INSPIRATION
My education is one of the most empowering and important possessions I have come to own. However, as a Black woman, I went through my own personal struggle when it came to my educational environment. While I was very privileged to live in a country where I have access to free secondary education, being a minority student, I came to understand the notion of having to work twice as hard to achieve some of the same things as other students. While in college, I was introduced to the formal study of gender equality and what role education can play in its achievement.
Myself and other future campus chapter executive board members are pictured reading letters written to us from our predecessors filled with advice about our upcoming leadership roles. The fourth annual She's the First Leadership Summit took place July 31-August 1, 2015, at Microsoft in New York, NY. (Photo by Kate Lord)
As I continued to navigate the gender equality and girls’ empowerment space, it was clear that cross-cultural exchange was vital to creating an engaging movement but at times there seemed to be a lack of true understand about the gender issues girls in the Global South face and the amount of work and determination it takes to defy the norm. Through my MA dissertation, I decided to take a closer look at the rhetoric surrounding gender equality and girls’ education to see if the organizations leading these cross-cultural exchanges—with an emphasis on girls in the Global North—are educating girls on both side of the equatorial line in the most informative way about the role they can play in achieving gender equality and why they deserve the right to an education.
Research Question 1
How has the girl effect and the traditional power dynamics of giving worked to influence girl empowerment organizations (GEOs) who advocate for girls’ education in the developing world through high school and college aged girls in the United States and larger Global North?
Research Question 2
How does the rhetoric of GEOs further influence the girls in the Global North and what are the implications of this?
ABSTRACT
Since girls’ education was mandated one of the key components to ending global poverty by large international non-governmental organizations like the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, there has been an increase in initiatives and organizations with the goal to empower girls to obtain an education. This dissertation will focus on the current state of girls’ education and empowerment initiatives by taking a look at the rhetoric of the girl effect, its neocolonial and neoliberal ideas, and how these affect other girl empowerment organizations (GEOs). A case study conducted on She’s the First will be conducted through the lens of the girl effect to understand what effect it has on the organizations rhetoric with girls from both the Global North and South. Interviews with the organization’s staff members and their online and social media presence will be analyzed to better understand the effects of the girl effect when it comes to adolescent girls on both sides of the equator.
METHODOLOGY
Multi-method approach featuring qualitative methods
Semi-Structured Interviews
Whenever conducting research, it is important to get as close to the source and incorporate their experience into the research narrative. Semi-structured interviews allowed for the participants to indicate elements of their journey they deemed important while also staying close to the research theme of GEO influence.
Surveys
Surveys conducted amongst current She’s The First members allowed the research to have a better understanding of how girls in the Global North viewed and understood their cross-cultural exchange.
Content Analysis
Because GEOs have the ability influence over how girls perceive girls empowerment and education, it is imperative to analyze where and how that rhetoric is being shared. Social media interactions, online communications, and awareness materials were included in the analysis.
INSIGHTS
Girls education is often viewed as the main solution to widespread poverty. Numerous studies have shown that when girls in the Global South are educated, there is a reduction in HIV/AIDS, delayed childbearing, and the eventual economic gain for themselves, their families, and societies. Yet, through this study I have found that this rhetoric frames girls’ education as a solution to many problems girls in the Global South did not create rather than the human right that education already is.
GEOs working to end gender inequality through girls' education are very well meaning. However, it is extremely important to include the voices and thoughts of the girls in the Global South in the problem-solving process.
She’s the First has evolved since its beginnings and continues to figure out how to involve their scholars and campus chapter members voices in their programming. The organization also continues to clearly reference and portray their scholars as the intelligent, hard-working, thought-provoking students they are and this is the first step to changing the rhetoric around girls’ education.
It is imperative to evaluate which girls are getting involved in the gender equality conversation in the Global North. Many of the girls—and women—involved in these types of GEOs are overwhelmingly white. In efforts to facilitate true cross-cultural exchange, the girls involved on both sides need to be equally diverse in demographic and experience because they all have valuable contributions to the gender equality conversation and deserve to be heard and connected.
OUTCOMES
Cross-cultural exchange is extremely valuable—especially on the topic of gender equality and girls’ education—because it allows girls to speak for themselves and to each other about their realities.
This exchange also has the ability to teach girls in the Global North how to be more productive and supportive allies to girls in the Global South. But if the GEOs who have the capacity to facilitate the exchange continue to use the harmful rhetoric of the traditional “girl effect,” girls in the Global North will continue to be misinformed on why their advocacy is necessary. Girls education is not just a solution, it is a right.
All photos by Kate Lord.