Book Review // The Moment of Lift

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis:

"For the last twenty years, Melinda Gates has been on a mission to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift a society up, you need to stop keeping women down.

In this moving and compelling book, Melinda shares lessons she’s learned from the inspiring people she’s met during her work and travels around the world. As she writes in the introduction, “That is why I had to write this book―to share the stories of people who have given focus and urgency to my life. I want all of us to see ways we can lift women up where we live.”

Melinda’s unforgettable narrative is backed by startling data as she presents the issues that most need our attention―from child marriage to lack of access to contraceptives to gender inequity in the workplace. And, for the first time, she writes about her personal life and the road to equality in her own marriage. Throughout, she shows how there has never been more opportunity to change the world―and ourselves.

Writing with emotion, candor, and grace, she introduces us to remarkable women and shows the power of connecting with one another.

When we lift others up, they lift us up, too." Amazon.com 

Review:

The first 100 or so pages of The Moment of Lift had me glued! I knew the Gates Foundation did a lot for women and children around the world, but the statistics Melinda talked about in the book were shocking. Cutting several of them in half in just under 10 years. And we’re talking in the millions. 

Her entire platform is centered around the goal of giving women more opportunities to be able to lift everyone around them. The studies show that when women are educated, the rates of everything go down: poverty, child marriage, disease, infant mortality, women dying in childbirth, which then leads to the next generation of children being brought up in a more stable household. Just supplying contraception for these developing countries allows them to be able to wait longer in between having more children. Some women were having children back to back to back for a decade. Leading to more poverty, sicker (or dying) children, and dire situations where they don’t feel empowered, loved, or able to see a way out. 

The stories Melinda shared were tragic and heartbreaking. Forget about the gender equality fight we constant have going on in the USA, these women just want to be recognized by men as having some type of power to control their own lives. Like not being married by 12. Or getting raped because she’s on her period and has to miss school. Or burying your newborn baby because the culture in that community is against skin to skin contact right after birth. It really put things in perspective when you compare what we are blessed with just by being born in a privileged country. 

Unfortunately, I did feel like Melinda’s writing was a bit repetitive and at times all over the place. What I couldn’t really hang with was when she was telling these terrible stories of women in Africa, and then would tell a personal story about herself struggling in the workplace. Sorry Melinda, you’re a billionaire and you’re privileged. As much as you wanted to be able to relate to these women, you came off out of touch at times. Just let the women’s stories do the talking. No need to insert yourself of the prejudices you’ve felt while working outside of the home.