As the movie Hidden Figures recently showed, many women around the world, for a variety of reasons, are not able to contribute fully to their communities and to society. In this op ed, GPE Board Chair Julia Gillard introduces the story of Rumana, a 26-year old Sudanese mother who decided to go to school so that she could help her own children learn. Around the world 130 million girls are not attending school. We are left to wonder: how many innovations and inventions are missing? How much progress could be achieved if these girls were able to get an education?

The op ed was also published in German in Der Tagesspiegel