WEBVTT - Melinda Gates 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.520 I'm juring Russa. We bring you another edition of Peer 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:09.119 to Peer Conversations with David Rubinstein from Bloomberg Television. This week, 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.680 David speaks with Gates Foundation co founder Melinda Gates about 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.680 inequality in the US. You have a new book called 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:17.759 The Moment of Lift. What is the moment of lift? 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.120 Referred to the phrase lift? Well, so for me, moment 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.759 of Lift. I grew up in the family in Dallas, Texas, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.080 and my dad was an Apollo engineer on the Apollo missions. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.920 And it was when we would go watch that rocket 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.400 launching and the Earth would be shaking and the rocket 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:36.839 was rumbling and it finally pushed against the forces of 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.600 gravity and went to the moon. To me, that's the 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:41.839 same thing I've seen with twenty years of work through 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.200 the Foundation for Women, that if we can help lift 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:48.400 up all women, we will change the world. But there's 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.000 a lot of forces pushing women down today. It's the 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.000 largest foundation in the world. It has assets of how 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.360 much now now we have assets of about fifty billion dollars. 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.880 You create the foundation from the wealth created by Mike 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.840 soft And then one day um Warren Buffett called you 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:05.800 and Bill and said, guess what, I don't know what 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:07.280 to do with my wealth, but I want to give 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:08.800 it to you because I like what you're doing. Is 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.400 that essentially it that's essentially at Warren's plan was that 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.600 his wife, Susie was very involved in philanthropy, and his 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.280 plan had been to give it away through the foundation 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:21.640 that he and she had, but she passed away early, unexpectedly, 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.120 and so then yes, he came in surprised. Bill and 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.160 I said that the vast majority would go through our foundation, 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.960 and then three that his children had, and the Susan T. 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:32.800 Buffett Foundation. So when somebody called you and said, guess 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:35.360 what I'm giving you fifty or sixty billion, you didn't expect? 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.479 What did you say? Thank you? Or I can't believe this, 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.960 or I can honestly tell you that. Bill and I 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.520 took a walk after that discussion and we were alone 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.640 and we both cried, and um, I think we cried, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.880 both of us because to to know Warren's generosity and 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:55.200 that we would be able to do even so much 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.960 more than we were already doing for people around the world, 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.240 it was just unbelievably touch moment and touching moment of friendship. Okay, 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.440 so when you're doing the work of the foundation. The 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:07.400 two of you, you're going to substar in Africa, among 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.160 other places, a lot of travel. Eventually, you decided that 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.600 you wanted to focus a little bit more on women's issues, 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:17.040 and one of the first ones you thought about was contraception. Now, 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.200 you are a committed Catholic, and was it difficult for 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.040 you to say we should focus more of the foundation's 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.960 efforts on contraception. What was Bill's view? And did you 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.440 get a lot of flak from people in the Catholic hierarchy. Yeah. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.239 So Bill was a hundred percent supportive of this decision, 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.160 and he knew that I had learned so much in 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.959 the developing world from talking to women. He knew I 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:40.640 had looked at the data, I looked at where we 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.160 didn't have data, and I was able to talk to 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:46.959 him about and he knew, this is the greatest anti 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:51.359 poverty tool. We have, the greatest and if you make 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:53.639 sure that women have access all over the world. Two 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.519 hundred million women were asking the world to have this tool, 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.040 and we weren't delivering it as a world. So I 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:04.040 knew when I decided to take this on that the 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.160 reason we weren't delivering. It was political controversy in our 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.000 own country and religious issues, so it was a difficult 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.560 decision for me because of my Catholic roots. I am 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.360 still Catholic. But when I met so many women around 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.760 the world and they would discuss with me that this 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.400 was literally a life and death crisis for them as 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.760 a mom. They would say, if I have another baby 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.800 too soon, I'll die in childbirth, or I have five children, 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.760 it's not fair to my last child or the others 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.200 to have another one when I can't feed them. And 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.920 so I had to wrestle with my Catholic faith and say, 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.080 what do I believe in. I believe in saving lives, 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.440 and so this was the right thing to do. And 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.120 did you find sometimes a woman would say, take my 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.240 child because I can't raise this child more than once. 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.640 So I wouldn't be often. I learned from Warren's wife, Susie, 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.480 as she told me early, if you can go in anonymously, 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.000 so I'll go in too many rural settings, a woman 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.240 from the west pair khaki pants and a T shirt. