ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Melinda Gates - Philanthropist
Melinda French Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she puts into practice the idea that every life has equal value.

Why you should listen

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. As co-chair, Melinda French Gates helps shape and approve strategies, review results, advocate for foundation issues and set the overall direction. In developing countries, the foundation focuses on improving people's health with vaccines and other life-saving tools and giving them a chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to dramatically improve education so that all young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

In recent years, Melinda French Gates has become a vocal advocate for access to contraception, advancing the idea that empowering women to decide whether and when to have children can have transformational effects on societies. In 2012, Gates spearheaded the London Summit on Family Planning, with the goal of delivering contraceptives to 120 million women in developing countries by 2020. When asked why she got involved in this issue, Gates said, "We knew that 210 million women were saying they wanted access to the contraceptives we have here in the United States and we weren't providing them because of political controversy in our country. To me, that was just a crime. I kept looking around trying to find the person to get this back on the global stage. I realized I just had to do it."

 

More profile about the speaker
Melinda Gates | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxChange

Melinda Gates: Let's put birth control back on the agenda

Filmed:
1,260,206 views

Contraception. The topic has become controversial in recent years. But should it be? Melinda Gates believes that many of the world's social change issues depend on ensuring that women are able to control their rate of having kids. In this significant talk at TEDxChange, she makes the case for the world to re-examine an issue she intends to lend her voice to for the next decade.
- Philanthropist
Melinda French Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she puts into practice the idea that every life has equal value. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:04
TodayHeute, I'd like to talk with you
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Heute möchte ich mit Ihnen
00:05
about something that should be
a totallytotal uncontroversialunumstritten topicThema.
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über ein Thema sprechen, das eigentlich ganz und gar
nicht strittig sein sollte
00:11
But, unfortunatelyUnglücklicherweise,
it's becomewerden incrediblyunglaublich controversialumstritten.
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Aber unglücklicherweise, ist es
sehr umstritten geworden
00:17
This yearJahr, if you think about it,
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Denken Sie einmal daran:
Dieses Jahre werden
00:19
over a billionMilliarde couplesPaare
will have sexSex with one anotherein anderer.
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über eine Milliarde Paare
Sex miteinander haben
00:23
CouplesPaare like this one,
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Paare wie dieses,
00:26
and this one,
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oder dieses
00:27
and this one,
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und dieses
00:29
and, yes,
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und, ja,
00:31
even this one.
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sogar dieses.
00:32
(LaughterLachen)
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(Lachen)
00:34
And my ideaIdee is this --
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Und meine Idee ist die folgende:
00:36
all these menMänner and womenFrau
should be freefrei to decideentscheiden
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Alle diese Männer und Frauen sollten
frei sein, zu entscheiden
00:41
whetherob they do or do not
want to conceiveschwanger a childKind.
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ob sie ein Kind empfangen
möchten oder nicht
00:45
And they should be ablefähig to use
one of these birthGeburt controlsteuern methodsMethoden
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Und sie sollten eine dieser
Verhütungsmethoden anwenden dürfen
00:49
to actHandlung on theirihr decisionEntscheidung.
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und ihre Entscheidung in die Tat umsetzen.
00:53
Now, I think you'ddu würdest have a hardhart time
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Nun, ich denke Sie werden kaum
jemanden finden,
00:55
findingErgebnis manyviele people
who disagreenicht zustimmen with this ideaIdee.
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der mir hier nicht zustimmen würde
01:00
Over one billionMilliarde people use birthGeburt controlsteuern
withoutohne any hesitationzu zögern at all.
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01:07
They want the powerLeistung
to planplanen theirihr ownbesitzen livesLeben
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01:11
and to raiseerziehen healthiergesünder, better educatedgebildet
and more prosperouswohlhabenden familiesFamilien.
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01:18
But, for an ideaIdee that is
so broadlyim großen und ganzen acceptedakzeptiert in privatePrivatgelände,
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01:24
birthGeburt controlsteuern certainlybestimmt generateserzeugt
a lot of oppositionWiderstand in publicÖffentlichkeit.
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01:29
Some people think
when we talk about contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung
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01:32
that it's codeCode for abortionAbtreibung,
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01:35
whichwelche it's not.
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01:36
Some people -- let's be honestehrlich --
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01:39
they're uncomfortableunbequem with the topicThema
because it's about sexSex.
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01:43
Some people worrySorge
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01:45
that the realecht goalTor of familyFamilie planningPlanung
is to controlsteuern populationsPopulationen.
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01:50
These are all sideSeite issuesProbleme
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01:54
that have attachedangebracht themselvessich
to this coreAder ideaIdee that menMänner and womenFrau
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02:00
should be ablefähig to decideentscheiden
when they want to have a childKind.
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02:05
And as a resultErgebnis, birthGeburt controlsteuern has
almostfast completelyvollständig and totallytotal disappearedverschwunden
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02:11
from the globalglobal healthGesundheit agendaAgenda.
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02:14
The victimsdie Opfer of this paralysisLähmung
are the people of sub-SaharanAfrika südlich der Sahara AfricaAfrika
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02:20
and SouthSüden AsiaAsien.
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02:23
Here in GermanyDeutschland, the proportionAnteil of people
that use contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung
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is about 66 percentProzent.
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02:29
That's about what you'ddu würdest expecterwarten von.
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02:31
In ElEl SalvadorSalvador, very similarähnlich, 66 percentProzent.
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02:35
ThailandThailand, 64 percentProzent.
