Each January, leading economists, journalists, corporate executives, and political and opinion leaders gather near the ski slopes of Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. At this year’s forum, Melinda Gates, one of the premier U.S. philanthropists and wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, made the case that increasing the number of women in the workplace and expanding economic opportunities to them worldwide will play a major role in battling global poverty over the next 15 years. So reports The Guardian.