Sheryl Sandberg pushes a $175 billion case for ending child marriage
By Elissa Miolene // 04 March 2026
Sheryl Sandberg thinks the world would be a better place with more women leading it.
The billionaire philanthropist — who served as Facebook’s first chief operating officer for over a decade — has poured millions of dollars toward that goal, founding the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation in 2013. But today, Sandberg is taking on one of the biggest obstacles to female leadership worldwide: child marriage, a practice that forces 12 million girls out of school every year.
“Child marriage takes away every bit of autonomy that a girl has,” Sandberg told Devex. “It doesn’t just take away her present, but her future.”
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About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene covers U.S. foreign assistance from Washington, D.C. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other news outlets across the world. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for aid agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
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