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.600 I'll give you an example. I was in northern India 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:04.680 and I visited a health clinic. So I went into 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:06.400 a village to talk to a woman. And by the 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.640 time I was finished speaking with her, I asked her 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.920 kind of had one last question. I said, so, what 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:12.880 hope do you have? Her name was Mina. What hope 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.080 do you have? And she looked down for a long time. 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:17.960 She cast her eyes down. I thought, oh, no, I've 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.880 asked something inappropriate, and she finally looked up at me 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:24.360 and she said, the truth is, I have no hope. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.360 I have no hope for feeding this child or that one, 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.160 or educating them. Please take them home with you. And 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:36.719 when that happens, it was not the first time it 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.080 had happened to me. It is heartbreaking to see a 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.240 woman who loves her clearly loves her sons that much, 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:45.479 but to know they would be better off going home 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.159 with a stranger. That's heartbreaking. And that's the story of women, many, 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.159 many women and families around the world. So annually you 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.560 have a letter that is written to the Foundation by 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.839 the Foundation heads you and Bill. Originally was written by Bill. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:02.400 And then when you said Bill, I want to get 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.920 some of the women's issues in what did he say? Yes? So, 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.440 first of all, the idea for the annual letter came 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.800 from Warren and Bill and I both thought that was 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.800 a really good idea. However, we had three very young 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.359 children at the time, and I was on several boards 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.760 and working at the foundation as an executive, and I said, Bill, 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:21.919 I don't have time to put pen to paper. I 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.240 just can't do it. And Bill said that's okay, I'll 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.800 do it. And so Bill started writing it and he 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:28.839 did a great job, but he got very used to 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:33.000 writing it alone. So when this contraceptive initiative that I 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:34.760 was leading came out, I said Bill, I really want 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.240 to write about this in the annual letter. And he 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.839 felt like the annual letter was going quite well from 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:44.600 his perspective, and so we had some difficult discussions at home, 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.400 and I finally wrote a sidebar in the annual letter. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.120 The next year, we discussed it again before penn was 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.800 put to paper, um and I wrote a piece of 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.400 the annual letter about a third and the next year 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.480 we had another discussion and I wrote half, and now 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.960 I always write half of the annual letter. We have 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.719 to sometimes have those uncomfortable conversations. Bill and I believe 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.800 in equality, but did we really have it in our voice? 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:12.039 Not yet, And so we've worked on that systematically over time, 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.360 and now I can tell you my husband is a 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.200 hundred percent committed to making sure I have my voice 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.159 fully in the world. Okay, so, like most married couples, 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.680 you have disagreements from time to time. Sure, sure, I 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.159 think every marriage does, and I think I believe in 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.719 marriage you should have a little bit of healthy grist 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.200 because that's how you move forward. Let's talk about your 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.600 beginning of your life. You grew up in Dallas, and 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.400 you went on all girls Catholic school and you went 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:41.919 to Duke. Did you where else did you think of going? Well? Actually, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:43.440 the first place I thought I wanted to go it 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.880 was Notre Dame because many of my girlfriends in high 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.400 school's dad's had gone there. But when I went my 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:51.760 dad and I went to visit Notre Dame, they were 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.960 phasing out computer science. They thought it was a fat 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.880 I knew I wanted to study computer science in college. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.200 Then I saw Duke. They just had a big aunt 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.000 from IBM too great computer Labs, and I said, this 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.440 is where I'm going. You were not on the basketball team, right, 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:07.920 everybody Duke doesn't play basketball, and not everybody I went 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.920 to the games, though I love them and you point 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.480 out in your book that interestingly, women were more involved 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.680 in computer science years ago than maybe today. Why was that. Yes, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:19.120 So at the time I was in college in the 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.720 late nineteen eighties, we had about thirty seven percent of 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.560 college undergrads and computer science for women. So we were 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.040 on our way up, we thought, like law and medicine, 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.880 and that has since dropped down about seventeen or eighteen percent. 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.520 Now it's on a slight uptick to nineteen percent. We 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.480 don't actually know why women have dropped out of computer science, 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.720 but there's some theories looking at the data we do have, 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:45.680 and that is that personal computers were really promoted to 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:49.880 boys as a home gaming device, and women and girls 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.200 said I'm out, and then it became this self referential circle. