'Fortune': Melinda Gates Steps Into the Spotlight

By Caroline Preston

Melinda Gates has long dreaded the spotlight. But today, at 43, she's playing a bigger and more public role in the work of the foundation she helped to start, writes Fortune (January 21).

"I had always thought that when my youngest child started full-day school I'd step up," Ms. Gates says. Now she is devoting more time to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, up to 30 hours a week.

"As I thought about strong women of history, I realized that they stepped