If You Want to Lift Up Humanity…
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“I want them to see that in the universal human desire to be happy, to develop our gifts, to contribute to others, to love and be loved — we’re all the same. Nobody is any better than anybody else, and no one’s happiness or human dignity matters more than anyone else’s.”
Having an “aha!” moment is one of the most fulfilling experiences for me. It’s proof that the time you’ve invested into pondering, researching, and problem solving something you’re curious about has paid off, and that your sphere of knowledge has expanded. Even if just by a bit.
I’d been struggling to reach that “aha!” moment in my career — a moment where I knew how my professional actions could create a positive change in the world. And I think a lot of people can relate to that.
I knew I was passionate about increasing the pipeline of girls and women entering STEM fields, and throughout my time in university, I worked to do that. The root of that was in my desire to eliminate biases and hurdles while expanding opportunities to underrepresented groups. But after graduating and entering “real life,” I was asking myself, “what now?” while staring down a goal that felt intangible.
Before I dive in, it’s necessary to give a (very) brief summary of the book: Melinda, through her work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and formerly Microsoft, has made incredible strides in empowering women worldwide: sharing devastating stories of child marriage, highlighting the consequences of imbalanced unpaid labour contributions, advocating for family planning initiatives, and stressing the importance of education in improving quality of life. Through her telling of all this work and more, Melinda is able to unite her readers in the idea that lifting up women will lift up all of humanity.
There are so, so many takeaways and insights you can gain from this book…it would be futile to attempt to share them all with you and, honestly, I don’t think anyone could do it as eloquently as Melinda. But one of the most valuable I’ve gleaned is that no human being has any say in where they are born, or when. This seems rather obvious, but I believe it’s always useful to zoom out on life, reflect, and gain perspective. The byproduct of that for me was acknowledging my privilege and recognizing that I do, as it happens, have not only a passion for “women’s issues” (which I think are really “humanity issues”) but a skill set conducive to cultivating change as well. I also understood that my education in engineering isn’t only good for engineering — it teaches you problem solving, creativity, persistence, and most importantly: to question everything. These are applicable almost everywhere.
This helped me weave together my “aha!” moment: All of humanity is lifted when we lift women up. so I will plan my career trajectory with the ultimate goal of working for women. For their ambitions, for their education, for their right to family planning. And there isn’t a “be all end all” way to achieve this. It can be done through directing strategy, working in management, working to fund female-led ventures, creating engineering solutions, or volunteering. It turns out that taking pressure off of yourself and allowing time for honest reflection is very rewarding! You’ll probably recognize small things that you can do right now to work towards your goals.
The second theme that has stuck with me is that if you want change, you must challenge opposing ideas respectfully and with empathy, or progress will not truly be realized. Melinda shares a powerful example of this lesson in her book:
40 million women a year give birth without assistance, and the highest rate of infant mortality is on the first day of life. These women live in remote areas, far from hospitals. Melinda aimed to implement a program that trained local, community healthcare providers to lend new mothers techniques that improve newborn and maternal health. It seemed doable, but came with barriers. In these regions facing high infant mortality, many common practices ingrained in tradition conflicted with scientific recommendations. Understanding the foundations of these beliefs and challenging them in a way that did not convey the message “you’re wrong!”, but rather “here are ideas framed in the context of things you value and are concerned about” was a major stepping stone in the program’s success, which has halved infant mortality rates.
Focus on the commonalities and not the differences!
This book is many things. It will broaden your perspective, challenge your biases, and expose you to not only a hefty amount of data, but many heartbreaking and inspiring experiences from women around the world.
This Executive Summary was contributed by Sarah Whelan.
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