Another episode of The President’s Inbox is live. Jim sat down with Ann Norris, senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council to discuss the challenges facing adolescent girls around the world and the societal benefits to be had from harnessing their potential.

Here are five highlights from their conversation:

1.) Adolescence is a formative period in a girl’s life. There are some 600 million adolescent girls around the world; 500 million live in low- and middle-income countries. Ann noted that “this period in a girl's life”—which takes place in a girl’s life from roughly age 10 to age 19—is “when the trajectory of their life can really go one way or the other.” It is during adolescence that girls may or may not have opportunities to further their education or participate in the labor market. Ann added, “stepping in at that point to make sure that girls are able to continue their education, to be free from violence, to have opportunity, and to feel like they're valued members of their community can really have a tremendous impact.”

2.) Girls who complete higher levels of education have more agency in their lives, including decisions over when to get married and have children. Child marriage is a worldwide problem with young girls often being married to much older men. “It's a human rights abuse, and it's far too widespread,” Ann argued. “It has really profound and devastating consequences for the girls who endure it constantly around the world.” At the same time, “girls who are able to complete twelve years of education often have fewer children over the course of their lifetime.”

3.) Educated and empowered girls earn more and are better prepared to act on policy issues. Educated girls have greater earning potential, which benefits both them and their communities. “If you can get a girl through twelve years of school,” Ann noted, “her lifetime earnings will double. If she has the chance of going on to college, we're talking about a tripling of lifetime earning potential.” Some estimates put the potential economic growth of educating girls and young women to be as high as $30 trillion. At the same time, educated girls can advocate and innovate on policy issues. Ann pointed to progress on climate adaptation in some communities as an example. She acknowledged, “when they're more empowered in their communities through education, [girls can] form groups and focus on tools and mitigation.”

4.) Primary level schooling isn’t enough. Funding early levels of education has long been the U.S. government’s bread and butter. The unique challenges that adolescent girls face, however, are often neglected in work on global gender equality. “I think there's been this tremendous focus on gender equality, and there's been a lot of work done on younger girls, and there's been a lot of work done on women,” Ann argued. “And too often, that demographic just gets kind of lost, and once they're kind of lost from protections and services, their lives, in many ways, end up not being where we want them to go.” Failing to invest in education for adolescent girls can mean squandering the benefits of early education. “If you think about it,” Ann observed, “a sixth grade education doesn't really equip you for the current global economy to do math, read, write, converse, set up bank accounts.” More education gives adolescent girls the “tools and education to have a fighting chance within these systems.”

5.) The United States can lead the effort to champion programs for adolescent girls by helping fund and develop initiatives in communities around the world. Local communities should be empowered and given the tools to lead on these issues. The best work on fighting issues like childhood marriage has been led by the people closest to them. Ann offered the example of Kakenya’s Dream—a nonprofit founded by Kakenya Ntaiya from the Maasai community in Kenya. It focuses on empowering adolescent girls and young women. While the United States does have competing priorities at home and abroad, investing in efforts to help adolescent girls around the world can only produce positive outcomes. Ann argued: “We want to see violence end. We want to see safer and more secure communities. We want to see economic empowerment. And the answer is kind of staring in our face.”

If you’re looking to read more of Ann’s analysis, check out her report for CFR on the global architecture for gender equality.