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02:39
But let's comparevergleichen that to other placessetzt,
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02:41
like UttarUttar PradeshPradesh,
one of the largestgrößten statesZustände in IndiaIndien.
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02:45
In factTatsache, if UttarUttar PradeshPradesh
was its ownbesitzen countryLand,
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it would be the fifthfünfte largestgrößten
countryLand in the worldWelt.
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02:53
TheirIhre contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung ratePreis -- 29 percentProzent.
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02:58
NigeriaNigeria, the mostdie meisten populousbevölkerungsreichen
countryLand in AfricaAfrika, 10 percentProzent.
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03:04
ChadTschad, 2 percentProzent.
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Let's just take one countryLand
in AfricaAfrika, SenegalSenegal.
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TheirIhre ratePreis is about 12 percentProzent.
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03:14
But why is it so lowniedrig?
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One reasonGrund is that the mostdie meisten popularBeliebt
contraceptivesVerhütungsmittel are rarelynur selten availableverfügbar.
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03:23
WomenFrauen in AfricaAfrika will tell you
over and over again
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03:26
that what they preferbevorzugen todayheute
is an injectableinjizierbare.
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03:29
They get it in theirihr armArm --
and they go about fourvier timesmal a yearJahr,
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they have to get it everyjeden threedrei monthsMonate --
to get theirihr injectionInjektion.
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03:36
The reasonGrund womenFrau like it so much in AfricaAfrika
is they can hideverbergen it from theirihr husbandsEhemänner,
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03:42
who sometimesmanchmal want a lot of childrenKinder.
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The problemProblem is everyjeden other time
a womanFrau goesgeht into a clinicKlinik in SenegalSenegal,
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that injectionInjektion is stockedauf Lager out.
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It's stockedauf Lager out 150 daysTage out of the yearJahr.
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03:58
So can you imaginevorstellen the situationLage --
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04:00
she walksSpaziergänge all this way
to go get her injectionInjektion.
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04:03
She leavesBlätter her fieldFeld,
sometimesmanchmal leavesBlätter her childrenKinder,
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04:06
and it's not there.
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04:07
And she doesn't know
when it's going to be availableverfügbar again.
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04:11
This is the samegleich storyGeschichte
acrossüber the continentKontinent of AfricaAfrika todayheute.
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04:16
And so what we'vewir haben createderstellt as a worldWelt
has becomewerden a life-and-deathLeben und Tod crisisKrise.
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04:21
There are 100,000 womenFrau [perpro yearJahr]
who say they don't want to be pregnantschwanger
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04:27
and they diesterben in childbirthGeburt --
100,000 womenFrau a yearJahr.
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04:32
There are anotherein anderer 600,000 womenFrau [perpro yearJahr]
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who say they didn't want to be pregnantschwanger
in the first placeOrt,
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04:37
and they give birthGeburt to a babyBaby
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04:39
and her babyBaby diesstirbt
in that first monthMonat of life.
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04:43
I know everyonejeder wants to savesparen
these mothersMütter and these childrenKinder.
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But somewhereirgendwo alongeine lange the way,
we got confusedverwirrt by our ownbesitzen conversationKonversation.
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And we stoppedgestoppt tryingversuchen to savesparen these livesLeben.
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05:01
So if we're going to make
progressFortschritt on this issueProblem,
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we have to be really clearklar
about what our agendaAgenda is.
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We're not talkingim Gespräch about abortionAbtreibung.
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We're not talkingim Gespräch
about populationBevölkerung controlsteuern.
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What I'm talkingim Gespräch about is givinggeben womenFrau
the powerLeistung to savesparen theirihr livesLeben,
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05:21
to savesparen theirihr children'sKinder- livesLeben
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and to give theirihr familiesFamilien
the bestBeste possiblemöglich futureZukunft.
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05:28
Now, as a worldWelt,
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there are lots of things we have to do
in the globalglobal healthGesundheit communityGemeinschaft
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if we want to make the worldWelt
better in the futureZukunft --
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things like fightKampf diseasesKrankheiten.
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05:38
So manyviele childrenKinder todayheute diesterben of diarrheaDurchfall,
as you heardgehört earliervorhin, and pneumoniaLungenentzündung.
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They killtöten literallybuchstäblich
millionsMillionen of childrenKinder a yearJahr.
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05:45
We alsoebenfalls need to help smallklein farmersBauern --
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05:47
farmersBauern who plowPflug
smallklein plotsGrundstücke of landLand in AfricaAfrika --
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so that they can growgrößer werden enoughgenug foodLebensmittel
to feedFutter theirihr childrenKinder.
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05:54
And we have to make sure that
childrenKinder are educatedgebildet around the worldWelt.
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05:59
But one of the simplesteinfachste
and mostdie meisten transformativetransformative things we can do
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06:04
is to give everybodyjeder accessZugriff
to birthGeburt controlsteuern methodsMethoden
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that almostfast all GermansDeutschen have accessZugriff to
and all AmericansAmerikaner, at some pointPunkt,
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06:13
they use these toolsWerkzeuge duringwährend theirihr life.
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06:17
And I think as long as we're really clearklar
about what our agendaAgenda is,
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there's a globalglobal movementBewegung
waitingwarten to happengeschehen
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06:25
and readybereit to get behindhinter
this totallytotal uncontroversialunumstritten ideaIdee.
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06:32
When I grewwuchs up,
I grewwuchs up in a CatholicKatholische home.
