Giving Compass' Take:

• The Harvard Business Review interviewed Melinda Gates about her recent pledge of $1 billion to accelerate progress toward gender equality. 

• Gates explains that ever since the World Forum announced that it would take 208 years to fund gender equality, she believes progress is slow due to underinvestment from philanthropists and investors.

• Learn more about how to support gender equality in this guide for donors. 

How does this donation change the timeline to gender equality?

One of the reasons that the pace of change has been so glacial — and that the World Economic Forum projects that we are still a staggering 208 years away from gender equality in the U.S. — is that philanthropists and investors have underfunded women and their potential.

You’d be the first to say that money isn’t enough to reach your goals, and you outlined several good strategies in your HBR article for bending the curve to equality. What else needs to happen in addition to funding to move women forward? 

Yes, I absolutely agree that capital alone won’t bend the curve. In addition to capitalizing the organizations and firms working on gender equality, we need to create new opportunities for collaboration between them. That could take the form of hubs connecting these organizations and firms to donor networks, policymakers, corporate stakeholders, and research and policy groups.

What other kinds of behavior are you hoping this gift will catalyze?

I hope it encourages us to set bold, ambitious goals for women in the United States. We shouldn’t have to make ourselves content celebrating small gains, like the record number of women who ran for office in 2018 and won, without addressing the big picture, like the fact we’re still nowhere near equal representation in Congress.

Read the full article about donations toward gender equality at Harvard Business Review.