Melinda French Gates gets political; Trump campaign focuses on Harris' laugh

Welcome to the Formidable newsletter: Where we bring you the important news of the day every weekday, all with an eye toward the topics of interest to smart, savvy leaders.

Good to Know

Melinda French Gates gets political

What you probably already know: Melinda French Gates stepped into the spotlight over the weekend with an exclusive interview with the New York Times Magazine, where the billionaire philanthropist opened up about what’s next for her after stepping back from the Gates Foundation. French Gates, who is about to turn 60, said that after the Dobbs decision that rolled back access to abortions and other reproductive health care in the U.S., that she needed to speak up and get more political.

Why? French Gates called out the “downstream repercussions” from the Dobbs decision, including worse outcomes for Black women and deserts where women can’t access to maternal care. “I thought…if I really believe in women in our country and women’s rights, I need to speak up.” French Gates has endorsed Kamala Harris for president and called Elon Musk’s attack on her for doing so “kind of silly.” She said that she was highly influenced by her daughter Phoebe, who has toured women’s health clinics in the South of the U.S. and saw the maternal mortality crisis up close.

What it means: French Gates said she would focus her giving on providing access to care and influencing policy. While at the Gates Foundation, she had to negotiate with Bill Gates as they decided their focus areas. Since she has pulled away, she says, she believes “women should have their full decision-making authority, their full authority over their resources, and they ought to make good policy.”

What happens now? French Gates learned from her mother that she had to set her own agenda, she said, and this new political focus is part of that. While she considers herself a centrist, politically, and said she has voted both Republican and Democrat in the past, the Dobbs issue has pushed her hard to focus on women’s access to reproductive care. As a result, she has said she will support more women, particularly women of color, running for political office at the state level. “I’m just ready to set my own agenda as my own person,” she said.

News at a glance

164,000 women joined a Zoom call to support Harris campaign

Actors, musicians, politicians and athletes were among the 164,000 white women who showed up on a Zoom call last week and raised $8.5 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House. The idea came after Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, saw a group of Black women do the same thing just days before and raise $1.8 million support the Harris campaign. Harris has raised about $200 million since Biden withdrew, more than Biden had raised in the first three months of his campaign.

Blood test can screen for Alzheimer’s

A new blood test has showed 90% effectiveness at diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease, a much higher success rate than cognitive tests and CT scans. Scientists on Sunday released the results of a study that could transform the diagnosis process for a disease that affects nearly 32 million people worldwide.

Trump campaign decides Harris’ laugh is its new focus

Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign this week decided to focus on his rival’s laugh as a campaign issue. Trump has now called Harris “Laffin’ Kamala Harris” and said that you can tell a lot from a laugh, editing together compilations of her laughing that have been distributed online and labeled as “weird.” The decision to focus on her laughter is decidedly sexist. One doesn’t have to look back too far to recall criticism of Hillary Clinton’s laugh, which was also called weird, and ties to the old sexist tropes of hysterical women who are out of control.

Japan, Australia lead Olympic Gold Medals so far

Both Japan and Australia have four Olympic Gold Medals as day 2 of the Paris Olympic Games was coming to a close. The U.S.A. had three, though tops the leaderboard in overall medals, with 12 total, including three Gold and six Silver medals. The swimming competitions, where there are many opportunities to win medals, have just begun, so expect those numbers to change quickly. Two of Australia’s and two of the U.S.A.’s Gold Medals were from swimming. Japan’s were from Judo, Fencing and Skateboarding.

We don’t have a lot of Uber/Lyft fans among us. Only 24% of respondents to our poll last Friday said they use ride-sharing services daily or several times a week, while 47% said they use them rarely or never. The rest said they use them a few times a month.

Check out the Formidable Podcast — informational interviews with women leaders on news-driven topics, spotlighting timely and thought-provoking issues facing our world.

In our latest episode, we talk with Alaska Airlines Base Chief Pilot Julie Ann Thiele about the obstacles that almost got in the way of her career — including a serious case of motion sickness. She also faced sexism in the industry. Now, she wants to see more women and people of color pursue pilot careers. We also discussed how she feels about Boeing in light of the safety issues, and how she handles turbulence in the skies.

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Glass Ceiling Breakers

Meet the women moving into and out of top leadership positions.

Juliette Feld Grossman, CEO, Feld Entertainment

The third generation of family leadership has stepped in to lead Feld Entertainment, one of the world’s largest privately owned live entertainment companies. Juliette Feld Grossman stepped in to lead the company, which produces Monster Jam motorsports events.

Rants and Raves

So first they’re telling us to smile, then they calling us names when we do. That’s just part of the conflicting standards women are held to that make it completely impossible to be a woman. While the Trump campaign’s decision to focus on a sexist trope isn’t surprising — Republicans had to actually encourage the party not to focus on sexist and racist attacks when Harris announced she was running — that doesn’t make it any less infuriating. There are plenty of deeply important issues the two candidates vying to lead the free world could focus on. One can only hope the campaigns don’t spend more time in the dirt than necessary so voters can hear more about the policies that will affect all of our lives.