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06:35
I still considerErwägen myselfmich selber
a practicingüben CatholicKatholische.
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My mom'sMutter great-uncleGroßonkel was a JesuitJesuit priestPriester.
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My great-auntGroßtante was a DominicanDominikanische nunNonne.
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She was a schoolteacherLehrerin
and a principalPrinzipal her entireganz life.
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In factTatsache, she's the one who taughtgelehrt me
as a youngjung girlMädchen how to readlesen.
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I was very closeschließen to her.
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And I wentging to CatholicKatholische schoolsSchulen
for my entireganz childhoodKindheit
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untilbis I left home to go to universityUniversität.
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In my highhoch schoolSchule, UrsulineUrsulinen AcademyAkademie,
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the nunsNonnen madegemacht serviceBedienung and socialSozial justiceGerechtigkeit
a highhoch priorityPriorität in the schoolSchule.
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TodayHeute, in the [GatesGates] Foundation'sStiftung work,
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I believe I'm applyingbewirbt sich the lessonsUnterricht
that I learnedgelernt in highhoch schoolSchule.
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So, in the traditionTradition of CatholicKatholische scholarsGelehrte,
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the nunsNonnen alsoebenfalls taughtgelehrt us
to questionFrage receivedempfangen teachingsLehren.
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And one of the teachingsLehren that we girlsMädchen
and my peersPeers questionedin Frage gestellt
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was is birthGeburt controlsteuern really a sinSünde?
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Because I think one of the reasonsGründe dafür
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we have this hugeenorm discomfortBeschwerden
talkingim Gespräch about contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung
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is this lingeringVerweilen concernbetreffen
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that if we separategetrennte sexSex from reproductionReproduktion,
we're going to promotefördern promiscuityPromiskuität.
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And I think that's a reasonablevernünftig questionFrage
to be askedaufgefordert about contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung --
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what is its impactEinfluss on sexualsexuell moralityMoral?
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But, like mostdie meisten womenFrau,
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my decisionEntscheidung about birthGeburt controlsteuern
had nothing to do with promiscuityPromiskuität.
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I had a planplanen for my futureZukunft.
I wanted to go to collegeHochschule.
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08:15
I studiedstudiert really hardhart in collegeHochschule,
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08:17
and I was proudstolz to be one of the very fewwenige
femaleweiblich computerComputer scienceWissenschaft graduatesAbsolventen
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at my universityUniversität.
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I wanted to have a careerKarriere,
so I wentging on to businessGeschäft schoolSchule
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and I becamewurde one of the youngestjüngste
femaleweiblich executivesFührungskräfte at MicrosoftMicrosoft.
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I still remembermerken, thoughobwohl,
when I left my parents'Eltern home
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to moveBewegung acrossüber the countryLand
to startAnfang this newneu jobJob at MicrosoftMicrosoft.
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They had sacrificedgeopfert a lot
to give me fivefünf yearsJahre of higherhöher educationBildung.
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But they said, as I left home --
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and I literallybuchstäblich wentging down the frontVorderseite stepsSchritte,
down the porchVeranda at home --
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and they said,
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"Even thoughobwohl you've had
this great educationBildung,
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if you decideentscheiden to get marriedverheiratet
and have kidsKinder right away,
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09:00
that's OK by us, too."
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09:03
They wanted me to do the thing
that would make me the very happiestam glücklichsten.
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09:08
I was freefrei to decideentscheiden what that would be.
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09:11
It was an amazingtolle feelingGefühl.
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09:14
In factTatsache, I did want to have kidsKinder --
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09:18
but I wanted to have them
when I was readybereit.
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09:22
And so now, BillBill and I have threedrei.
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09:26
And when our eldestälteste daughterTochter was borngeboren,
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we weren'twaren nicht, I would say,
exactlygenau sure how to be great parentsEltern.
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09:32
Maybe some of you know that feelingGefühl.
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09:35
And so we waitedgewartet a little while
before we had our secondzweite childKind.
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09:39
And it's no accidentUnfall
that we have threedrei childrenKinder
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09:42
that are spacedAbstand threedrei yearsJahre apartein Teil.
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09:45
Now, as a motherMutter, what do I want
the very mostdie meisten for my childrenKinder?
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I want them to feel the way I did --
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09:54
like they can do anything
they want to do in life.
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10:00
And so, what has struckgeschlagen me
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10:01
as I've travelledgereist the last decadeDekade
for the foundationStiftung around the worldWelt
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is that all womenFrau want that samegleich thing.
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10:11
Last yearJahr, I was in NairobiNairobi, in the slumsSlums,
in one callednamens KorogochoKorogocho --
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10:16
whichwelche literallybuchstäblich meansmeint when translatedübersetzt,
"standingStehen shoulderSchulter to shoulderSchulter."
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10:21
And I spokeSpeiche with this women'sDamen groupGruppe
that's picturedim Bild here.
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10:24
And the womenFrau talkedsprach very openlyoffen
about theirihr familyFamilie life in the slumsSlums,
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10:29
what it was like.
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And they talkedsprach quiteganz intimatelyeng
about what they did for birthGeburt controlsteuern.
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MarianneMarianne, in the centerCenter of the screenBildschirm
in the redrot sweaterPullover,
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she summedsummiert up that entireganz
two-hourzwei Stunden conversationKonversation
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in a phrasePhrase that I will never forgetvergessen.
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10:45
She said, "I want to bringbringen
everyjeden good thing to this childKind
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10:52
before I have anotherein anderer."
