This year, the theme for International Women’s Day on 8 March is: “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. This celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the gaps that remain.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 130 million girls were out of school globally. This number will have increased as inequality gaps have widened – in less than one year, COVID-19 has threatened to turn back 25 years of progress in girls’ education and empowerment. In 2021, as the UK hosts the presidency of the G7 groups of industrial nations, the UK Government has identified girls’ education as a key focus. Enabling girls and women to lead a full and effective participation and leadership in education and all areas of life, drives progress for everyone.

Here is a collection of just a few related blogs we recently published. There is of course much more relevant content on our website and we encourage you to take a few moments to browse every now and then as new content is added frequently.

Adolescent women are being left behind in international efforts to end poverty
By Pauline Rose, Sandra Baxter and Tom Kirk, REAL Centre
Scholarships alone are not enough to get more qualified female teachers into Nigeria’s schools
By Sara Humphreys, Máiréad Dunne, Naureen Durrani, Jiddere Kaibo, and Swadchet Sankey
Facing the future of girls’ education for the COVID-19 generation
By Sharon Tao, Girls’ Education Challenge
Gender disparity in education amidst COVID-19: A reflection on India’s social viruses
By Sukhada Ghosalkar, Pratham Education Foundation
Safeguarding girls’ education during and after COVID-19
By Khadijah Fancy, Cambridge Education
Voices from Sierra Leone: The real experiences of girls with disabilities at school
By Sightsavers
Good teaching is inclusive for all, so why focus on marginalised adolescent girls?
By Anita Reilly, Girls’ Education Challenge
Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined
By Safeena Husain, Educate Girls
UK government’s foreign aid cuts put girls’ education at risk
By Pauline Rose, REAL Centre at the University of Cambridge
Many girls won’t go back to school when lockdown is over
By Emma Smith, Devex
5 actions to help bring the most marginalized girls back to school after COVID-19
By Robert Jenkins, UNICEF and Rebecca Winthrop, Brookings Institution
Tackling gender norms offers hope for girls’ education in low- and middle-income countries
By Catherine Jere, University of East Anglia
Transformative political leadership for girls’ education
By Pauline Rose, REAL Centre at the University of Cambridge