philanthropist melinda gates said she believes leaders must put women at the center of their response to covid19 in order to address the child care crisis were seeing women leave the workforce in droves compared to men gates told abc news a lot of it has to do with the types of jobs women are in but also the caregiving that women do for children and the elderly women are losing their livelihoods faster because they are more exposed to hardhit economic sections according to a new analysis commissioned by un women and the united nations development programme by 2021 around 435 million women and girls will be living on less than 190 a day including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of covid19 philanthropist melinda gates joins abc news live to speak out gender equality amid the pandemic abc gates said that with so many women leaving their positions to care for loved ones it could result in a massive setback for gender equality in the workplace we could have a whole generation of women who leave the workforce she said and then if we dont deal with the caregiving crisis weve got they may never go back gates urged president joe biden to support the child care sector by appointing a caregiving czar to address the crisis of women leaving the workforce and organize support programs i think we need to coordinate our governments efforts across a number of agencies gates said we need to make sure that we have the right longterm policies for paid family medical leave president barack obama melinda gates and bill gates speak at goalkeepers 2017 at jazz at lincoln center on sept 20 2017 in new york jamie mccarthygetty images file more bill and melinda gates foundation announces 250 million covid vaccine commitment to date the bill melinda gates foundation has given about 175 billion to the pandemic response but the latest 250 million donation has been earmarked for equality gates said that putting resources toward helping women especially minority women will ultimately help society as a whole my message to leaders directly would be women are the backbone of your society they take care of your children they take care of everybody else when you invest in them they invest in the entire community said gates having women and people of color in positions of power makes a difference for society representation matters