Girls are doing better than ever. Don’t let the pandemic block them. For much of human history and in many places, girls were considered property, or ,at best, (subordinate )people, required to obey their fathers until the day they had to start obeying their husbands.Few people thought it worthwhile to educate them. But when societies handle girlhood well, the knock-on effects are astonishing. A girl who finishes secondary school is less likely to become a child bride or a teenage mother. Education boosts her earning power and widens her choices, so she is less likely to be poor or to suffer domestic abuse. A recently study by Citigroup and Plan International estimated that, if a group of emerging economies ensured that 100% of their girls completed secondary school, it could lead to a lasting boost in their GDP of 10% by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic could block progress for girls in poor countries，or even reverse it.When Ebola forced West African schools to close in 2014, many girls dropped out, never went back to school and ended up pregnant or as child laborers. UNICEF warms that something similar could happen with COVID-19—but on a larger scale. The risk of going backward is real. So it is crucial that, even if governments of poor countries have to tighten their belt, spending on education and girls should be a top priority.