Businesses always concentrate on the bottom line, or what the accountants call “return on investment.”
The return on investment from educating girls is incredible. It includes much higher wages throughout life, lower infant mortality and fewer child marriages. “If we get our education, we can do anything,” says first lady Michelle Obama, who herself rose from a working-class family in Chicago to earn degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School.
But 62 million girls are not in school, and millions more are fighting to stay there. The White House’s #LetGirlsLearn initiative is trying to open schoolhouse doors for girls worldwide.
Denying girls the opportunity to learn could deprive everyone of the next scientist to discover a cancer cure, the next business leader to transform an industry, or even a future president or prime minister, says the first lady: “If she never steps foot in a classroom, the chances are she will never discover or fulfill that potential.”
