1. The future is female- and youth-driven.
According to the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the world is currently home to more
than 1.1 billion girls under the age of 18.
They are poised to become the largest generation of female leaders,
entrepreneurs, and change-makers the world has ever seen. Today, 2 in 3 girls are enrolled in secondary school, compared
with just 1 in 2 in 1998. And thanks to better access to health care, food,
education, and economic opportunity, girls born today can expect to live an
average of nearly eight years longer than girls born in 1995.
But progress is still
far too slow and far too fragile. In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s decree
forbidding girls and women to attend secondary school or enter the workforce
has undermined two decades of educational and economic progress. The recent
rollback of reproductive rights by the U.S. Supreme Court means girls and young
women in the United States now have fewer rights than their mothers and
grandmothers did at their age.
2. The world turns thanks to the girls.
In many ways, the
global economy depends on the unpaid, underappreciated work of girls and young
women. In every country on the planet, girls bear disproportionate
responsibility for domestic labor, including caring for young, elderly, or sick
relatives. In Burkina Faso, girls between the ages of 10 and 14 spend 21 or more hours each week on household chores than
boys their age.
Girls and young women
across the globe also play crucial roles as human rights defenders and agents
of change. From Chile to South Africa, girls have emerged as an integral part
of the struggle for fairer societies. Their activism has brought about unique
contributions to the advancement of gender equality and human rights. In
Brazil, thanks in part to the advocacy of local Girl Up clubs, 16- and
17-year-old girls registered to vote in record numbers for this year’s critical
national election. The right of girls and young women to participate in public
and political life is guaranteed under international human
rights law for a reason: For societies to thrive, their voices
are vital
3.
Girls’ access to education is changing history — and saving lives.
More
girls are learning than ever before in human history. In fact, between 1995 and
2018, the number of illiterate girls and young women between the ages of 15 and
24 was nearly halved — from
100 million to 56 million. Technology is accelerating these educational gains
by offering powerful online platforms for girls and young women to connect with
one another and create change. Nine out of 10 girls
and young women regularly engage with social topics online.
Education
isn’t just rescuing girls from poverty or adolescent pregnancy. It’s also
protecting them from harm and hunger, and offering them hope for a brighter
future. In surveys from Lebanon,
Pakistan, and Ethiopia, girls shared how being in the classroom shields them
from violence at home, defies gender stereotypes, and encourages them to aspire
to a better life.
At
the same time, crises like COVID-19 and extreme weather are threatening this
progress. Globally, the rate of adolescent pregnancies rose during the
pandemic. One study in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and the United Republic of Tanzania
found that 56% of adolescent
girls from hard-to-reach populations who had dropped out of school early in the
pandemic were currently or recently pregnant. In the Horn of Africa, meanwhile,
historic drought is causing an increase in child marriages and
girls dropping out of school, according to UNICEF.
Yet
girls have also stepped up during the pandemic to protect one another. One
study found that adolescent girls in leadership clubs assumed key roles in disseminating information about
COVID-19, mobilizing study groups, tracking cases of absenteeism and
dropouts, and preventing early marriages among peers through mentorships.
4. For
girls in every country on the planet, bodily autonomy needs to be a top
priority.
Sexual
and reproductive health and rights isn’t just an issue of civil liberty. It’s a
matter of life and death. Some 70,000 girls die each
year from pregnancy or childbirth complications, making it the second leading
cause of death for girls aged 15-19 worldwide. One in 4 adolescent
girls aged 15-19 has an unmet need for contraception. Seven million girls under
the age of 18 give birth each year.
Today,
over 1.2 billion girls and women of
reproductive age live in countries and areas that have some restrictions on
access to safe abortion. An additional 102 million live in
places where abortion is prohibited.
Though
female genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a human rights
violation, 1 in 3 girls aged 15-19 are still cut today in 31 countries that
compile national data on the practice’s prevalence. But the tide is shifting;
in 2021 alone, 4,475 communities made
public declarations committing to eliminate female genital mutilation.
While
child marriage has declined in the past three decades, 1 in 5 girls worldwide
still wed before the age of 18. The ripple effects of child marriage are well-documented: Child brides are more likely
to leave or be excluded from school, live in poverty, suffer from complicated
pregnancies, and experience social isolation and gender-based violence,
according to UNICEF.
5. Girls are living the
consequences of climate change — and taking climate action.
Research
suggests that girls and young women are the hardest hit by climate change. A
study in Botswana found that 56% of girls are
traveling longer distances than usual to fetch water as a result of extreme
weather. Globally, four out of five people displaced
by climate change are girls and women. Studies show a rise
in gender-based violence during or after extreme weather events, often as a
result of economic instability, food insecurity, mental stress, disrupted
infrastructure, increased exposure to men, and exacerbated gender inequality.
Despite
climate change’s disproportionate impact on girls in particular, their voices
are still not adequately represented in climate discussions, resulting in policies
that don’t address their specific needs. Less than 2% of
national climate strategies mention girls.
At
the same time, girls hold enormous potential to inspire change and make
progress. At just 13, student Greta Thunberg staged a strike outside of
Sweden’s Parliament that kick-started a wave of global youth strikes for
climate action. Importantly, girls are increasingly aware of their capacity to
spark change. One survey found that 80% of girls and
young women believe they have the power to tackle climate change directly.
Another showed that 1 in 3 girls has already taken action.