I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1661 
To support and expand civic engagement and political leadership of adolescent 
girls around the world, and other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 8, 2021 
Mr. TRONE (for himself and Mrs. RODGERS of Washington) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To support and expand civic engagement and political leader-
ship of adolescent girls around the world, and other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Girls Leadership, En-
gagement, Agency, and Development Act of 2021’’ or the 
‘‘Girls LEAD Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Inclusive democracy and governance are 
fundamental objectives and critical foundations for 
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sustainable development and global peace. Pro-
motion of democracy, human rights, and governance 
is a reflection of fundamental American values and 
identity. 
(2) Democracies score consistently higher than 
nondemocracies on a broad range of socioeconomic 
development indicators, including infant and child 
mortality, life expectancy, primary school enrollment, 
adult literacy, female youth literacy, female sec-
ondary school enrollment, and access to clean water. 
(3) Women’s political participation results in 
tangible gains for democracy, including greater re-
sponsiveness to citizen needs, increased cooperation 
across party and ethnic lines, and more sustainable 
peace, as emphasized in the Women, Peace, and Se-
curity Act (Public Law 115–68). 
(4) Women in leadership positions are more 
likely to resolve national crises without resorting to 
violence, sustain peace agreements over longer peri-
ods of time, advocate for social issues that benefit 
all, and allocate budgets to health and education. 
(5) Despite comprising over 50 percent of the 
world’s population, women are underrepresented at 
all levels of public sector decision making. At the 
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current rate of progress, it will take over 100 years 
to achieve gender parity in political participation. 
(6) Engaging adolescent girls more in civil and 
political activities contributes to increased political 
participation and women’s leadership around the 
world over time. Adolescents who participate actively 
in their community from early on are more likely to 
become engaged citizens and voters, with higher lev-
els of ambition for future leadership positions in 
both politics and the private sector. Their safe, 
meaningful, and appropriate participation is key to 
creating democratic societies with informed and en-
gaged citizens. 
(7) Adolescence is a critical period in a girl’s 
life, when significant physical, emotional, and social 
changes shape her future. Adolescent girls are par-
ticularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and other STDs 
and STIs, child, early, and forced marriage, and 
other forms of gender-based violence, including traf-
ficking in persons and sexual exploitation, harass-
ment, and assault, which are detrimental to their fu-
tures. 
(8) School closures related to the COVID–19 
pandemic have pushed nearly 743,000,000 girls 
around the world out of school, on top of the ap-
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proximately 132,000,000 girls between the ages of 6 
and 17 already out of school. 
(9) The economic impacts of the COVID–19 
crisis are projected to put an additional 2,500,000 
girls at risk of child marriage between 2020 and 
2025, in addition to the 12,000,000 adolescent girls 
under 18 who will marry annually. The number one 
cause of death for adolescent girls 15 to 19 years old 
is childbirth, and 90 percent of births to adolescent 
girls 15 to 19 occur within a marriage. 
(10) Every 10 minutes, somewhere in the 
world, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. 
A girl’s risk of dying as a result of violence increases 
from early to late adolescence. Violence is the second 
leading cause of death among adolescent girls glob-
ally. Girls with disabilities may face up to 10 times 
more violence than girls without disabilities. 
(11) Empowering adolescent girls and young 
women in childhood and as they transition to become 
adults, investing in their leadership potential, and 
ensuring there are established pathways to positions 
of political leadership and civic engagement con-
tribute to ensuring a world where women can thrive 
as political leaders and decision makers, in economic 
spaces and across society as a whole. 
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