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‘the revolution will be led by a 12-year-old girl’: girl power and global biopolitics

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Feminist Review

Abstract

This paper presents a poststructuralist, postcolonial and feminist interrogation of the ‘Girl Effect’. First coined by Nike inc, the ‘Girl Effect’ has become a key development discourse taken up by a wide range of governmental organisations, charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). At its heart is the idea that ‘girl power’ is the best way to lift the developing world out of poverty. As well as a policy discourse, the Girl Effect entails an address to Western girls. Through a range of online and offline publicity campaigns, Western girls are invited to take up the cause of girls in the developing world and to lend their support through their use of social media, through fundraising and consumption. Drawing on a wide range of policy documents, media outputs and offline events, this paper explores the way in which the Girl Effect discourse articulates notions of girlhood, empowerment, development and the Global North/South divide.

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Notes

  1. World Economic Forum (2009) ‘World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009: shaping the post-crisis world’, http://www.members.weforum.org/pdf /AnnualReport/2009/social_backlash.htm, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  2. The notions of the North or West are of course highly problematic—not least because of the growing range and force of discourses of girl power in Asia and Latin America. As with other designations, for example ‘developing’ versus ‘developed’ and First/Third World, the notions of Global South and North serve only to attempt to speak of a world characterised by massive geographically patterned injustice and inequality, while failing to capture complexity and specificity.

  3. UNESCO (2011) ‘Gender equality theme, adolescent girls webpage’, http://unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/gender-equality/themes/adolescent-girls, last accessed 5 August 2013.

  4. World Bank (2008) ‘Adolescent girl initiative launch’, Press release, http://www.web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,contentMDK :21935449~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK :4607,00.html, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  5. Girl Hub, the collaboration between DfID and Nike, has been one in which DfID provided the majority of financial contribution (£12.8 million while Nike contributed £2.8). This fact as well as inadequate regulatory and implementation processes came under criticism in a report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.

  6. UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA (2003) ‘Adolescents: profiles in empowerment’, http://www.unicef.org/adolescence/files/adolescent_profiles_eng.pdf, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  7. Levine, R., Lloyd, C.B. and Grown, C. (2009) ‘Girls count: a global investment & action agenda’, http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/15154, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  8. Nike Foundation (2009) ‘Girl Effect: your move’, http://www.girleffect.org/media, last accessed 27 September 2010.

  9. ibid.

  10. Nike Foundation (n.d.), ‘The Girl Effect website: The revolution poster’, http://www.girleffect.org/downloads/posters/The_Revolution_Poster.pdf, last accessed 1 September 2011.

  11. ‘The girl effect: the clock is ticking’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg, last accessed 5 August 2013.

  12. Nike Foundation (2011) ‘Girl Effect website’, http://www.girleffect.org, last accessed 27 September 2010.

  13. ibid.

  14. UN Foundation (2011a) ‘Girl Up website’, http://www.girlup.org/, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  15. ‘The girl effect’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw, last accessed 5 August 2013.

  16. We would argue that this is particularly and distinctively a reflection of the pivotal role Nike plays in the initiative, with its commitment to girls now forming a central part of its global brand image—something that would merit extensive further analysis.

  17. UN Interagency Taskforce on Adolescent Girls (n.d.) ‘Girl power and potential’ leaflet, [online], http://www.unicef.org/adolescence/files/UN_IATF_Girls_postcardFINAL.pdf, last accessed 2 February 2012.

  18. UNFPA (2011) ‘Unleashing the power and potential of adolescent girls’ Press release, 2 March, http://www.unfpa.org/public/cache/offonce/home/news/pid/7324;jsessionid =1C6B7A464ACBAB326818F4498AE587DA, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  19. World Bank (2009) ‘Adolescent girls in focus at the World Economic Forum’, http://www.go.worldbank.org/QWPUUOPVY0, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  20. Plan (2009) ‘Because I am a girl: the state of the world’s girls 2009; girls in the global economy’, 137, http://www.plan-international.org/about-plan/resources/publications/campaigns/because-i-am-a-girl-girls-in-the-global-economy-2009, last accessed 23 August 2011.

  21. ‘The girl effect’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw, last accessed 5 August 2013.

  22. Nike Foundation (2009) ‘Girl effect: your move’, 34, http://www.girleffect.org/media, last accessed 27 September 2010.

  23. Plan (2009) ‘Because I am a girl: the state of the world’s girls 2009; girls in the global economy’, 138, http://www.plan-international.org/about-plan/resources/publications/campaigns/because-i-am-a-girl-girls-in-the-global-economy-2009, last accessed 23 August 2011.

  24. ibid., 145.

  25. UN Foundation (2010a) ‘United Nations Foundation launches Girl Up’, Press release, 30 September, http://www.unfoundation.org/press-center/press-releases/2010/united-nations-foundation-launches-girl-up.html, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  26. UN Foundation (2011a) ‘Girl Up website’, http://www.girlup.org/, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  27. UN Foundation (n.d.a) ‘Girl Up blog: unite for girls tour’, http://www.girlup.org/blog/?category=unite-for-girls-tour, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  28. UN Foundation (2010a) ‘United Nations Foundation launches Girl Up’, Press release, 30 September, http://www.unfoundation.org/press-center/press-releases/2010/united-nations-foundation-launches-girl-up.html, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  29. UN Foundation (2011b) ‘Girl Up website: making an impact’, http://www.girlup.org/learn/making-an-impact.html, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  30. UN Foundation (n.d.b) ‘Girlafesto’, http://www.girlup.org/get-involved/girlafesto.html, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  31. UN Foundation (2010b) ‘Girl Up website: Girl Up store’, http://www.store.girlup.org/default.aspx, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  32. UN Foundation (2011c) ‘Girl Up website: gear up with Girl Up’, http://www.girlup.org/blog/gear-up-with-girl-up.html, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  33. UN Foundation (2011d) ‘Washington D.C. unite for girls tour: pep rally’, http://www.facebook.com/events/191107120904746/, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  34. New York Times (2012) ‘If Roe v. Wade goes’, editorial, 15 October, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/opinion/if-roe-v-wade-goes.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1350756312-HRDlx/xESbgxkOGHd0tjng, last accessed 20 October 2012.

  35. UN Interagency Task Force on Adolescent Girls (2010) ‘Accelerating efforts to advance the rights of adolescent girls: a UN joint statement’, http://www.unicef.org/media/files/UN_Joint_Statement_Adolescent_ Girls_FINAL.pdf, last accessed 30 August 2011.

  36. Department for Education (2011) ‘Teenage conception statistics for England 1998–2009’, http://www.media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/e/england%20under%2018%20and%20under%2016%20conception%20statistics%201998-2009%20feb%202011.pdf, last accessed 1 September 2011.

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Acknowledgements

The research on which this paper is based was funded by the Leverhulme Trust. We would also like to thank Kalpana Wilson, the two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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  1. Ofra Koffman
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Nike Foundation (n.d.) ‘The Girl Effect website: The revolution poster’, http://www.girleffect.org/downloads/posters/The_Revolution_Poster.pdf, last accessed 1 September 2011.

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Koffman, O., Gill, R. ‘the revolution will be led by a 12-year-old girl’: girl power and global biopolitics. Fem Rev 105, 83–102 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2013.16

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