This is an IHeart podcast.

I'm Maeve Higgins and this is Solvable,

interviews with the world's most innovative thinkers working to solve the world's biggest problems.

My solvable is that by 2030 we can make sure every girl gets a great education and she gets a chance to be a leader.

What makes me want to solve this problem is my life experience. I know how transformative education is.

And having had the privilege of being a leader,

I want to see more women get access to leadership positions.

That is Julia Gillard, the first and so far the only woman to be Prime Minister of Australia.

She left office in 2013.

As you'll hear, leaving office was tough for her.

Getting there in the first place was even tougher, though, and this isn't surprising.

Around the world and throughout different industries and roles, women leaders are actually on the decline.

Forbes reported that women held under a quarter of senior roles across the world in 2018,

and women represent just 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

But we're jumping ahead.

Globally, girls are more likely than boys to be excluded from primary school

and women make up more than two-thirds of the world's nearly 800 million illiterate people.

But say you're one of the lucky ones.

You go to school, you go to college, you excel in your field,

it's still unlikely that you'll actually become a leader.

Just in the United States alone, the figures are pretty bad. Take medicine, where women

represent 40% of all physicians and surgeons, but fewer than one in five are permanent medical

...