The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

Introduction

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World (2019) is a memoir by Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s second largest charitable organization. Equal parts mission statement and memoir, Melinda Gates interweaves data and personal stories to describe her 20 years of philanthropic work alongside her then-husband, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. This guide refers to the 2019 edition published by Flatiron Books.

Summary

The Moment of Lift opens with an explanation for the book’s title. Melinda Gates combines the thrill of a shuttle lifting off with the phrase ‘moment of lift’ by her favorite spiritual writer, Mark Nepo, which describes a moment of grace or wonder. She then segues into a discussion of her work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, much of which focuses on uplifting women. Gates’s women’s advocacy started with family planning. She soon realized that empowering women required a more comprehensive approach, including helping men.

Chapter 1, “The Life of a Great Idea,” describes Gates’s journey to women’s advocacy, from her time in Catholic school to the start of her philanthropic career. Her earliest projects centered on bridging the gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). After establishing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, Gates shifted her focus to global health, specifically, children’s vaccines. Her commitment to combatting poverty and improving children’s health led her to support family planning efforts around the world. Years of philanthropic work taught Gates that empowering woman uplifts entire societies.

Chapter 2, “Empowering Mothers: Maternal and Newborn Health,” focuses on early health initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates describes her approach to philanthropy as considering people on the margins and seeing the world through their eyes. For Gates, dialogue and cultural awareness are key aspects of philanthropy. The challenge lies in delivering tools to people who need them and in ways that encourage their use. Listening to people, gently questioning ineffective practices, seeking help from influential community members, and transparency help deliver life-saving information to people who need it. Building trust, encouraging science, and allowing locals to take the lead are equally important. Saving lives begins with inclusion. Inclusion, in turn, is key to ending inequality.

Chapter 3, “Every Good Thing: Family Planning,” discusses the benefits of contraceptives. Contraceptives combat poverty, improve women’s health, and lower childhood mortality rates. Though Gates worried about publicly advocating for contraceptives, she organized a summit on the issue in 2012, which earned her the ire of the Catholic Church. Gates’s support of contraceptives goes against a belief of the Church, but not that of Christ: “love thy neighbor.”

Chapter 4, “Lifting Their Eyes: Girls in Schools,” focuses on the positive impact of keeping girls in school. Educating girls leads to higher literacy rates and wages, income growth, and increased crop production. It also curbs premarital sex and early marriage; educated girls are better equipped to keep their children healthy. They also have more confidence, which further fuels their advancement. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invests in girls’ education, supporting programs in the US as well as countries where gender bias and traditions prevent girls from studying.

Chapter 5, “The Silent Inequality: Unpaid Work,” centers on unpaid labor traditionally done by women, such as childcare and household chores. Women do more unpaid work than men regardless of race and wealth. However, poor women are disproportionately burdened by unpaid work. The more time women spend on unpaid labor, the less time they have to pursue other activities, such as schoolwork and employment. Unpaid labor crushes women, while working for wages empowers and emboldens them. Open conversations about gender bias can help redistribute the burden of unpaid work.

Chapter 6, “When a Girl Has No Voice: Child Marriage,” exposes the harmful practice of marrying young girls to adult men. The power imbalance in child marriage invariably leads to abuse. Child brides are more likely to suffer from gynecological and obstetric problems; cultures that practice child marriage often practice female genital-cutting as well. These brides tend to have more children than they can afford, which places more demand on their bodies, taxes their resources, and perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

Chapter 7, “Seeing Gender Bias: Women in Agriculture,” focuses on the obstacles women face in agriculture. In 2014, Gates penned an article announcing that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would systematically address gender inequity. Supporting female farmers was central to these efforts. Most of the world’s small farmers are women—thus, helping women become better farmers can reduce hunger in large segments of the population. Gender discrimination is relevant across all races and cultures, much of it being rooted in male-dominated religions. Alongside male allies, women must raise their voices to fight for equality.

Chapter 8, “Creating a New Culture: Women in the Workplace,” is about gender bias in the workplace. Women are often discouraged from entering male-dominated industries such as tech. Finding support at work is important, but many women face unresponsive HR departments and harassment. Women made important gains during the #MeToo movement in 2017, which exposed unhealthy cultures of abuse and silence—but the battle is not yet over. Promoting gender and racial diversity is key to defending equality.

Chapter 9, “Let Your Heart Break: The Life of Coming Together,” and the Epilogue emphasize the importance of empathy, connection, and love. People on the margins must be brought to the center and uplifted; women must work together to demand equality. The key is not to bring another faction to the center, but rather, to do away with all factions by fostering unity.