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Questions for Melinda Gates

The Donor

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.
Women and children. It’s been a passion of mine for a long time, but now you’re seeing the world do it.

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?
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.

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?
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.

You grew up in Dallas and attended an all-girls parochial high school. How did that shape you?
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.”

Do you think the pope is hurting efforts on behalf of women’s health by preaching against the use of birth control?
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.

Have you met Pope Benedict XVI?
I have not. It hasn’t been top priority for me.

As a champion of women’s health, you presumably favor abortion rights?
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.

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Credit...Christian Oth for The New York Times

Do you enjoy being a spokeswoman for the Gates Foundation? You’re a warmer presence than your husband.
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.”

What’s wrong with talking about TB at a cocktail party?
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.

You and Bill first met after you started working at Microsoft?
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.

Do you own an iPod, which is made by Apple?
No, I have a Zune.

What if one of your children says, “Mom, I have to have an iPod?”
I have gotten that argument — “You may have a Zune.”

Do you have an iPad?
Of course not.

Is it true that Bill works on an Apple laptop?
False. Nothing crosses the threshold of our doorstep.

Isn’t there room in this world for both Apple and Microsoft?
Microsoft certainly makes products for the Macintosh. Go talk to Bill.

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?
The only person that teases him about that is our youngest daughter, our 8-year-old. He couldn’t care less.

INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED

A version of this article appears in print on  , Page 16 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: The Donor. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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