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10:55
And I thought -- that's it.
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10:57
That's universalUniversal-.
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We all want to bringbringen
everyjeden good thing to our childrenKinder.
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11:04
But what's not universalUniversal- is our abilityFähigkeit
to providezu Verfügung stellen everyjeden good thing.
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11:09
So manyviele womenFrau sufferleiden
from domesticinländisch violenceGewalt.
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11:12
And they can't even
broachBrosche the subjectFach of contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung,
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11:15
even insideinnen theirihr ownbesitzen marriageEhe.
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11:18
There are manyviele womenFrau
who lackMangel basicBasic educationBildung.
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11:21
Even manyviele of the womenFrau
who do have knowledgeWissen and do have powerLeistung
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don't have accessZugriff to contraceptivesVerhütungsmittel.
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11:30
For 250 yearsJahre, parentsEltern around the worldWelt
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11:35
have been decidingentscheiden
to have smallerkleiner familiesFamilien.
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11:38
This trendTrend has been steadystetig
for a quarterQuartal of a millenniumMillennium,
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11:43
acrossüber culturesKulturen and acrossüber geographiesRegionen,
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11:46
with the glaringeklatante exceptionAusnahme
of sub-SaharanAfrika südlich der Sahara AfricaAfrika and SouthSüden AsiaAsien.
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11:53
The FrenchFranzösisch startedhat angefangen bringingbringt down
theirihr familyFamilie sizeGröße in the mid-Mitte1700s.
186
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4456
11:58
And over the nextNächster 150 yearsJahre,
this trendTrend spreadVerbreitung all acrossüber EuropeEuropa.
187
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12:05
The surprisingüberraschend thing to me,
as I learnedgelernt this historyGeschichte,
188
721000
3576
12:08
was that it spreadVerbreitung not alongeine lange socioeconomicsozio-ökonomischen
linesLinien but around culturalkulturell linesLinien.
189
724600
6816
12:15
People who spokeSpeiche the samegleich languageSprache
madegemacht that changeVeränderung as a groupGruppe.
190
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3856
12:19
They madegemacht the samegleich choiceWahl
for theirihr familyFamilie,
191
735320
2576
12:21
whetherob they were richReich
or whetherob they were poorArm.
192
737920
3000
12:26
The reasonGrund that trendTrend
towardzu smallerkleiner familiesFamilien spreadVerbreitung
193
742400
3216
12:29
was that this wholeganze way
was drivenGefahren by an ideaIdee --
194
745640
3200
12:33
the ideaIdee that couplesPaare
can exerciseÜbung consciousbewusst controlsteuern
195
749320
5016
12:38
over how manyviele childrenKinder they have.
196
754360
1920
12:41
This is a very powerfulmächtig ideaIdee.
197
757640
3560
12:45
It meansmeint that parentsEltern have
the abilityFähigkeit to affectbeeinflussen the futureZukunft,
198
761680
4240
12:50
not just acceptakzeptieren it as it is.
199
766400
3240
12:54
In FranceFrankreich, the averagedurchschnittlich familyFamilie sizeGröße
wentging down everyjeden decadeDekade
200
770960
4056
12:59
for 150 yearsJahre in a rowReihe
untilbis it stabilizedstabilisiert.
201
775040
3720
13:03
It tookdauerte so long back then because
the contraceptivesVerhütungsmittel weren'twaren nicht that good.
202
779440
4320
13:08
In GermanyDeutschland, this transitionÜbergang startedhat angefangen
in the 1880s, and it tookdauerte just 50 yearsJahre
203
784480
6216
13:14
for familyFamilie sizeGröße
to stabilizestabilisieren in this countryLand.
204
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2640
13:18
And in AsiaAsien and LatinLatein AmericaAmerika,
the transitionÜbergang startedhat angefangen in the 1960s,
205
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4616
13:22
and it happenedpassiert much fasterschneller
because of modernmodern contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung.
206
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13:29
I think, as we go throughdurch this historyGeschichte,
it's importantwichtig to pausePause for a momentMoment
207
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13:35
and to remembermerken why this has becomewerden
sucheine solche a contentiousstrittig issueProblem.
208
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5056
13:40
It's because some familyFamilie planningPlanung programsProgramme
209
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2656
13:42
resortedzurückgegriffen to unfortunateunglücklich incentivesAnreize
and coerciveZwangsmaßnahmen policiesRichtlinien.
210
818760
4840
13:48
For instanceBeispiel, in the 1960s, IndiaIndien
adoptedangenommen very specificspezifisch numericnumerisch targetsZiele
211
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6856
13:55
and they paidbezahlt womenFrau to acceptakzeptieren
havingmit an IUDIUP placedplatziert in theirihr bodiesKörper.
212
831360
4280
14:00
Now, IndianIndian womenFrau were
really smartsmart in this situationLage.
213
836200
3376
14:03
When they wentging to get an IUDIUP insertedeingefügt,
they got paidbezahlt sixsechs rupeesRupien.
214
839600
3496
14:07
And so what did they do?
215
843120
1200
14:08
They waitedgewartet a fewwenige hoursStd. or a fewwenige daysTage,
216
844960
2016
14:11
and they wentging to anotherein anderer serviceBedienung providerAnbieter
and had the IUDIUP removedentfernt for one rupeeRupie.
217
847000
5200
14:18
For decadesJahrzehnte in the UnitedVereinigte StatesStaaten,
218
854200
2560
14:21
African-AmericanAfro-Amerikaner womenFrau
were sterilizedsterilisiert withoutohne theirihr consentZustimmung.
