Women are the centre of the family. It's the woman who decides what's eaten in the house, when to have the kids vaccinated; everything that has to do with the children's health revolves around her.
Melinda GatesHaving children made us look differently at all these things that we take for granted, like taking your child to get a vaccine against measles or polio.
Melinda GatesEven in our own agriculture strategy, if we got a great new drought-resistant seed and we managed to get it distributed in the system, we just assumed that it would reach female farmers. That's a false assumption, because women don't interact with agro-dealers. So if you don't develop specific programming to ensure that seed gets in a woman's hands, then the extra income [generated by higher-yielding crops] goes into her husband's hands.
Melinda GatesI felt suicidal. I couldn't stop crying. I remember thinking, wouldn't it be great if the car crashed and I died?
Melinda Gates