‘Women Are Economic Engines Of Growth’ Melinda Gates At Mastercard Inclusive Growth Summit

Women’s economic parity would add $12 trillion to the global economy, according to the World Economic Forum. You might think the magnitude of that number would mobilize massive resources to seize that opportunity.

Yet, it’s hard to be a woman and succeed economically in the world today. That was an overwhelming message at the Mastercard Global Inclusive Growth Summit in Washington, DC on April 13th, 2023. Yes, women have come a long way, but powerful cultural, financial and political forces are still holding people back.

Recounting stories of the villages and communities she has seen transformed by industrious, entrepreneurial women in both developed and developing countries, Melinda French Gates told the Summit’s in-person audience of a few hundred people (and thousands more on livestream they said), that by not empowering women fully, we are losing out on major economic growth and prosperity – prosperity that is desperately needed today across the globe.

What does it take to maximize – or even optimize – women’s ability to grow the economy, which benefits everyone?

French Gates and other Summit speakers – including fellow panelists Trevor Noah and Maria Teresa Kumar, Founder/CEO of Voto Latino, as well as USAID Administrator Samantha Power, YouTube star and Unicorn Island Fund Founder Lilly Singh, Her Majesty Queen Máxima of The Netherlands, and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth Founder/President Shamina Singh – raised several issues at the Summit that are needed to empower women and other marginalized communities. The Summit was produced in partnership with The Aspen Institute and Devex.

It takes a village – and compassion, financial and other resources, technology, education, collaboration, family planning, healthcare, ingenuity, determination, friendship, self-care and influential people stepping up. It takes a whole of society approach.

“What I feel like we're missing in some of these conversations today,” French Gates said, ”is the world is in a tough place. Food prices for people all over the world, the war in Ukraine, all these compounding crises and the economic scarring from covid. We are talking, luckily, about climate because that's really important, but we're not talking about this amazing opportunity. Women are economic engines of growth.”

Societal barriers, and technological and educational solutions

“How do we ensure they have their full power?” French Gates asked and then answered. “You know, we've talked so long as a development community about empowering women, but if we just talk about empowering women, we’re, we're not looking at all the societal barriers that hold them back. And what we really need to talk about is how do women have their full power, which means having decision making authority, having seats at the table, setting policy, having control of their finances, having control of course of their bodies.”

Citing the example of India’s digital banking expansion, French Gates emphasized how mobile banking has been a game-changer for women, especially in developing countries: “In the last 10 years, women have grown from having 28% of women having a mobile digital bank account to 78%. And so, if we do certain things to really look at this opportunity we have with women, make sure they have a great education, make sure they can plan and space the birth of their children, and then making sure they have networks to get into a great job and mobile money and part of the banking system to save money, you will absolutely accelerate their growth. And guess what? They're going to accelerate your economy.”

Sharing her own story of growing up in a family of modest means of four kids with parents who “were absolutely determined that all four of us would go to college,” because of how they saw how it helped her dad provide for the family, French Gates told the Summit. ”I was the one who mowed the lawns” and did other side work to contribute to the family budget, ”because that income was what put me through college.”

What a difference financial empowerment makes to women – no matter where you live

One of the most evocative stories was Gates’ story about a woman “in a low income country” she has been in touch with “in the last couple of years” who “had finally gotten some economic means in her hands and had control of it.”

The impact on that woman of having that financial control finally was profound. French Gates recounted that, “She literally said, ‘my son sees me differently because I bought him a bicycle. My husband sees me different differently because I can buy fuel for his motorcycle. Everybody in my community knows my name now.’ ”

And, French Gates added, “that's why I think we have to talk about money and women having their own financial means in their hands, because then she has her power and then it does change and the world just gets better.”

Trevor Noah’s insight about the impact of women’s empowerment on men

Trevor Noah reminded the audience of a benefit to men of women having greater financial and societal empowerment that is often lost in the debates: “The power of women, I think we also take for granted how much it alleviates the pressure on men. I think that's one of the biggest parts of the conversation that we take for granted.”

“We make it seem like it's this wonderful, do good thing that we will do for women. But time and time again, you see, you give a woman the power she deserves, you give her the equity, you give her the inclusion, (and) the household changes, the society changes, (then) the pressure that men feel changes.”

“And when that pressure changes, you then just start to see a society that stabilizes itself. And there's, it's just, it's a little more peaceful. It's a little more calm. It's a, it's just, it's a more pleasurable place to be.”