219
857280
4680
14:26
The procedureVerfahren was so commonverbreitet
220
862880
2216
14:29
it becamewurde knownbekannt as
the MississippiMississippi appendectomyAppendektomie --
221
865120
3520
14:33
a tragictragisch chapterKapitel in my country'sdes Landes historyGeschichte.
222
869200
3000
14:37
And as recentlyvor kurzem as the 1990s, in PeruPeru,
223
873400
2776
14:40
womenFrau from the AndesAnden regionRegion
were givengegeben anesthesiaAnästhesie
224
876200
3496
14:43
and they were sterilizedsterilisiert
withoutohne theirihr knowledgeWissen.
225
879720
2920
14:48
The mostdie meisten startlingüberraschende thing about this
226
884200
2616
14:50
is that these coerciveZwangsmaßnahmen policiesRichtlinien
weren'twaren nicht even needederforderlich.
227
886840
2736
14:53
They were carriedgetragen out in placessetzt
228
889600
1816
14:55
where parentsEltern alreadybereits
wanted to lowerniedriger theirihr familyFamilie sizeGröße.
229
891440
4120
15:00
Because in regionRegion after regionRegion,
again and again,
230
896120
3296
15:03
parentsEltern have wanted
to have smallerkleiner familiesFamilien.
231
899440
2920
15:07
There's no reasonGrund to believe
232
903600
1776
15:09
that AfricanAfrikanische womenFrau
have innatelyvon Haus aus differentanders desiresWünsche.
233
905400
3600
15:13
GivenGegeben the optionMöglichkeit,
they will have fewerweniger childrenKinder.
234
909520
3680
15:18
The questionFrage is:
235
914080
1496
15:19
will we investinvestieren in helpingPortion
all womenFrau get what they want now?
236
915600
5480
15:25
Or, are we going to condemnverurteilen them
to some century-longJahrhundert-langen struggleKampf,
237
921880
4696
15:30
as if this was still revolutionaryRevolutionär FranceFrankreich
238
926600
2736
15:33
and the bestBeste methodMethode
was coitusKoitus interruptusinterruptus?
239
929360
2800
15:39
EmpoweringStärkung der parentsEltern --
it doesn't need justificationRechtfertigung.
240
935320
4280
15:44
But here'shier ist the thing -- our desireVerlangen
to bringbringen everyjeden good thing to our childrenKinder
241
940560
6856
15:51
is a forceKraft for good throughoutwährend the worldWelt.
242
947440
2840
15:54
It's what propelstreibt societiesGesellschaften forwardVorwärts-.
243
950640
2480
15:58
In that samegleich slumSlum in NairobiNairobi,
I metgetroffen a youngjung businesswomanGeschäftsfrau,
244
954600
3936
16:02
and she was makingHerstellung backpacksRucksäcke
out of her home.
245
958560
2216
16:04
She and her youngjung kidsKinder
would go to the locallokal jeansJeans factoryFabrik
246
960800
3336
16:08
and collectsammeln scrapsSchrotte of denimDenim.
247
964160
1736
16:09
She'dSie würde createerstellen these backpacksRucksäcke
and resellzu verkaufen them.
248
965920
2536
16:12
And when I talkedsprach with her,
she had threedrei childrenKinder,
249
968480
2381
16:14
and I askedaufgefordert her about her familyFamilie.
250
970885
1576
16:16
And she said she and her husbandMann decidedbeschlossen
251
972485
2091
16:18
that they wanted to stop
havingmit childrenKinder after theirihr thirddritte one.
252
974600
3016
16:21
And so when I askedaufgefordert her why,
she simplyeinfach said,
253
977640
2656
16:24
"Well, because I couldn'tkonnte nicht runLauf
my businessGeschäft if I had anotherein anderer childKind."
254
980320
3496
16:27
And she explainederklärt the incomeEinkommen
that she was gettingbekommen out of her businessGeschäft
255
983840
3239
16:31
affordedleistete her to be ablefähig to give
an educationBildung to all threedrei of her childrenKinder.
256
987103
3720
16:35
She was incrediblyunglaublich optimisticoptimistisch
about her family'sFamilie futureZukunft.
257
991280
4280
16:41
This is the samegleich mentalgeistig calculusKalkül
258
997160
2536
16:43
that hundredsHunderte of millionsMillionen
of menMänner and womenFrau have goneWeg throughdurch.
259
999720
4176
16:47
And evidenceBeweise proveserweist sich
that they have it exactlygenau right.
260
1003920
3800
16:52
They are ablefähig to give theirihr childrenKinder
more opportunitiesChancen
261
1008320
3896
16:56
by exercisingdie Ausübung controlsteuern
over when they have them.
262
1012240
3280
17:01
In BangladeshBangladesch,
263
1017280
1296
17:02
there's a districtKreis callednamens MatlabMATLAB.
264
1018600
1936
17:04
It's where researchersForscher have collectedgesammelt dataDaten
on over 180,000 inhabitantsBewohner sinceschon seit 1963.
265
1020560
6736
17:11
In the globalglobal healthGesundheit communityGemeinschaft,
266
1027319
1537
17:12
we like to say it's one of the longestam längsten
piecesStücke of researchForschung that's been runningLaufen.
267
1028880
3696
17:16
We have so manyviele great healthGesundheit statisticsStatistiken.
268
1032599
2177
17:18
In one of the studiesStudien, what did they do?
