Melinda Gates Q&A: 'A man with a gun is not as powerful as a girl with a book'

New Statesman​

23-04-2025

Illustration by Kristian Hammerstad
Melinda French Gates was born in 1964 in Dallas, Texas. She co-founded and co-chaired the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable organisation focused on improving healthcare and reducing poverty around the world.
What's your earliest memory?
Being a little girl, sick in bed in the middle of the night, and my mother staying up with me, rubbing my back, being so kind to me.
What book last changed your thinking?
Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny: yet another reminder that we cannot take democracy for granted.
Who are your heroes?
One of my heroes as a child was my friend Ellen's mother, Barbara Schneider. In a time and place that expected a lot of conformity, I was struck by Barbara's ability to be no one but herself. Now, topping my list of heroes is the incomparable Malala Yousafzai, who taught the world that a man with a gun is nowhere near as powerful as a girl with a book.
What's currently bugging you?
The US Supreme Court has decided that my daughters and granddaughters will have fewer rights than I had. 'Bugging' isn't a strong enough word for it. I'm enraged. It's been a powerful call to action.
In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?
I think I'll have to stick with right now. When you look at the long arc of history, there has never been a better time to be born a woman. There is so much left to do to reach true equality but at least I am alive in an era when women are finally gaining representation in the power systems that can change things.
Which political figure do you look up to?
Jimmy Carter, who I got to know through his work in global health. President Carter was particularly obsessed with eradicating Guinea-worm disease. He used to joke that he wanted to outlive the last Guinea worm, and he actually came remarkably close. That was him: charming, funny, generous, and deeply concerned about anyone he feared the world was leaving behind.
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What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Easy. It came from my mother. She told me: 'Set your own agenda, or someone else will set it for you.' This was good advice for me as a young woman trying to figure out my direction in life, and it's been good advice for me as an adult deciding how I want to use my voice and resources on behalf of other women. I think about it all the time.
What single thing would make your life better?
Learning to fight against perfectionism earlier in my life. I got there eventually, but I wish I'd figured it out a little earlier.
When were you happiest?
In the delivery room. The moment they handed me my oldest daughter, Jenn – it just upended my world. It was like I was hit by a truck. I was so completely in love. And then to get to relive that moment twice over.
In another life, what job might you have chosen?
In early motherhood, I spent a lot of time pumping milk imagining inventing and patenting a better pump. My daughter assures me the technology has improved since then, but I wish I could have moved fast enough to design my generation some better options. In another life, Melinda French Gates: Breast-Pump Pioneer.
Are we all doomed?
Optimism isn't a passive expectation that things will get better on their own – it's a belief that we can make them better. So no, I don't think so at all. There are too many people working too hard to tear down barriers and keep progress moving forward. The best part of my job is having a front-row seat to that work.
Melinda French Gates's 'The Next Day' is published by Bluebird
[See also: The music of resistance]
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