We have spent a lot of time talking about the places where women lag behind men. Women make up 50 percent of the world’s population, but hold only 20 percent of seats in the US Congress and just 14 percent of the top five leadership positions at all companies in the S&P 500. Less than 5 percent of the top companies CEOs are women. Women in the US are up in arms over these depressing figures. Rightly so.

There is one area where women undoubtedly lead the pack – poverty. Girls and women represent 70 percent of those on less than $1.50 a day.

Obviously, this is no cause for celebration. In fact, it’s  just part of the same story we spend so much time fretting over in Western society. Women, across the board, in pretty much all societies, simply do not get the same opportunities as men. It’s a complex issue – patriarchy, societal expectations, responsibility for child rearing, and myriad other reasons come into play.

Consider this:

● The challenges for girls and women start at the beginning of life. Every Mother Counts has found that every two minutes, a mother dies of complications during childbirth, adding up to 289,000 deaths each year. Up to 98 percent of these deaths are preventable.

● The disparities continue in childhood, with girls more likely than boys to be out of school. According to UNESCO, girls represent 58 percent of children not completing primary school and two-thirds of the world’s 774 million illiterate people.

● And the results impact girls as they grow into adults. Gallup reports that global full time employment rates have been stuck at 34 percent for men and 18 percent for women since 2012.

But these facts also present an incredible opportunity: invest in the group that’s most behind to help lift everybody up. When you talk about ending poverty, investing in women provides a chance to use societal expectations and child-rearing responsibilities to compound positive effects. Investments in women lead to healthier children, better educated populations, and more equal, successful communities.

Here are some examples:

● Access to family planning options in developing countries helped prevent 1 million maternal deaths between 1990 and 2005. Access to skilled health care during childbirth can reduce the chance of death by 54 percent for both mothers and their babies.  

● Educating women further improves a community’s chance to thrive. UNESCO research shows that additional schooling for girls reduces birth and HIV rates, while increasing the likelihood of child survival and the probability that the mother will keep her own children in school.  

● ONE estimates that working to even out the employment imbalance could result in an additional $1.6 trillion in global output. Much of this money would likely get pumped back into the family: The Girl Effect estimates educated women reinvest 90 percent of their income in their families, compared with 35 percent for boys.

This is not a call to invest in girls and women at the expense of boys and men. Rather, it’s a suggestion that, maybe – just maybe – focusing investments on girls and women could be a silver bullet to help end extreme poverty for everybody. If girls and women, as mothers who bear the brunt of child-rearing responsibilities, are more likely to pass their gains on to their own children, then investing in them seems like a no brainer.

Perhaps it’s also a way to create a more equal society everywhere. One where women are valued because of how much they contribute to the health and success of their families and communities. One where more women get to lead at the highest levels, no matter what community she lives in, by contributing to decisions at home, earning more money at work, or maybe even attaining the title of Senator, Congressperson, or Chief Executive Officer.

If you agree that girls and women are the key to ending extreme poverty, TAKE ACTION now to help protect their rights around the world.