New York:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $33 billion endowment makes it the largest private foundation in the world. Its co-chairwoman, Melinda Gates, has focused her efforts on the health and welfare of women in developing countries. She gave an interview to The New York Times.
Q. As the co-chairwoman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose $33 billion endowment makes it the largest private foundation in the world, you've focused your efforts on the health and welfare of women in developing countries.
Melinda Gates: Women and children. It's been a passion of mine for a long time, but now you're seeing the world do it.
Q. Right, it seems to be fashionable as far as philanthropic causes go. Just last month, the U.N. unveiled its Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health. Have we given up on men's health?
Melinda Gates: No. In the developing world, it's about time that women are on the agenda. For instance, 80 percent of small-subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and yet all the programs in the past were predominantly focused on men.
Q. Why don't you direct more of your philanthropy toward the United States, where your foundation could create jobs for the unemployed, or try to solve the health care crisis?
Melinda Gates: As a foundation, first of all, you have to focus. But we absolutely do focus on the United States. We have three large programs: global health, global development and U.S. programs. About 20 percent goes to U.S. programs.
Q. You grew up in Dallas and attended an all-girls parochial high school. How did that shape you?
Melinda Gates: The Ursuline nuns were a bit more liberal, so they really taught us how to think about the problems of the world. The school's motto is "Serviam," that is, "I will serve."
Q. Do you think the pope is hurting efforts on behalf of women's health by preaching against the use of birth control?
Melinda Gates: I think we need to have birth-control tools all over the world. And he has a different position on that. But for me, I don't choose to be part of the Catholic Church based on a particular set of rules he's got or not. I base it on the faith that I have over time having been part of that church.
Q. Have you met Pope Benedict XVI?
Melinda Gates: I have not. It hasn't been top priority for me.
Q. As a champion of women's health, you presumably favor abortion rights?
Melinda Gates: The foundation doesn't take a position on abortion.We do take a position on reproductive-health tools. Women around the world should have a tool that helps them plan their pregnancies.
Q. Do you enjoy being a spokeswoman for the Gates Foundation? You're a warmer presence than your husband.
Melinda Gates: He's getting better, don't you think? He did say to me, "I'm starting to realize that talking to people about tuberculosis at a cocktail party doesn't go so well."
Q. What's wrong with talking about TB at a cocktail party?
Melinda Gates: We say at our dinner table,''Diarrhea is a discussion we can have,'' and the kids will go, ''Ugh!'' Diarrhea kills a million and a half kids a year. Sometimes we overdo it, I think, at the dinner table.
Q. You and Bill first met after you started working at Microsoft?
Melinda Gates: When we very first met, I had worked at the company for only a few weeks. My background was computer science and business school, so eventually I worked my way up where I was running product groups -- development, testing, marketing, user education.
Q. Do you own an iPod, which is made by Apple?
Melinda Gates: No, I have a Zune.
Q. What if one of your children says, "Mom, I have to have an iPod?"
Melinda Gates: I have gotten that argument -- "You may have a Zune."
Q. Do you have an iPad?
Melinda Gates: Of course not.
Q. Is it true that Bill works on an Apple laptop?
Melinda Gates: False. Nothing crosses the threshold of our doorstep.
Q. Isn't there room in this world for both Apple and Microsoft?
Melinda Gates: Microsoft certainly makes products for the Macintosh. Go talk to Bill.
Q. By the way, I see he fell this year back to No. 2 on the list of the world's wealthiest people. How did he feel when the Mexican businessman Carlos Slim overtook him?
Melinda Gates: The only person that teases him about that is our youngest daughter, our 8-year-old. He couldn't care less.