269
1034800
2536
17:21
HalfDie Hälfte the villagersDorfbewohner
were chosengewählt to get contraceptivesVerhütungsmittel.
270
1037359
4096
17:25
They got educationBildung
and accessZugriff to contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung.
271
1041480
3176
17:28
TwentyZwanzig yearsJahre laterspäter,
followinges folgen those villagesDörfer,
272
1044680
3176
17:31
what we learnedgelernt is that they had a better
qualityQualität of life than theirihr neighborsNachbarn.
273
1047880
4016
17:35
The familiesFamilien were healthiergesünder.
274
1051920
1696
17:37
The womenFrau were lessWeniger likelywahrscheinlich
to diesterben in childbirthGeburt.
275
1053640
3136
17:40
TheirIhre childrenKinder were lessWeniger likelywahrscheinlich
to diesterben in the first thirtydreißig daysTage of life.
276
1056800
4016
17:44
The childrenKinder were better nourishedgenährt.
277
1060840
2296
17:47
The familiesFamilien were alsoebenfalls wealthierreicher.
278
1063160
2016
17:49
The adultErwachsene women'sDamen wagesLohn were higherhöher.
279
1065200
2496
17:51
HouseholdsHaushalte had more assetsVermögenswerte --
things like livestockVieh or landLand or savingsErsparnisse.
280
1067720
4520
17:56
FinallySchließlich, theirihr sonsSöhne and daughtersTöchter
had more schoolingSchulung.
281
1072800
3520
18:01
So when you multiplymultiplizieren these typesTypen
of effectsAuswirkungen over millionsMillionen of familiesFamilien,
282
1077480
5520
18:07
the productProdukt can be large-scalegroß angelegte
economicWirtschaftlich developmentEntwicklung.
283
1083440
3280
18:11
People talk about the AsianAsiatische
economicWirtschaftlich miracleWunder of the 1980s --
284
1087560
4056
18:15
but it wasn'twar nicht really a miracleWunder.
285
1091640
2056
18:17
One of the leadingführend causesUrsachen
of economicWirtschaftlich growthWachstum acrossüber that regionRegion
286
1093720
3536
18:21
was this culturalkulturell trendTrend
towardsin Richtung smallerkleiner familiesFamilien.
287
1097280
3840
18:26
SweepingFegen changesÄnderungen startAnfang
at the individualPerson familyFamilie levelEbene --
288
1102600
3896
18:30
the familyFamilie makingHerstellung a decisionEntscheidung
about what's bestBeste for theirihr childrenKinder.
289
1106520
4440
18:35
When they make that changeVeränderung
and that decisionEntscheidung,
290
1111760
3016
18:38
those becomewerden sweepingfegen
regionalregional and nationalNational trendsTrends.
291
1114800
3720
18:43
When familiesFamilien in sub-SaharanAfrika südlich der Sahara AfricaAfrika
are givengegeben the opportunityGelegenheit
292
1119160
4136
18:47
to make those decisionsEntscheidungen for themselvessich,
293
1123320
2360
18:50
I think it will help sparkFunke
a virtuoustugendhafte cycleZyklus of developmentEntwicklung
294
1126280
3256
18:53
in communitiesGemeinschaften acrossüber the continentKontinent.
295
1129560
2760
18:58
We can help poorArm familiesFamilien
buildbauen a better futureZukunft.
296
1134000
3856
19:01
We can insistbestehen that all people
have the opportunityGelegenheit
297
1137880
3696
19:05
to learnlernen about contraceptivesVerhütungsmittel
298
1141600
1936
19:07
and have accessZugriff
to the fullvoll varietyVielfalt of methodsMethoden.
299
1143560
3280
19:12
I think the goalTor here is really clearklar:
300
1148040
2856
19:14
universalUniversal- accessZugriff to birthGeburt controlsteuern
that womenFrau want.
301
1150920
4880
19:20
And for that to happengeschehen, it meansmeint that
bothbeide richReich and poorArm governmentsRegierungen alikewie
302
1156360
5296
19:25
mustsollen make contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung a totalgesamt priorityPriorität.
303
1161680
3520
19:29
We can do our partTeil,
in this roomZimmer and globallyglobal,
304
1165760
3976
19:33
by talkingim Gespräch about the hundredsHunderte
of millionsMillionen of familiesFamilien
305
1169760
3256
19:37
that don't have accessZugriff
to contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung todayheute
306
1173040
2896
19:39
and what it would do to changeVeränderung
theirihr livesLeben if they did have accessZugriff.
307
1175960
3720
19:44
I think if MarianneMarianne
and the membersMitglieder of her women'sDamen groupGruppe
308
1180680
3736
19:48
can talk about this openlyoffen
309
1184440
2296
19:50
and have this discussionDiskussion
out amongstunter themselvessich and in publicÖffentlichkeit,
310
1186760
3400
19:54
we can, too.
311
1190800
1360
19:56
And we need to startAnfang now.
312
1192760
1480
19:59
Because like MarianneMarianne, we all want
to bringbringen everyjeden good thing to our childrenKinder.
313
1195480
6560
20:06
And where is the controversyKontroverse in that?
314
1202800
2640
20:10
Thank you.
315
1206160
1216
20:11
(ApplauseApplaus)
316
1207400
2736
20:14
ChrisChris AndersonAnderson: Thank you.
317
1210160
1240
20:22
I have some questionsFragen for MelindaMelinda.
