Let us get in formation.

I struggle with non-fiction. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this each time I talk about non-fiction, but it’s true. This book took me awhile to read. Not because it was a bad book, but because I feel like I have to really pay attention to what I’m reading.

This is a book that requires your attention, for good reasons. And I’m not just talking to the ladies. 

Book Read: The Moment of Lift
Author: Melinda Gates
Number of Books Read, 2019 Edition: 39

We all know who Melinda Gates is, or at least I hope we all do. If you don’t, I have nothing to say to you except hit up Google, and then come back here to continue.

In Melinda Gates’ empowering novel, she uses her experiences, both as a woman in the technology industry and as a leader of the Gates Foundation, to describe how women can be empowered and lifted up. She backs these experiences with statistics throughout the novel. 

Throughout her narratives, Gates describes how empowering women can come from all angles, including just providing access to contraceptives, something that may seem simple and easy to us. But around the world, doing this is a culture change. Gates and the Gates Foundation sponsor groups that reach out to locals to identify what is needed, whether it is contraceptives, working to eliminate child marriages, access to the same seeds for planting, or gender equality in the workplace and marriages. 

Most importantly, Gates, and those she interacts and works with, listen. That is how they identify the causes and the best way to work with people. They listen to the women who want better for their children; they listen to women who are not only farmers but also housewives; they listen to the men beginning to see their wives as equal partners, and to the organizers and leaders making a change.

Throughout the book, you will read stories of a woman planting seeds on Christmas to provide for her family and village, a doctor whose simple gesture changed a village, a mother asking Gates to take her daughter home, a group that supports children forced into marriage, and equality in a marriage. Among the stories are descriptions of why empowerment is needed and how by lifting women up in our own communities, we can change the world. 

Books like this one usually seem pushy at first glance. What is Gates going to insist we do? Is she going to tell me how wrong I am? Does she want money? 

No. She won’t. Instead Melinda Gates uses her stories, statistics, and the narratives of others to make a point. A point about how lifting up women lifts up humanity in general; how giving women something as simple as contraceptives will reduce poverty and deaths as a result of childbirth; how gender equality is needed not only in the workplace, but in relationships as well; how to get to that equality.

Gates is very aware that some see her philanthropy as “billionaires throwing away money to solve problems.” She mentions it several times to remind the reader that yes, she knows she is well odd. But Gates sees a purpose and having these means allows her to make a difference. 

I picked up this book because it intrigued me. As a woman, shouldn’t I read about how to not only empower myself, but other women? I expected a good, memorable read. I didn’t expect to learn so much about women around the world. 

As a twenty-something woman, gender inequality definitely does not go unnoticed. Whether it’s looking around the room at work or the expectation that I need to be or act a certain way because I’m a “lady,” I notice it. I notice that I probably will not make as much as my fiancé* because of the glass ceiling. I notice that the United States is one of the only countries that does not require paid maternity leave (or paternity leave for that matter - both are necessary).  I notice I have to pay more for health insurance just to pay less for birth control. I notice that my relationship is equal. Then again, I notice a lot of relationships that aren’t.

Honestly, my friends and I talk about these things constantly. But throughout this book, I learned that women need more than just gender equality at home and at work. Across the world they need something as simple as contraceptives to be able to space out births, or the knowledge that men are given in regards to farming and land keeping. One lesson will take them a long way. 

Read this book. Feel empowered. See how one simple change makes a world of difference. 

Next Read: Things You Save in the Fire by Katherine Center

*PS. I won’t lie. It was exciting to write fiancé instead of boyfriend…