The ex-wives of two of the world's richest men have teamed up to donate large amounts of the money they were awarded in their divorces to charity.
Melinda French Gates, the ex-wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, have agreed to donate $40 million to the Equality Can't Wait Challenge, a competition to assist and advance women in the United States.
Four winners of the challenge were selected who will share the money between them. The four are organisations that support childcare infrastructure, helping women into software careers, assisting Native women, and assisting with female education.
The divorcee pair say the work is particularly important as the pandemic has had an overly negative impact on women, and the work of women.
Gates said:
"We can break the patterns of history and advance gender equality, but we must commit to lifting up organizations, like the ones receiving awards today, that are ready to lift up women and girls."
Scott added:
"The awardees are strong teams working on the front lines and from within communities to help women build power in their lives and careers."
Both of the women have signed the 'Giving Pledge', which is an agreement that both will give away most of their wealth in their lifetimes to good causes.
Scott has already donated $1.6 billion of her wealth to good causes, which she has decided upon with her new husband. These include charities that oppose racism, support the LGBT community, and fight climate change. The entire wealth that she received from the divorce is around $64 billion. This is the result of a 4% stake in Jeff Bezos' Amazon company.
Gates has extensive charity experience with her former husband Bill Gates with whom she ran the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation tackles health and poverty issues worldwide and has also been involved in vaccine research and development.
Among other major figures to have signed the giving pledge are billionaire investor Warren Buffet and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
[h/t: CNN]
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