318
1218360
3976
20:26
(ApplauseApplaus endsendet)
319
1222360
1296
20:27
Thank you for your courageMut
and everything elsesonst.
320
1223680
2960
20:31
So, MelindaMelinda, in the last fewwenige yearsJahre
321
1227480
2496
20:34
I've heardgehört a lot of smartsmart people
say something to the effectbewirken of,
322
1230000
3720
20:39
"We don't need to worrySorge
about the populationBevölkerung issueProblem anymorenicht mehr.
323
1235400
3456
20:42
FamilyFamilie sizesGrößen are comingKommen down
naturallynatürlich all over the worldWelt.
324
1238880
3496
20:46
We're going to peakHaupt
at nineneun or 10 billionMilliarde. And that's it."
325
1242400
2960
20:50
Are they wrongfalsch?
326
1246720
1216
20:51
MelindaMelinda GatesGates: If you look
at the statisticsStatistiken acrossüber AfricaAfrika,
327
1247960
2776
20:54
they are wrongfalsch.
328
1250760
1216
20:56
And I think we need to look at it,
thoughobwohl, from a differentanders lensLinse.
329
1252000
3056
20:59
We need to look at it
from the groundBoden upwardsnach oben.
330
1255080
2176
21:01
I think that's one of the reasonsGründe dafür
we got ourselvesuns selbst in so much troubleÄrger
331
1257280
3256
21:04
on this issueProblem of contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung.
332
1260560
1696
21:06
We lookedsah at it from topoben down
333
1262280
1381
21:07
and said we want to have differentanders
populationBevölkerung numbersNummern over time.
334
1263685
3531
21:11
Yes, we carePflege about the planetPlanet.
Yes, we need to make the right choicesAuswahlmöglichkeiten.
335
1267240
3296
21:14
But the choicesAuswahlmöglichkeiten have to be madegemacht
at the familyFamilie levelEbene.
336
1270560
2576
21:17
And it's only by givinggeben people accessZugriff
and lettingVermietung them choosewählen what to do
337
1273160
4336
21:21
that you get those sweepingfegen changesÄnderungen
that we have seengesehen globallyglobal --
338
1277520
3056
21:24
exceptaußer for sub-SaharanAfrika südlich der Sahara AfricaAfrika and those
placessetzt in SouthSüden AsiaAsien and AfghanistanAfghanistan.
339
1280600
4680
21:31
CACA: Some people on the right in AmericaAmerika
340
1287920
2096
21:34
and in manyviele conservativekonservativ culturesKulturen
around the worldWelt
341
1290040
3400
21:39
mightMacht say something like this:
342
1295360
1816
21:41
"It's all very well to talk about savingsparen
livesLeben and empoweringBefähigung womenFrau and so on.
343
1297200
3667
21:44
But, sexSex is sacredheilig.
344
1300891
1960
21:48
What you're proposingvorschlagen
is going to increaseerhöhen, ansteigen the likelihoodWahrscheinlichkeit
345
1304000
4016
21:52
that lots of sexSex happensdas passiert outsidedraußen marriageEhe.
346
1308040
2216
21:54
And that is wrongfalsch."
347
1310280
1440
21:56
What would you say to them?
348
1312600
2056
21:58
MGMG: I would say
that sexSex is absolutelyunbedingt sacredheilig.
349
1314680
3256
22:01
And it's sacredheilig in GermanyDeutschland,
and it's sacredheilig in the UnitedVereinigte StatesStaaten,
350
1317960
3096
22:05
and it's sacredheilig in FranceFrankreich
and so manyviele placessetzt around the worldWelt.
351
1321080
3096
22:08
And the factTatsache that 98 percentProzent of womenFrau
in my countryLand who are sexuallysexuell experiencederfahren
352
1324200
4896
22:13
say they use birthGeburt controlsteuern
doesn't make sexSex any lessWeniger sacredheilig.
353
1329120
4176
22:17
It just meansmeint that they're gettingbekommen
to make choicesAuswahlmöglichkeiten about theirihr livesLeben.
354
1333320
3256
22:20
And I think in that choiceWahl,
355
1336600
1296
22:21
we're alsoebenfalls honoringEhren
the sacrednessHeiligkeit of the familyFamilie
356
1337920
2896
22:24
and the sacrednessHeiligkeit of the mother'sMutter life
357
1340840
2256
22:27
and the childrens'Childrens livesLeben
by savingsparen theirihr livesLeben.
358
1343120
2256
22:29
To me, that's incrediblyunglaublich sacredheilig, too.
359
1345400
2280
22:32
CACA: So what is your foundationStiftung
doing to promotefördern this issueProblem?
360
1348760
4736
22:37
And what could people here
and people listeningHören on the webweb --
361
1353520
4016
22:41
what would you like them to do?
362
1357560
1536
22:43
MGMG: I would say this --
joinbeitreten the conversationKonversation.
363
1359120
2143
22:45
We'veWir haben listedgelistet the websiteWebseite up here.
JoinJoin the conversationKonversation.
364
1361287
4169
22:49
Tell your storyGeschichte about how contraceptionEmpfängnisverhütung
has eitherentweder changedgeändert your life
365
1365480
3816
22:53
or somebody'sjemandes life that you know.
366
1369320
2016
22:55
And say that you're for this.
367
1371360
1381
22:56
We need a groundswellWelle
of people sayingSprichwort, "This makesmacht senseSinn.
368
1372765
2715
22:59
We'veWir haben got to give all womenFrau accessZugriff --
no matterAngelegenheit where they liveLeben."
