Backdropped by a night time view of the Earth and the starry sky, the Space Shuttle Endeavour is seen docked to the International Space Station on May 28, 2011. (Photo by Reuters/NASA)

As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, women's rights activists point to progress on a wide array of issues but say more needs to be done to protect girls from child marriage, sexual assault and other forms of exploitation. Here is a selection of pictures showing the daily lives of girls across the globe, all taken by female Associated Press photojournalists. Here: In this December 14, 2015, file photo, a young clown rides in the back of a car following a procession to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Hundreds belonging to various clown associations made their annual pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay their respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

This image provided by NASA shows parts of Europe and Africa very easily recognizable in this night time image shot by one of the Expedition 25 crew members aboard the International Space Station flying 220 miles above Earth on Thursday October 28, 2010. The view “looks” northward over Sicily and the “boot” of Italy, with the Mediterranean Sea representing most of the visible water in the view and the Adriatic Sea to the right of center. Tunisia is partially visible at left. Part of a docked Russian spacecraft and other components of the ISS are in the foreground. (Photo by AP Photo/NASA)

Australian model Kate Fischer (Tziporah Malkah) poses with a Cointreau Ball to celebrate France’s founding anniversary in Sydney, Australia on July 14, 1996. (Photo by Getty Images)

In northwest Russia, in a small village called Alekhovshchina, Nadia Sablin's aunts spend the warmer months together in the family home and live as the family has always lived, chopping wood to heat the house and making their own clothes. Sablin's book of photographs, “Aunties: The Seven Summers of Alevtina and Ludmila”, is published by Duke University Press. Here: “Two-Handed Saw, 2014”. (Photo by Nadia Sablin)

Women take part in Glowork exhibition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on September 28, 2017. (Photo by Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters)

Oded Balilty is an Israeli documentary photographer. He is an Associated Press photographer and won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2007. Photo: A Jewish settler struggles with an Israeli security officer during clashes that erupted as authorities evacuated the West Bank settlement outpost of Amona, east of the Palestinian town of Ramallah, in this February 1, 2006, file photo. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)