The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

BRAC is the largest private secular educator in the world. The organization focuses on educating girls by removing financial barriers to their academic pursuits. BRAC runs 50,000 schools and educational centers worldwide, each of which comprises at least 70% girls. 

The term feminism encompasses various social movements associated with achieving equality between men and women. Melinda Gates identifies as a feminist and defines the term as follows: “Being a feminist means believing that every woman should be able to use her voice and pursue her potential, and that women and men should all work together to take down the barriers and end the biases that still hold women back” (7).

The #MeToo Movement began in 2017 in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal. Women shared their experiences of sexual abuse and harassment using the hashtag #MeToo on social media. 12 million #MeToo posts appeared on Facebook within 24 hours. In the US, the movement garnered widespread media attention and emboldened women to report sexual assaults rather than keep them to themselves (out of fear, shame). It also led to the firing of high-profile individuals in various fields and the enactment of laws to protect victims of sexual abuse and assault.

Midwife in Every Village is a maternal and infant health program launched by the Indonesian government in 1989. The program aimed to curb high maternal and infant mortality rates by training 60,000 midwives and deploying them in rural communities. Only after gaining the trust of locals, however, were the midwives able to do their jobs effectively.

PRADAN is an organization that provides training and funding opportunities to women farmers in India. It was one of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s first gender equality projects. PRADAN not only helps women start farms and raise their yields but emboldens them to lobby for themselves and their communities.

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are often grouped in school curriculums and educational policies. White men tend to dominate STEM fields. However, companies, governments, schools, and philanthropists are taking steps to bridge the gender and racial gaps in these fields.