Right around this time last year, many of us at the Gates Foundation were starting to worry that the public health crisis emerging in Wuhan would soon be felt everywhere we work. With each passing week, it was becoming clearer that the new coronavirus was unlikely to be contained and a once-in-a-century pandemic was looming. While the world didn’t know much about COVID-19 yet, I was certain of one thing: a pandemic would lead to devastating setbacks for women everywhere.