The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

by Melinda French Gates

My own church’s ban on modern contraceptives is just a small effect of a larger issue: its ban on women priests.

Nothing sharpens my focus like a mistake.

What I realized much later, paradoxically, is that by trying to fit in, I was strengthening the culture that made me feel like I didn’t fit in.

There are nine of us, and we’ve been meeting on the second Wednesday of the month for almost twenty years now, reading books, taking trips, going on retreats, exploring ways of putting our faith into action.

found the guts to try it out because I saw it work for Patty, and that’s the power of a role model. She encouraged me to be true to my own style, even if she didn’t know she was having this effect on me.