The rollback of reproductive rights in the U.S. is sharpening French Gates's focus on gender equity—and shaping the goals of Pivotal, her ambitious investment company.

The billionaire flyboys of space tourism get all the attention, but women are developing some of the most promising technologies designed for the final frontier.

“We didn’t build this like a traditional VC firm,” says Mallun Yen, founder and general partner at Operator Collective, and a long-time tech exec who has helped scale multiple Silicon Valley companies. “We wanted to turn the model on its head.”

Gates writes eloquently and powerfully about the disproportionate amount of so-called “unpaid work” that millions of women do each day, from cooking to cleaning to childcare. Gates is the first to acknowledge that she has been incredibly privileged in life. But her personal challenges with the inequality of unpaid work strengthens her argument about the universality and severity of the problem.

In Ecuador, 21% of 18- to 24-year-olds think it is okay to kiss a colleague at an office party without permission, and in the U.K., 35% of 25- 34-year-olds think it’s acceptable to pinch a colleague’s bottom in jest. (Yes, really.) The takeaway? Sexual harassment is a global epidemic that is just starting to come to light. Especially in industries and parts of the world where laws and attitudes have yet to change, there’s a long road ahead.