Melinda Gates won't let us miss this opportunity

May 11, 2020

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Women’s unemployment is higher than men’s, White House staffers test positive for coronavirus, and Melinda Gates is making sure we don’t miss the opportunity to transform American caregiving. Have a productive Monday. 

– Melinda’s mission.  As the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works overtime on its coronavirus response, Melinda Gates is simultaneously turning her attention to a related issue: the crisis in caregiving that threatens to set women back in the workforce.

I talked to Gates last week about that crisis—she recently wrote an op-ed about the problem—and a few other topics, like her $1 billion commitment to gender equality. As the world transforms because of the coronavirus pandemic, do the details of that commitment change?

Unsurprisingly, Gates says her commitment “stays exactly the same.” But there are a few issues on her agenda that the pandemic has made her view as even more urgent; namely, getting more women into political leadership.

Women like New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Gates says, have been leading effectively through this crisis because “they understand” what’s at stake. “They’ve lived the barriers,” she told me.

Gates hopes that the leaders who “get it” will be the ones calling the shots as she and other advocates work to turn this crisis into lasting change. “If we don’t see it now, we’re never going to see it,” Gates says of the necessity of U.S. paid family leave. She compares this moment to another; after World War II, American leaders put their muscle behind lasting global institutions like NATO, but disbanded “war nurseries” that had been set up to care for children while women worked.

“If there had been more women at those tables, we would have kept them open. We would have built a more robust childcare system,” she says. That’s what Gates’ work right now is about: making sure we don’t miss another opportunity.

Read the rest of our Q+A here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe

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PARTING WORDS

"I feel very lucky to be sharing Mother’s Day with my children and grandchildren. I pray for the day that we can all be together again soon, without wearing masks."

-Matilda Cuomo, mother of Andrew and Chris Cuomo

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