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.920 You want a special program was a five year program 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.560 where you get an undergraduate degree and an m b 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.840 a R. So for five years you have your degree, 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.640 are about to have your degree. So you were interviewing 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.040 at computer company. So there was a small company that 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.840 was interviewed, I guess at Duke as well, called Microsoft. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.880 I was part of the first hiring class of MBAs 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.640 at Microsoft, and uh, there were nine men and me. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:19.360 So you go to Microsoft and as it as good 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.560 as you think, well, we were changing the world. I 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.720 loved that. I love the innovative nature. I love creating products. 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.680 I did consider leaving Microsoft, though, within about two years, 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.600 because I was um the culture was abrasive, quite honestly, 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.199 and um, I didn't and I could play that game. 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.120 I knew how to do the debate. I knew how 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:39.960 to stand up for my idea, stand up for my 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:44.560 team's ideas. But I didn't like myself and I didn't 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:46.360 like how I was treating other people when I go 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.040 to the grocery store out in the world or interact 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.640 with other people. And so I thought about leaving. And 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:53.520 then I thought, no, I'm just I don't think this 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.960 will work. But I'll try being myself in this culture 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:57.480 and just see if it works, and if not, I'll 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.920 go take some other job. And um, I started to 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.280 be myself and I started to build teams that were 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.800 collaborative and that worked together more and we're less abrasive. 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.560 And uh, it turned out I could recruit people from 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.640 all over the company, to my surprise, to work on 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.400 these teams. So when did you first meet Bill So? 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.080 I actually first met Bill So three weeks into my job. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.480 I'd never been to New York City. I never hailed 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.319 a cab. Microsoft sent me to New York for a 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.800 business meeting. And so my female roommate. Microsoft used to 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.800 make you have another roommate when you went traveling on 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:34.880 the road. My female roommate said, hey, women, you're done 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:36.719 with your business meeting across town, why don't you come 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.160 to this dinner? And I said, great, came from across town, 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.400 sat down at a dinner. There were two chairs open 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.400 because I came late from this meeting h that I 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.439 was at, and um, I sat down. Next year was empty. 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:49.920 Ten minutes later, Bill came in, sat down next to me. 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:51.920 And so that's when I first met Bill, about three 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.720 weeks into the job, and he said, wow, how about 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:56.719 getting to know me better? He didn't say that. Then, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.000 he sort of said, A bunch of us are going 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.959 out dancing tonight. Why don't you come? And I said, well, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:04.960 I actually have some other plans from somebody I knew 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:09.559 from business school tonight. Um. And then back at Microsoft 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.280 a few months later. Everybody back then used to work 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.079 late on Friday nights, quite late on Saturday. You'd worked 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.600 all about three or four o'clock and so, um, my 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.240 car was part next to his in a parking lot 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.599 and he struck up a conversation and we talked for 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:25.640 a while and then he said, um. He asked me 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.640 if I would go out with him eventually too. This 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.920 was Saturday, two weeks from Friday night, and I said, 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.800 two weeks from Friday night. Like I was twenty two 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:36.600 years old, you know. I was like, I have no 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.240 idea what I'm doing two weeks from Friday night. I said, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.800 that's not quite spontaneous enough for me, and he said, okay, 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:44.680 well you give me Can I take your phone number? 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:46.760 So he did called me about an hour later at 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.520 my apartment and said, well, is this spontaneous enough for you? 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.240 How about tonight? But then he said, but I have 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.480 a user group meeting and a dinner I have to 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.840 go to. So how about a glass of wine downtown? 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.280 I thought a user group meeting on a Saturday night, 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:00.960 but I agreed to me him for a glass of wine. 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.080 That was our first date. And was it hard to 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.760 work at the company while people knew that you were 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.840 dating the CEO founder? Yeah? So I um, so the 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:12.600 first date with Bill, I thought I would go out 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.040 with him once, maybe twice, and I just thought, well, 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.280 he'd be interesting. Obviously, he's running this company that's doing 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.680 all these amazing things in the world. Then when I 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.520 realized we were going to start dating more after the 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.640 first two dates, I thought, this is tricky and I'm 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.160 not sure I want to do this, because I had 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.959 worked really hard, I mean computer science to get my 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.160 m b A. I studied economics, and I thought this, 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:33.240 I'm not sure this is going to go well for me. 