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melannrosenthal 's review for:
The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
by Melinda French Gates
Narrated by the woman herself, I listened, rapt, as my heart broke over and over again as Melinda Gates shared stories of her global travels meeting women who despite doing everything in their power to make the most of the circumstances to take care of their families, are in need of help that Gates is there to provide through the foundation she shares with her husband.
Though part memoir, sharing details of her first years with Microsoft and her early relationship with Bill, the focus of the whole book is truly to enlighten readers about how to lead by example to establish better gender equality in offices of first world countries and in the homes of remote villages around the world. What I loved most about Gates' book is her humility and her ability to admit to her past mistakes in corporate or foundation life as she shares a goal (like creating a deadline to get birth control to 1 million more women around the world) and, rather than letting the reader sit in awe of her noble grace, she followed up with a note to say how she could have done better, or offered up how blind she was to specific circumstances because she'd never had to think about X in her own life- like how she failed to consider how lucky she was to space out her 3 children by 2 years each because she'd always had regular access to a birth control pill.
I have immense respect for her and the foundation. Even though the book becomes a little repetitive, it is necessary. She drilled her point home that while on a small scale, giving condoms to sex workers will fill a need to stop spreading HIV, it doesn't help wives control getting pregnant because in some places they'd be beaten for suggesting their husbands wear a condom, as if to imply that one or both parties were unfaithful.
The overarching moral was that if women don't get to choose who/when/if they marry as well as if/when they have children (and how many/often), we will never achieve equality, and starting on at the root, when they're just girls, ensuring that they finish school, are not married off before they're 18 years old, and letting them be involved in their own family planning all make the world of difference to whether or not these girls will even live past their childhood or be able to make something of themselves and be happy (and empowered).
Though part memoir, sharing details of her first years with Microsoft and her early relationship with Bill, the focus of the whole book is truly to enlighten readers about how to lead by example to establish better gender equality in offices of first world countries and in the homes of remote villages around the world. What I loved most about Gates' book is her humility and her ability to admit to her past mistakes in corporate or foundation life as she shares a goal (like creating a deadline to get birth control to 1 million more women around the world) and, rather than letting the reader sit in awe of her noble grace, she followed up with a note to say how she could have done better, or offered up how blind she was to specific circumstances because she'd never had to think about X in her own life- like how she failed to consider how lucky she was to space out her 3 children by 2 years each because she'd always had regular access to a birth control pill.
I have immense respect for her and the foundation. Even though the book becomes a little repetitive, it is necessary. She drilled her point home that while on a small scale, giving condoms to sex workers will fill a need to stop spreading HIV, it doesn't help wives control getting pregnant because in some places they'd be beaten for suggesting their husbands wear a condom, as if to imply that one or both parties were unfaithful.
The overarching moral was that if women don't get to choose who/when/if they marry as well as if/when they have children (and how many/often), we will never achieve equality, and starting on at the root, when they're just girls, ensuring that they finish school, are not married off before they're 18 years old, and letting them be involved in their own family planning all make the world of difference to whether or not these girls will even live past their childhood or be able to make something of themselves and be happy (and empowered).