04/13/2026
It's something to know about child marriages.
The global cost of child marriage is estimated at $175 billion a year, according to a new analysis by the Center for Global Development. “I believe it’s a human rights issue—I’ve always believed that—but I want to add the dimension that it is also an economic issue,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says.
Lean In founder Sheryl Sandberg emphasizes that lost wages, reduced workforce participation and declining health all feed into that number.
“When children become brides, they then have children,” she says. “You have 14-year-old girls having babies, and their bodies aren’t ready for that. That decreases their health and welfare and traps us in a cycle of poverty. If the world recognized what an economic issue this was, it wouldn’t just be people who care about women’s rights—it would be everyone, because everyone cares about the economy.”
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2026/04/12/former-us-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-and-sheryl-sandberg-join-forces-to-end-child-marriage/?utm_campaign=ForbesMainFB&utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_medium=social
📸: Columbia Engineering