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.360 And I remember talking to my parents on the phone, 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.520 particularly my mom. She's like, this is not a good idea, 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.720 and I said, yeah, but he's really interesting and he 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:43.719 actually has a big heart that I think a lot 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.000 of people don't see, and I don't know why. I've 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.760 sort of gotten to see that side of him. And 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.120 so what I decided to do was that, um, I 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.080 would date him, but I made it known in the company. 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.240 I didn't try to hide it, and I made it 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.080 incredibly clear to the teams that I was managing, that 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.600 I had these very bright lines, and that I did 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.320 not go home from Microsoft and talked to Bill about 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.320 work because I'm preparing teams to go into meetings with 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.880 senior leadership, including Bill, and they're nervous, right, and I'm 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.800 having to prepare them, prepare myself. And the last thing 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:14.880 I could do is go home and talk to him. 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:17.280 They had to know I had their their back in 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.920 the meeting, and so I just had to have very 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.319 bright lines around that and we made that work. Not 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.640 worked out, it did work out. It's hard to believe 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:26.439 that in the first night that you met him that 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:28.560 I can't see Bill going out and being a dancer. 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:30.560 Is he a big dancer. I wouldn't have pictured he'd 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:35.200 be going out dancing at night. He likes to. Okay, okay, 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:37.680 you decided when your children came that you wanted to 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.200 spend more time with them, and you you left Microsoft. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.080 I surprised Bill and told him I wanted to leave Microsoft, Yes, 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:47.319 And his reaction was really because he knew I loved 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.960 working and I loved working at Microsoft, and he also 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.000 knew I had that piece of my brain that love 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.320 to be be on the working side. So he was 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:57.600 quite surprised when I told him I was going to leave. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.360 Did you then go to the foundation full time after 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.840 your children were a little bit older. My whole issue 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:04.319 about how much I was going to work at the 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.040 foundation is. I had it timed for when our kids 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.280 would get older, so I knew until our last daughter 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.000 went off to preschool, I was not going to be 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.120 full time. Once I knew she was going to be 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.720 in preschool, my plan always then was to work full time. 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.120 Let's talk about the issues of women in Subhan Africa 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:23.600 and some of the other things you would address in 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.200 your book. You point out that in sub Saharan Africa 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.920 and other places, there are child marriages. Women are forced 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.720 to marry at six, seven, eight years old. Why is 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.199 why does that happen? Quite often a family will marry 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.160 their daughter off because one, they then don't have to 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.520 feed her, so that's less resources from their family, and 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.880 two they also want to protect the family's honors and 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.480 um that is a cultural barrier that is horrible for 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.960 girls because they then often don't go to secondary school, 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.920 or if they're in secondary school, um, they're pulled out 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.840 of school, their moved to a village often where they 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.440 oh no one, it's not even close to their home. 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.240 It's a horrific thing for a girl. She basically becomes 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.679 the property of her husband's family or her mother in law. 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.880 So what have you tried to do to prevent some 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.880 of this occur. The only way you can overcome cultural 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.720 barriers is first you going in very sensitive ways with partners, 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.160 but then the community has to commit to it. Another 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.640 area you talked about in the book is a situation 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:31.080 where you have female cutting, genital cutting. What is the 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.640 purpose of that and how frequent is that done with 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:38.640 young women around the world. That is still a tradition, 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.120 particularly in a lot of northern Africa, and it is 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.400 horrific for a young girl. Young girls bleed to death. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.760 It is trauma, a traumatic event in their lives. Villagers 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.120 do it for different reason. They believe it protects the 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:57.120 girl's honor. They believe that they if they love their daughter, 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.160 they will do it. But what I have known is 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.920 that when education comes in. I talked to um, a 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:06.880 village leader and elder, and a group of women who 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:08.840 used to cut their daughters and no longer do. In 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.400 a group of women who are the cutters who no 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.120 longer do, and they said, you know, when people bring 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:18.080 in education from outside and they talk to us about things, 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:20.280 how people view this in other places in the world, 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.680 it starts to change our mind and we start to 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:27.120 question our past and then we create change. Another one 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.880 you talk about is abusive relationships, and husbands are very 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.000 abusive to their spouses in many different ways. And you 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:35.720 point out in the book and must have been difficult 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:37.800 to write about this, and you had an abusive relationship 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.840 as well before you were married. Yeah. So the reason 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:42.760 I even write a page in the book about having 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.240 been in an abusive relationship is that I want people 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:50.600 to know it can happen to anyone. UM. Its silences 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.480 your voice. It is a way of silencing a woman's 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.640 voice in a marriage, or in her workplace or her community. