secondary school, the boys get to go and the girls don't, you're locked into a cycle of poverty, because you don't have a chance.
husband school mean
In the developing world, they don't have smartphones yet. They have the older plastic phones, but women are saving money on those, because they don't have access to banks. Having that access to digital money changes everything for her because she actually doesn't have to negotiate with her husband, which she will tell you is very hard in these circumstances, especially when the means are meager. She's expected to have money to pay for the kids' health or to help with the school fees.
helping kind all-kinds
Now, as smartphones are coming up, there are all kinds of apps that will start to be developed that will help women.
violent situation trusted
In places like India with smartphones, there's an app now for women if they're in a violent situation, they can press one button. They've given their cell-phone number to five trusted friends, and right away their GPS location goes out: "Here I am."
girl mom host
Women and girls face a whole host of issues. We start with health, so we work very deeply on maternal deaths, making sure that a mom doesn't die in childbirth, making sure that she has access, for instance, to AIDS medication.