The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

In The Moment of Lift, we meet Melinda French Gates, the often overshadowed but more than overqualified co-chair of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Through Melinda’s philanthropic work she has not only visited some of the poorest villages and countries in the world, but she has also spent time with them listening and learning about their circumstances and searching for ways to help improve their lives. Money alone is not the answer in any culture, although it may give some temporary relief, it’s only a band aid on bigger issues. Melinda goes deeper into these communities identifying real changes that can be made and as it turns out improving a woman’s life in these communities improves all lives in these communities. Supporting women’s education, protecting women’s bodies, introducing women’s reproductive health, and examining women’s work (paid and unpaid) not only empowers women, but it positively impacts a whole society and lifts it up.

 As a woman and a mother of three daughters I wasn’t surprised by these findings, I believe that education is where equality begins, and I believe whole heartedly in the impact of women in the world. I was shocked by some of Melinda’s gut-wrenching encounters with women in extreme poverty experiencing horrific injustices, but I was also inspired by some of these same women and the changes they were encouraging. While reading about these brave women I kept saying the same thing over and over in my head. “Women are amazing.” When my friend read The Moment of Lift, she said the expression that played over and over in her head was “Women are tough mother _______” Ha ha I’ll let you fill in the blank. Regardless of word choices, our sentiments about the book and about women are the same.

I highly recommend The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates but not just for women. Why? well, the response to that question is best answered with a quote from page 27 -one of my favorite quotes of the book:

“If you want to lift up humanity, empower women.”

Here are some other quotes I loved:

Pg 3 “Because sometimes all that’s needed to lift women up is to stop pulling them down.”

Pg 101 “Let’s pick up our books and our pens - they are our most powerful weapons.”

Pg 112 “If a girl can lift up her view of herself, she can start to change the culture that keeps her down.” 

Page 119 “If there is any meaning in life greater than connecting with other human beings, I haven’t found it.”