As Melinda French Gates leaves the Gates Foundation, will she double down on gender equity?

Grantees of her support hope she puts another US$12.5 billion towards issues like closing the gender pay gap and increasing women’s political participation

French Gates works through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is a limited liability company that also manages investments in for profit ventures

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Melinda French Gates works through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is a limited liability company that also manages investments in for profit ventures. Photo: TNS

Published: 11:11pm, 15 May 2024

Melinda French Gates is already one of the biggest philanthropic supporters of gender equity in the United States and is now poised to put another US$12.5 billion towards intractable problems like closing the gender pay gap and increasing women’s political participation, her grantees hope.

The additional funds come as French Gates announced Monday that she was stepping down as co-chair of the Gates Foundation, which she founded together with her ex-husband Bill Gates more than 20 years ago. Gates will provide the US$12.5 billion as part of an agreement made when they divorced in 2021.

Organisations like Paid Leave For All, founded in 2019 to coordinate advocacy around passing federal paid leave legislation, said French Gates’ steady support over years as well as her advocacy to highlight the issue, counterbalance other funders who have been slow to back fights like theirs that challenge sexism in compensation and benefits.

“If you’re only willing to invest in a thing that you think is surely going to win in the short term, then you’re not making much of an impact,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, founding director of Paid Leave For All.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation campus in Seattle. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will change its name to the Gates Foundation. Photo: Reuters

While no one knows exactly what French Gates’ future plans are, Huckelbridge’s organisation and other grantees anticipate she will use the funds as part of her focused advocacy and philanthropic support for increasing the power and influence of women.