WEBVTT - Philanthropy for Everyone w/ Melinda French Gates 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.240 Welcome to Go, Ask Alli, a production of Shonda Land 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:07.040 Audio and partnership with I Heart Radio. When I have 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:09.800 been with friends and that happened and I paid my pants, 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.480 I did lose the room, they did leave. I saw 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:15.240 her light up and I was like, I'm just going 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.120 to work. But we are here until one of our 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.599 last breaths. I was just the one that was meant 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:22.320 to take care of mamma. It's for me to remember 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.280 every single day is that I always have a choice. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.160 Everyone always has a choice. Whenever somebody says no, you 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.199 can't or there's no rules for you, or you have 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.680 to look like this, I go. I'll show you. I'll 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:43.279 show you. Welcome to Go, ask Allie. I'm Alli Wentworth. 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.199 In this crazy world right now with so much going on, 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:53.600 how can we become givers philanthropists? How can we get 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:57.600 ourselves off ourselves and help others? And by the way, 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.880 you don't have to be rich to be a giver. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.960 Everybody has something that they're passionate about, and there's so 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:06.040 much we need to deal with. How do we do 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:10.000 our part? And isn't it our responsibility to teach our 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:14.640 children how to be impactful giving people and there's no 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.039 better person to teach us how to be givers than 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:24.000 Melinda French Gates. She's a philanthropist, businesswoman, and a global 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.319 advocate for women and girls. As a co chair of 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.400 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for over twenty years, 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.600 Melinda sets a direction and priorities for It's more than 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:39.080 ready for this fifty billion dollar endowment. In she, along 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.039 with her former husband Bill Gates and mega investor Warren Buffett, 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.160 created the Giving Pledge. This philanthropic pledge commits the wealthiest 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.440 people in the US to give away the majority of 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:54.160 their fortune to charity. In Melinda founded Pivotal Ventures, a 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.800 company working toward gender equality and helping to remove the 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:02.040 social barriers that hold women back. Melinda is also the 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.639 author of the best selling book The Moment of Lift, 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.600 and she recently launched a master class on masterclass dot com, 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:17.560 making philanthropy more accessible to everyone. Welcome, Melinda French Gates. 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.440 I'm so happy to have you with me today. Thanks 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.120 for having me Ali, of course, and you are one 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.239 of my heroes. And I'll tell you why. I'm a 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:31.720 big believer in giving back. I'm a big believer in philanthropy. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.200 I have two daughters who I have. Part of my 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:41.320 parenting has been to make them more empathic, philanthropic women. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:47.160 And you have mastered And I say that because you 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.120 even have a master class with which you describe all this. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.040 But you have sort of mastered the best way to 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.520 be a giver. So I'm going to start on a 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.720 very fundamental place and just say to you, what makes you, 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:08.280 Belinda French Gates such a confident giver? Oh well, thank 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.400 you for that question, and also for mentioning the master 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.440 class and giving that. It's so good, you know. I 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.760 think sometimes we don't stop and reflect and realize we 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.760 all have something to give back, right. I think so 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:24.600 often we think of it as oh, I don't have 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.560 money or I don't have the time to give back. No, 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.240 there are lots of ways to give back, and we 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.200 need to come from a place of not scarcity. But 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.119 what do I have that I can give? So for me, 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.680 in terms of being an effective giver, what I've really 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.960 tried to do is to learn and be on what 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.880 I call a learning journey. Um. I try to meet 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:47.880 with different people in the community, whether it's in my 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.760 backyard of Seattle, or whether like you, I've been lucky 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.800 enough to go to various countries in Africa or whatever 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:55.960 I go on the ground in India. I try to 0:03:56.000 --> 0:04:00.080 listen to communities about what they say they need and 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.119 then think about what might either the foundation that I'm 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.040 part of, the Gates Foundation, or my company, Pivotal Ventures, 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.200 what might we be able to do in a culturally 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.960 appropriate way that will help lift others up. You know, 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.800 I've always heard growing up, and you know I hear 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.080 it today that when people think of philanthropy, they think, well, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.760 I don't I'm not rich, I'm not I'm not a philanthropist. 