Melinda French Gates will contribute $50 million to women’s health research via Pivotal. Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Melinda French Gates is doubling down on her commitment to women’s health. The philanthropist, who last year stepped away from the Gates Foundation to focus on her own charitable efforts, is backing a $100 million partnership to fund research in overlooked areas of women’s health, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease and mental health, her philanthropic vehicle, Pivotal Ventures, announced today (Sept. 10).
“We don’t invest far enough money in women’s health and we’re going to change that,” said French Gates while speaking at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit today in New York City. “The sooner we get on the science, the sooner we’re going to have solutions for everybody.”
Pivotal will contribute $50 million to the initiative, with another $50 million coming from Wellcome Leap, a U.S. nonprofit focused on global health. The partnership will launch two new women’s health programs in 2026, targeting conditions with the highest rates of morbidity and mortality for women. To accelerate progress, it will use Leap’s fast-track global health model to deliver results within three years.
Women’s health has long been a priority for French Gates, who has ramped up funding in the area since stepping away from the foundation she ran for 25 years with her former husband, Bill Gates. Shortly after leaving in May 2024, she announced a $1 billion pledge to support organizations advancing the rights of women and other underrepresented groups.
That commitment includes $200 million distributed to organizations focused on women’s power and leadership, and another $240 million given to prominent individuals to channel into women’s health nonprofits. French Gates also unveiled a $250 million open call last October to fund organizations working to improve women’s mental and physical health.
The Gates Foundation itself has also made women’s health a focus. In August, it committed $2.5 billion through 2030 to boost research and development in areas such as maternal, contraceptive and menstrual health.
French Gates emphasized the urgency of shifting how the research community approaches women’s health, pointing to studies showing that while women live longer than men, they spend 25 percent more of their lives in poor health. Yet, in 2020, only 1 percent of global health research funding went to women’s health conditions other than cancer, and in 2023, just 8 percent of NIH investments were dedicated to women’s health.
“A woman can’t do well in life if she’s not healthy,” said French Gates. “If we want, for instance, more women in our legislatures, more women in our Congress, more women in our state houses to make good policy, they need to be well to be able to do it—and that is one of the barriers we’re going to break down.”
