Melinda Gates: With More Women Leaders, There Would Be ‘Less War-Torn and Conflict-Ridden Places’

Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that if there were more women in leadership roles, there would be “less war-torn and conflict-ridden places.”

Mitchell said, “Talk to me about women leadership you are such an example of that, of a woman taking hold of these issues that are not funded properly, that are not expressed publicly and using your platform and doing something about it. In my own profession I have seen such an evolution of women in journalism. What can we do to have more women leaders? Because in my own experience, women work collegially, women in the Senate have worked collegially across the aisle in ways that often men don’t.”

Gates said, “Women have a difference lens on society just because of where we have come from or people of color. It’s when you see women in positions of power, whether they are in parliament or legislatures, they make different policy. When you see women in the news, they are bringing a different perspective, they are presenting a different perspective that let Americans decide what they think.”

She added, “I believe women should be in all places. That means they should be able to make decisions in their home, in their community. They should control resources. They should shape policy and perspectives. When you do that, even in the home, you start to see, and we have good data now, you start to see the children are healthier and the family becomes wealthier.”

Gates concluded, “I think we are at a point where you are seeing female leadership. We are not seeing enough of it yet. We are getting there. We need to see it with enormous momentum because guess what I also believe you would have less war-torn and conflict-ridden places.”

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