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.960 You know. You people go to black tie parties and 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.640 write checks. And one of the great things again about 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.720 your master class and what you talk about so often 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.320 is that there are different ways to give back, and 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:42.000 you emphasize having philanthropy more accessible to everybody. So what 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.440 do you say when people say to you, listen, I 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.640 I can't write a check to that. You know, I'm 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.880 I'm overwhelmed by the global warming crisis. How could I 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.600 possibly help? Do you say? Well? Recycle? I mean, what 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.440 is your answer to that kind of big question? Definitely 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.799 recycle in your home, start a calm post. Been really 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.480 look at your electricity bill and see as the way 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.160 you can cut back. What are you teaching your children 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.560 about climate change? You know, I can only speak to 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.839 what I have learned and know. But you know, my 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:19.200 parents sent my sister and I to a school whose 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.240 motto was Sertium. And what I learned at that high 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.560 school is that even as a high school junior and senior, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.440 I had something to give back in my community. So 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.760 I went and volunteered at a local public elementary school 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.040 four miles down the road from my high school. And 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.560 believe me, I could see at the end of a 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:40.600 few hours that I had helped the teacher who was 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.240 at the front of the classroom trying to teach thirty students, 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.440 not all of them spoke English. I was there helping 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.320 tutor in math in the back of the class. So 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.400 I know I was lifting a little bit of her 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:57.640 burden and hopefully teaching something to these kids. And so 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.559 I try to say to people, you know, really think 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.720 about your resources, what you have to give back in 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.080 terms of your time. You know, at Christmas time, when 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.160 my children were little, again, I wanted to teach them 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:12.960 when they were little about giving back. We would go 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:16.760 make boxes for the homeless. Now, did it end homelessness 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.120 in Seattle? No? Did people need still, you know, a 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.080 warm place to go that they could, Yes, but it 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.760 meant that when they did go into a shelter, they 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.760 had this small kit that helped them, whether it was 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.360 soap and raisors and shampoos. And my kids learned something 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.520 about what it means for a community to come together 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:40.839 and support others. You know, nine dollars and cents will 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:45.320 buy a malaria bednet on the Internet, and that can 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.440 save a child's life if they sleep under malarial bednet. 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.120 That or a mom's life, a pregnant mom. So, you know, 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.440 we can even teach our kids that as they start 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.040 to earn money, or as they get a little bit 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.280 of an allowance, that they can go do something for 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.880 somebody in another country that they might know by simply 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.600 going on the internet and doing a little bit of 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.560 that kind of giving instead of perhaps going and buying 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:11.920 you know, the fancy meal they want to have from 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.840 door dash or fancy you know cup of coffee maybe. 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.080 And I think that it should be part of parenting, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:24.040 part of school that our younger generations have it be 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:28.080 an automatic thing for them to be a giver like that. 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:29.960 I don't even want them to think twice about it 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.000 that you definitely you give back. That's just what you do. 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.240 And you know, there is a way to teach this 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.440 with very young children, you know, if you get their 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.160 hands dirty with it, they feel it in a way. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.680 They might not intellectualize it, but they feel it, you know. 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.040 I remember my kids would have bake sales and then 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.000 they would be all excited and think, oh, what are 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:52.880 we going to buy with this money? You know, and 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.360 George used to say, oh, no, all the money goes 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.720 to charity. We don't need anything. You know, you need 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.040 to figure out what charity you want to give this to. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.120 And of course my eldest said, Sephora, and we said 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.120 that's not a charity. But but they understood it, you know, 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.440 and then they started to, you know, have a little 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:14.160 fundraisers or bake sales where it was for the polar bears, 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.120 or it was for a teacher that was said, you know, 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:21.480 and you ingrain it in their brains that giving back 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.760 is all part of a normal way to live a 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.200 full life. And I love that you preach that. Um 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:34.040 when we talk about sort of international philanthropy, global reach. 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.679 You know, I took my daughter to Burundi and she 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:43.040 smelled and tasted and saw incredible poverty and got to 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.600 meet with women. She got to see what, you know, 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.480 maternal care looked like, um in a country that had 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:54.880 no infrastructure or scaffolding for that. I came back from 0:08:54.880 --> 0:09:00.720 Burundi and was trying to fundraise, and I was continually 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:05.079 met with why should I help out, you know, women 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.760 in a country I don't even know where it is 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.560 on the map? What about my community? And I I 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:13.839 sort of was met with that over and over again, 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:18.040 and I thought, how do we sort of expand our 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:23.400 reach and expand our desire to reach when we, particularly 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:25.920 our country right now seems to be very self centered. 