369
1375504
3392
23:02
And one of the things
that we're going to do
370
1378920
2096
23:05
is do a largegroß eventEvent JulyJuli 11 in LondonLondon,
371
1381040
3176
23:08
with a wholeganze hostGastgeber of countriesLänder,
a wholeganze hostGastgeber of AfricanAfrikanische nationsNationen,
372
1384240
3376
23:11
to all say we're puttingPutten this back
on the globalglobal healthGesundheit agendaAgenda.
373
1387640
3136
23:14
We're going to commitverpflichten resourcesRessourcen to it,
374
1390800
1856
23:16
and we're going to do planningPlanung
from the bottomBoden up with governmentsRegierungen
375
1392680
3136
23:19
to make sure that womenFrau are educatedgebildet --
376
1395840
2096
23:21
so that if they
want the toolWerkzeug, they have it,
377
1397960
2456
23:24
and that they have
lots of optionsOptionen availableverfügbar
378
1400440
2096
23:26
eitherentweder throughdurch
theirihr locallokal healthcareGesundheitswesen workerArbeitnehmer
379
1402560
2096
23:28
or theirihr locallokal communityGemeinschaft ruralländlich clinicKlinik.
380
1404680
1880
23:31
CACA: MelindaMelinda, I'm guessingRaten that some
of those nunsNonnen who taughtgelehrt you at schoolSchule
381
1407920
4576
23:36
are going to see
this TEDTED Talk at some pointPunkt.
382
1412520
2640
23:39
Are they going to be horrifiedentsetzt,
or are they cheeringjubeln you on?
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23:42
MGMG: I know they're going
to see the TEDTED Talk
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23:45
because they know that I'm doing it
and I planplanen to sendsenden it to them.
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23:48
And, you know, the nunsNonnen who taughtgelehrt me
were incrediblyunglaublich progressiveprogressiv.
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23:51
I hopeHoffnung that they'llsie werden be very proudstolz of me
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23:53
for livingLeben out what they taughtgelehrt us
about socialSozial justiceGerechtigkeit and serviceBedienung.
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23:57
I have come to feel
incrediblyunglaublich passionateleidenschaftlich about this issueProblem
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24:01
because of what I've seengesehen
in the developingEntwicklung worldWelt.
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24:03
And for me, this topicThema
has becomewerden very closeschließen to heartHerz
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24:08
because you meetTreffen these womenFrau
and they are so oftenhäufig voicelessstimmlosen.
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24:11
And yetnoch they shouldn'tsollte nicht be --
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24:13
they should have a voiceStimme,
they should have accessZugriff.
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And so I hopeHoffnung they'llsie werden feel
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24:17
that I'm livingLeben out
what I've learnedgelernt from them
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and from the decadesJahrzehnte of work
that I've alreadybereits doneerledigt at the foundationStiftung.
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24:24
CACA: So, you and your teamMannschaft broughtgebracht togetherzusammen
todayheute an amazingtolle groupGruppe of speakersLautsprecher
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to whomwem we're all gratefuldankbar.
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Did you learnlernen anything?
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24:33
(LaughterLachen)
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MGMG: Oh my goshMeine Güte, I learnedgelernt so manyviele things.
I have so manyviele follow-upFollow-up questionsFragen.
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24:38
And I think a lot
of this work is a journeyReise.
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You heardgehört the discussionDiskussion
about the journeyReise throughdurch energyEnergie,
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24:44
or the journeyReise throughdurch socialSozial designEntwurf,
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24:47
or the journeyReise in the comingKommen and sayingSprichwort,
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24:49
"Why aren'tsind nicht there any womenFrau
on this platformPlattform?"
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24:51
And I think for all of us who work
on these developmentEntwicklung issuesProbleme,
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24:54
you learnlernen by talkingim Gespräch to other people.
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24:56
You learnlernen by doing.
You learnlernen by tryingversuchen and makingHerstellung mistakesFehler.
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24:59
And it's the questionsFragen you askFragen.
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25:00
SometimesManchmal it's the questionsFragen you askFragen
that helpshilft leadführen to the answerAntworten
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the nextNächster personPerson
that can help you answerAntworten it.
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So I have lots of questionsFragen
for the panelistsDiskussionsteilnehmer from todayheute.
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And I thought it was just an amazingtolle day.
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CACA: MelindaMelinda, thank you for invitingeinladend
all of us on this journeyReise with you.
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Thank you so much.
MGMG: Great. ThanksVielen Dank, ChrisChris.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Melinda Gates - Philanthropist
Melinda French Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she puts into practice the idea that every life has equal value.

Why you should listen

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. As co-chair, Melinda French Gates helps shape and approve strategies, review results, advocate for foundation issues and set the overall direction. In developing countries, the foundation focuses on improving people's health with vaccines and other life-saving tools and giving them a chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to dramatically improve education so that all young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

In recent years, Melinda French Gates has become a vocal advocate for access to contraception, advancing the idea that empowering women to decide whether and when to have children can have transformational effects on societies. In 2012, Gates spearheaded the London Summit on Family Planning, with the goal of delivering contraceptives to 120 million women in developing countries by 2020. When asked why she got involved in this issue, Gates said, "We knew that 210 million women were saying they wanted access to the contraceptives we have here in the United States and we weren't providing them because of political controversy in our country. To me, that was just a crime. I kept looking around trying to find the person to get this back on the global stage. I realized I just had to do it."

 

More profile about the speaker
Melinda Gates | Speaker | TED.com