NEW YORK (AP) – Bill and Melinda Gates want young people to get involved in solving major world problems, like finding clean energy sources and changing the division of household and childcare labor between men and women.
The couple, co-chairs of the largest private foundation in the world, has made a tradition of releasing an annual letter on philanthropy. This year’s edition, released Monday, called on the young to be a driving force for innovation and change.
“Who are the innovators? It’s this next young generation and it’s not going to happen overnight, it’s only through their commitment that we’ll see by 2050 the kind of dramatic change that we need to see,” Bill Gates told The Associated Press, speaking about energy solutions.
In her section of the letter, Melinda Gates decried the ongoing disparity in unpaid household labor between men and women. On much of the globe, she wrote, responsibilities for maintaining a home, raising children and caring for the elderly still fall primarily on women and girls, sometimes keeping them from education and paid work.
Young people, she told The AP, can help change cultural norms.