Melinda French Gates Hopes Book Imprint Will 'Open People's Eyes' on Gender Equity: 'It's Within Our Reach'
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“If you really help women get to their rightful place in society, I don't think, I know it will change society,” Melinda French Gates tells PEOPLE
For Melinda French Gates, reading has been a way to learn about different cultures and ideas. Now, the philanthropist hopes that through her book imprint, Moment of Lift Books, she can help others gain a new perspective on gender equity and "what it's really going to take" to get there.
The imprint's first release, Radical Inclusion by David Moinina Sengeh, felt like the "perfect place to start," French Gates tells PEOPLE.
When French Gates, 58, first met Sengeh, the minister of basic and senior secondary education and chief innovation officer for Sierra Leone, she knew right away that he had "a story that needs to be told."
After his appointment, Sengeh was "shocked to learn" how many people were "against lifting a long-standing policy banning pregnant girls from school," according to the book's description.
"It was just completely against David's values," says French Gates.
Sengeh advocated for their right to education, and when the ban was overturned in 2020, it was replaced with policies of "radical inclusion and comprehensive safety."
"Changing norms is not easy, but he actually gives steps from his own learning about how you do that," French Gates says.
French Gates has always had a love of books — "I was a pretty big nerd in high school," she says, adding that when she wasn't coding she "would sit in my room and read" — but a new world opened up for her when she began traveling around the world for work.
"if I read something from a local author," she says, "it just filled in so much for me."
"Books have been a way of opening cultures to me that I otherwise probably wouldn't have experienced in the same way," she explains.
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As she started to "really reflect on how much I had learned through books," the philanthropist and global advocate found herself thinking about the power of creating change through community.
"So often my friends or my mom and I, or now my daughters and I would share books with each other and discuss them," says French Gates. "It opens you to new ideas."
"That's what has led me to say, 'I want to see far more books about gender equity,'" she adds.
The imprint, which she created in partnership with Flatiron Books, shares a name with her own book, Moment of Lift, which was published in 2019.
"I was lucky enough to travel the world and decided at some point, there were stories of the women I had met that I really wanted to tell," she says. "But there are authors who I knew weren't able to bring their stories or the stories of their communities forward."
When it comes to her work — whether through the Gates Foundation or Pivotal Ventures — French Gates says that gender equity is at the center of her efforts.
"If you really help women get to their rightful place, I don't think, I know it will change society," she says.
And one of the things she hopes readers discover after reading Radical Inclusion is that "equality's in our reach."
"It's not as difficult as we sometimes think. It's a big topic, but it's totally within our reach," she says. "And I'm excited for readers to understand that they can take steps themselves."
Of course, after announcing her imprint back in 2021, it's also been exciting to finally see the project come to life. And when she "got to hold" Radical Inclusion in her hands for the first time, French Gates recalls thinking to herself, 'Wow, this is really happening.'"
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Now that her three kids — daughters Jennifer, 27, and Phoebe, 20, and son Rory, 23 — "are all out of the house," French Gates says she has "so much more time" for reading.
In addition to rediscovering her love for authors she's enjoyed for years, such as Jodi Picoult and Barbara Kingsolver, there are sure to be a few new exciting covers added to her bookshelf in the coming year or so.
Her imprint's second book, The Worlds I Seeby Dr. Fei-Fei Li, comes out in the fall and there are two more releases coming from Jina Krause-Vilmar and Joanne N. Smith slated for 2024.
But for now, French Gates can't wait for readers to get their hands on Radical Inclusion. "I hope people like this book as much as I do," she says.
For more information on Moment of Lift Books or Radical Inclusion, out now, click here.
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