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.080 And for me, I lost my self confidence. And millions 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:05.520 of women are being either harassed or abused UM in 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.200 all kinds of places. And again it's silence as women. 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.480 And so we have to talk about this barrier and 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:14.360 we have to lift it up. And what we can 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.200 do is collect data about it. The world doesn't actually 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.160 collect data on abuse, and then we can go in 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.760 and name it and recognize it and all commit to 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:28.440 changing it everywhere in the world. Now, a few years ago, you, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.360 Bill and Warren decided to launch the Giving Pledge. Now, 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:34.360 what was the purpose of the Giving Pledge? And how 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.440 many people have now signed it. Yes. So the purpose 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.560 this was Warren's big idea, which was the Giving Pledge, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:42.960 was to say, if you have great wealth, if you're 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.320 a billionaire in our country or anywhere in the world, 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.680 you can afford to give half away, and that is 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.120 the right thing for society. Bill and Warren are really 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.720 clear that they could not have founded their businesses if 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.960 it had been saying Malawi or Mozambique. And so we 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.920 benefit from what society gives us the infrastructure, and so 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.920 those resources at least have should go back to society. 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:07.919 You've been a big help to us in this, David. 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.480 We now have a hundred and ninety families who have 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.959 committed to the Giving Pledge and twenty two different countries 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:15.440 around the world. There's a bit of a reaction against 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.080 wealthy people saying, let's put our money here, put our 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.720 money there. How do you respond to that? I think 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.480 so what I know to be true is that Bill 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:26.880 and Warren and I believe that we should not have 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.000 this inequity that exists in the United States. We need 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.639 to do something about that. But we we are lucky. 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.560 I meet so many people around the world who would 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.840 like to live in our country. Who would like to 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.000 live in our democracy, in our capitalistic system, but we 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:43.880 do have gaps in it and we need to do 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.960 things to fix those gaps. The thing that Bill and 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.719 I try to be most cognitizant of is what's the 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:54.479 role of philanthropy. All philanthropy can be is that catalytic wedge. 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.640 We can try things, we can experiment with our own 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.240 money where you wouldn't want a government to expaire with 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.080 taxpayer money, but then we have to prove it out 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.440 and then it's up to government to scale up. So 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:10.520 we feel that philanthropy with government, with a private sector, 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.920 with a non governmental organization, that that set of partnerships 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.840 in that ecosystem can do the best for the world. 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.159 So many people are probably wondering what it's like to 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.760 be for quite some time the richest couple in the world. Um, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:24.359 is it make it possible for you to go to 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:26.680 a restaurant? Can you go to a movie? Well, first 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.239 of all, we are incredibly privileged and lucky to have 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.560 the resources we have from Microsoft that is that full stop. 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.520 We do give up some privacy by having that, but 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:40.960 I have to say most people are incredibly respectful Seattle 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.120 is a lovely place to live. They'll grow up there, 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.480 and so the people who come up it's more because 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.120 they're proud of what he's built with Microsoft and that's 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.639 being carried on or what we're doing with the Foundation. 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.240 So I we try to look at those. I try 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.479 to look at those as moments of grace, and we 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:58.359 try to be out in the world. Bill and I 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:00.359 still love to go out to movie as we like 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.960 to go out to restaurants. So you told me a 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.000 couple of stories about your life together, and I might 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.200 ask you about them. Um. You told me once when 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.560 you drop your first your oldest daughter off in college. Um, 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.160 like anybody that drops their kids off in school and college, 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.240 the first they said, well you need this, you need that. 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.439 So you decided you'd go to Lows. I think it 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:21.680 was to get some additional things to help your daughter's 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.400 room look better. I can't picture Bill Gates going through 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.040 Lows shopping. Well, it was actually really sweet moment. We're 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.479 looking for an extension cord, which wasn't the easiest thing 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:33.400