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:31.920 M hmm. Well, I think, you know, people can connect 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:36.760 to what they feel, uh and what they know, And 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.760 so I think often having people start in their own backyard, 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.400 in their own community, but maybe it's not the community 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.120 that they live in, but maybe they need to drive 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.480 fifteen miles from different parts of the city or take 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.600 a train or a bus. And when they start to 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:56.160 see other communities living differently up against barriers in their 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.840 own city, and they start to think about how might 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.520 I give to this community or or with a community 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.640 group that's already working here, it starts to open their eyes. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.360 So that's why I call it a learning journey. And 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.240 then I think you can start to connect people with Okay, 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.120 you've learned something about say maybe it's moms and little 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.520 kids and how difficult life is in the backyard of 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.160 where you live for them. Um, but you can also say, 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.240 imagine what it's like for a woman who is giving 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:28.880 birth under these circumstances in a different part of the world. 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:32.080 And you can start to connect the local to the 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.680 global and and start to help people see and particularly 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.880 using the Internet and some of the images. I think 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:43.400 everybody understands that when a family has money, it unlocks 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.240 things for a family, right, whether it's more groceries, or 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.280 more schooling for the kids, or a step up so 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.200 they can start a business. You know, people going online 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.720 and understanding what does hef for international do in other 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.040 countries around the world. Wow, you can imagine how a 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.800 small flock of chicks might actually lead to chickens that 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.120 lay eggs that can the eggs can be eaten for 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.760 nutrition and go on the market. So I think sometimes 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.439 we have to help people connect the local to the global. Yeah, 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.600 I mean, have you found that if you can make 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.480 not only that connection, but if you can make them 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.960 feel like there's no small amount of gift. In other words, 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:26.360 if you say this amount of money will get you 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.920 a mosquito netting that will stop a child from getting there, 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:34.800 you know this amount of money will pay for a crib, definitely. 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.360 And I think people want to know that if they 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.319 give something, whether they're giving twenty dollars or or a 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.480 hundred dollars, they want to know that actually has impact. Right. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.600 And so again, if you go back to going on 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.400 the internet and buying somebody a small flock of chicks, 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:55.040 which does not cost much at all, there um lots 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.319 of organizations that do that, you can actually see an 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.599 impact on a family. And so for me, like for 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.400 my kids, they used to kind of create wish lists 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.880 that they wanted for Christmas. I expected on their risk lists, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.280 besides maybe the makeup they wanted or the soccer ball, 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.200 that they had some organizations and specific things they wanted 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.079 to give to. And so we would often at holiday 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.520 time they might receive one or two things to themselves 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.360 and something for another family. And so just by doing 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:27.000 that research, they started to realize, oh, you know that 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.880 my parents might spend on me for this item. Wow, 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:31.960 that could go a long way in another part of 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:36.559 the world. Um, I'm sure you've gotten this pushback. I 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.960 find that there's a lot of cynicism sometimes when you 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.600 want to be an active giver, because you start to 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.360 read stories or you hear from people, Oh, I gave 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.760 this money to this organization and it actually never even 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:54.599 went there. So people start to get very, um a 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.199 cynical about being givers because they go, oh, well, I 0:12:58.240 --> 0:12:59.880 don't even know if my money is going to that. 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.800 So how do you address that when people start to 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.920 mistrust organizations and how do you check that? Well, I 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:09.920 would say, you know, whoever you give to, you should 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.080 expect to understand where your money went. That's that's a 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.600 real thing and you should expect that. But I would 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.120 also say they're unbelievable organizations who have been out doing 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.480 this work for a very long time. You know, if 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:24.839 you're concerned that you send your money internationally and you 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:26.720 might not know where it's going or you don't know 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:30.319 this organization, you can also go online through donors choose 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.560 and say, oh, there's a teacher advertising that he or 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.160 she needs a printer for their classroom, or here she 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.480 needs school supplies for the kids. I cannot tell you 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.680 how many classrooms in the United States were teachers take 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.000 out of their own salary to buy supplies for the 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.000 kids in the classroom. It is not hard to imagine 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:54.400 that classroom supplies go