Bill & Melinda Gates: Give Women a Hand

In their 13th Annual Letter, Bill and Melinda Gates outline the toll the pandemic has had on the economy, particularly for women. In her January 27th story in Inc., Diana Ransom provides some insight into where the Gates’ philanthropic investments will be going post pandemic. The future is female!

© 2009 Kjetil Ree, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported .

We know that women have lost $1M more jobs than men since the start of the pandemic, even though the 2020 labor market began with a 50/50 balance of women to men. More women have left the workforce to take care of their families. To prevent another setback for working women, it is going to be important for governments and corporations to treat childcare as infrastructure.

The pandemic has created an opportunity for governments and corporations to learn from the impact the Pandemic had on women, and build networks and products that directly address the systems that let women down. To this end,

“…Melinda, also the founder of Pivotal Ventures--an investment and incubation vehicle out of Seattle--announced in 2019 that she would earmark $1 billion toward U.S. companies and organizations taking innovative and diverse approaches to expanding women's power and influence. Those funds, which will get spread out over 10 years, she said, will focus on three main priorities: eliminating barriers to women's professional advancement; supporting women entrepreneurs in tech, media, and public office; and promoting employee activism in support of gender equity.”

Read the whole article here.