Melinda Gates

Melinda Gates Instagram – Over the past 25 years, I’ve met so many women whose stories have stayed with me and inspired the work that I do. This #InternationalWomensDay, here are a few that stand out:  
 
Sarah traveled for five hours—by bus and by foot—in the last weeks of her pregnancy to stay near a facility where she could deliver her baby, even though home birth is common in Malawi. She was determined to give her baby the best possible start in life and refused to let anything stand in her way.  
 
Kaitlyn, whose miscarriage became even more traumatic when two hospitals in Louisiana refused to treat her, now fights for a future in which no woman will ever show up at an emergency room begging and bleeding only to be turned away.  
 
And in Rwanda, I met a young woman named Eden who is preparing to become one of her country’s few cardiothoracic surgeons after losing a close friend to a heart condition that went undiagnosed. Heart disease is the number one killer of women—yet the ways it manifests in women remains woefully underexamined.  
 
None of these women should have had to go through what they did. The barriers that women face to basic health care are unjust and unacceptable. But every single one of these women also broke through those barriers to make a difference for someone else—and their stories can help show us a better way forward.   
 
This #IWD, who are some women who inspire you? | Posted on 10/Mar/2026 01:50:13