a long way for having a 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.080 class that actually works. So I think there are lots 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:58.720 of ways. You just have to do a little bit 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.480 of investigation and on your own, and it's not hard 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.320 to find credible information. I also tell people go ask 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:06.760 a friend, go ask somebody else who's done there giving, 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.160 who feels really good about it. And if you start 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.960 to get cynical, go out in the community and see 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:19.800 what's actually going on. That is often really inspiring. Donors 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.200 Choose is such a fantastic organization and a good one 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:25.720 for kids because they can they can choose what they 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.440 want to give. There's a lot more to come after 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:44.600 the short break and we're back. UM. Since Roe versus 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:50.400 Wade has been overturned, UM, there's been a lot of fundraising, 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:55.160 community outreach, a lot of Twitter threads, all kinds of 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.920 stuff going on. As women are trying to come together 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.880 not only to help other women in our country, but 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.720 again try to have some kind of a global reach. 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.640 And I'm curious how you are seeing the philanthropic world 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.360 right now, and what do you think is the most 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.800 impactful thing women like me can do. Well? I think 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.080 there are a number of things that we can do. 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.760 Um let me just start by saying I was in 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.080 Rwanda when the decision came out that drove versus weight 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.920 had been overturned, and the Wandon's turned to me and said, 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.880 how can this be. We look to your country to 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.480 have good laws on the books that protect people. How 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.920 in your own country could you have a law in 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.560 the books almost fifty years for women and it be 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:46.200 rolled back. I didn't have an answer for that, And um, 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.680 so this is a decision that had ripples around the world. 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.760 And what I know though to be true and what 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.640 we all saw in this most recent election is voters 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.840 came out and said not okay, not okay. And I 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.680 think you know, many people were very, very worried about okay, 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.600 given the timing of when that got overturned, would it 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.000 actually show up at the polls in November? And guess 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.960 what it did? Because you cannot roll back a basic 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:19.720 right for women that protects women and protects bodily autonomy. 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.120 So I think it doesn't just take the philanthropic community. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.760 I think it takes all of us, using our voices. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.520 We need to vote. What I was so pleased to 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.400 see was lots and lots of groups coming together to 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.840 get out the vote of young people, get out the 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.120 vote of women, get out the vote of people who 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.320 are like minded, and then I think the philanthropic community. 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.200 What I'm seeing is many of the philanthropists talking to 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.440 one another and saying, how do we also make sure 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:51.600 that women have contraceptives, they know about them, they're educated 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.600 about their body, and they have access to them, because 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.360 that is a key, key, key tool so that women 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.680 don't even get into the situation of needing to have 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.080 an abortion. So I've been proud to see the philanthropic 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:08.160 community come together around that and more funding go towards 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.040 family planning and or contraceptives. And that needs to happen 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:13.720 not just in the US but around the world. Oh yes, 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:18.000 for sure. But it was incredibly exciting to see how 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:23.719 everybody mobilized and how uh like everybody came together and 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.480 did the push. It shows you that it can work, right. 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.360 I mean, I think that anybody who gets discouraged saying wow, 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:35.960 my voice and my vote made a difference. Um, that's powerful. Yes. 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:42.160 And I also think that when we look at particularly 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.800 this subject of women in our country right now, particularly 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.800 after ROVERSUS it has been overturned. I think as women, 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.919 we can we can see that we all have our superpowers. Meaning, 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.480 you know, there are some people that have money and 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.439 that's great, and that's a superpower. That's something that you 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.879 can bring to the table that is incredibly impactful. And 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.000 you know, you could just be loud on social media, 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.280 you could be a marcher. You know, you could be 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.680 an organizer. Uh. I think a way of sort of 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:20.560 closing the systemic inequities is to say everybody has an 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.359 important piece to the puzzle. Absolutely, And I think we 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.600 need to start saying to ourselves it's not okay anymore. 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:30.520 It just is not okay. It never should have been 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:35.439 okay for somebody else to make decisions for women versus 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.959 women having the seat at the table and making the 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:43.960 decisions for themselves. We make different policy when we are 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.520 represented well. So one of the things I've been really 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.399 looking at is, you know, women's power and influence. We 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.959 need far more women in our halls of Congress. And 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.320 yes we've ticked up some in this most recent election, 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.880 more female governors. I think of Congress is now female. