Today, women still make up 66% of the world's illiterate adults, 40% of the global labour force and only 6% of international leaders. The year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. And while much progress has been made, the promise of the Platform for Action remains unfulfilled. We are also starting to see a backlash that is seeking to reverse these gains and intimidate the women who are driving progress. In the build up to the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW64) in March 2020, this blog series brings together key research and experts from ODI to critically examine global progress and challenges to gender equality since 1995, and to outline realistic goals for accelerating progress over the next 25 years. The blog series is divided into seven parts and each addresses a critical area of concern outlined in the Beijing Platform for Action: the girl child (Nicola Jones)m women and poverty (Carmen Leon-Himmelstine), women in power and decision-making (Rachel George), violence against women (Virginie Le Masson), women in the economy (Sara Pantuliano and Arancha González), education and training of women (Rachel Marcus), women and armed conflict (Karen Barnes Robinson).