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:07.080 But we have no black woman, not one single black 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.520 woman in our Senate, not one. And I don't know 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.119 about you, but when I look out in society, I 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.600 see a lot different representation than I see in the 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:20.760 halls of Congress. And so until we get more female governors, 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.360 more females in the state legislatures, more females in Congress 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.960 and in the Senate, you're going to continue to have 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.320 a Supreme Court that looks the way it looks today, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.359 because who puts our Supreme Court into place this current Senate, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:37.560 which is a majority of white males and who are 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.919 happened to be a bit older. So you know, society 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.600 is changed, It has changed in the last fifty years, 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.639 but the Supreme Court hasn't caught up to that. And 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.359 so all the more we need to vote with our feet. 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:53.600 We need to use our money. We need to teach 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.320 women to run. We have to cut the harassment in 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.600 running back. We need to fund female candidates because we 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.399 need to be represented in our halls of Congress the 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.399 way we look in society. So if I'm listening to 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.679 this podcast right now, I go, She's right. God, I 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.919 love Melinda French Gates. She is so right. What could 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:16.679 I possibly do? You can do so many things. You 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:18.520 can do what you just did and show up in 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:22.159 the last election. You can get out the vote with 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:24.160 young people in the next election. You can get out 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.800 the vote with different groups. You can decide you're going 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.880 to write Congress. You can go and help a women's 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.719 organization who's doing the hard work on the ground of 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.760 educating girls about their bodies and making sure they have contraceptives. 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.120 You can stand up and say it's not okay by 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:47.800 me that we are the only the only wealthy country 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.800 in the world that doesn't have paid family medical leave. 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.400 When I was in Rwanda this summer, because their parliament 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.840 after the genocide was put into law that there would 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:02.040 be far more parliamentarians I think would be women. It's 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:07.080 today six women. Rwanda has a paid family medical leave 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.479 on the books because the women helped get it on 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:13.439 the books. Their society has changed, but we still have 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:15.639 a country where we can't get through the Senate we 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.000 tried hard, we couldn't get it done to get paid 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.720 family medical leave. And yet we know our families are 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.480 better off when the woman and the man can take 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.760 time at the birth of their child and have some 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:33.280 wage replacement. It's it's not enough any longer to make 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.320 sure a woman can get a job in society. If 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.240 there's nobody to take care of her kids, and we 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:39.960 expect her to take care of the kids or the 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.600 aging parents, we can't accept that anymore. I mean, is 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.919 there power in having a lot of bigger foundations and 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:54.000 organizations come together and merge on certain topics. Absolutely, and 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.840 that is actually happening. And it's not just the foundations, 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.399 it's also the grassroots organized. There's like a group called 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:06.600 Mom's Rising working with the organizations in d C who 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.600 are trying to create this change. It has to go 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.679 across all of society, civil society saying no more. We're 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.680 gonna rise up and tell our state House we want 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.159 paid family medically with wage replacement. So you've got to 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.359 bring the community together, and not just a philanthropist, but 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:26.640 of activists too. And let's talk about activism for for 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.480 a minute. In this world, do you see, particularly with 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:32.800 what we're talking about. Now, do you actually see like 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:36.720 the Women's March, which was the most numbers ever of 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:40.400 any march, But do you see that kind of activism 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:45.680 move the needle at all? Absolutely? I mean, look, if 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:49.119 you go back, just in a short period of history 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.760 in the US, what finally God the Vietnam War to stop? 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:55.520 What got our government to say, wait a minute, wait 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:58.840 a minute. We put ourselves in a situation that Americans 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.920 are telling us they don't want. It was the protesting 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:04.440 that happened over in a sustained period of time. So 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.199 I do see and believe and know that when we 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:12.080 march for what we know is right for women, for family, 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:16.120 for our country, it does create change. Do you think 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:19.800 the biggest hurdle right now for women is the reversal 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:22.919 of reversus waved? I think there are a number of 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:26.840 really big hurdles in our country for women. I think 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.440 one of them has to do with women not being 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:35.240