GIRL POWER: The new trend of the 21st century?

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“There’s been a great deal of progress in government policies, education, civil society, and in the private sector. We’re moving in a way we’ve not seen before.”[1] With these words, Melanne Verveer, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, referred to the state of the plight for women’s and girl’s rights during last month’s Women in the World Summit in New York City.

Since 2010, the Women in the World Summit brings together women of all walks of life to celebrate and advance women’s and girls’ rights both at home and abroad. The event is one of the many campaigns and initiatives that have been launched in the past five years to give a voice to the other half of the world’s population. In 2009, Nicholas D. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, published “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into opportunity forWomen Worldwide” which lead to the release of a world-wide documentary and a social movement. And only a few months ago, Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, jumped on the trend, launching her new book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will toLead” in an attempt to create a new “feminist movement at work.” 

Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, the executive director of the Matilda JoslynGage Foundation in Fayetteville, NY, professor at Syracuse University, and a tireless women’s rights advocate, calls this moment a “paradigm shift in the women’s rights movement.” 

“The patriarchal experiment has been a failure,” she said in a phone interview. “There is a general awakening that there needs to be a different paradigm based on relationships and not on greed and power.”

So, are we in fact experiencing a “tipping point for women”?[2]  Are the Women in the World Summit, Nicholas Kristof’s “Half the Sky,” and” Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” products of a new era for women’s and girl’s rights? Are we experiencing a new wave of Girl Power that is determined to stay?

In the mid-90s, the British pop group the Spice Girls mainstreamed the term “Girl Power” with their songs calling for female empowerment understood as girls putting their feet down and clamoring for equality and freedom. “Just girl power is all we need. We know how we got this far. Strength and courage and a wonder bra," said the lyrics of their hit, The Power of Spice.  American R&B trio Destiny’s Child set the tone for Girl Power on this side of the Atlantic with songs like Independent Women. The media latched onto the term and the response it had on the female audience and turned Girl Power into a media campaign for the empowerment of girls, mostly in the western world.

Since then, the term has forged divisions and has been subjected to criticisms for its commercialized and perhaps misleading understanding of female empowerment.

“Girl Empowerment is allowing a girl to see her potential,” Justin Reeves, Director of NGO partnerships at the 10X10 – Educate Girls. Change theWorld campaign, said in a phone interview. “Empowering girls gives answer to a lot of the problems in the world,” he said.

In talking about the origins of the global campaign, Mr. Reeves explained how everything began five years ago, when Richard Robins, the Director of Girl Rising, the documentary around which the 10x10 campaign has been built, connected the dots between global development and female empowerment. Female empowerment, understood now as providing women and girls around the globe with the education, support and skills needed to make them active participants in the fight for their own rights, to ultimately achieve social change now and for the future; quite a far-reaching effect.

 

Under the slogan “Educate Girls. Change the World,” 10x10 Girl Rising’s finely tailored social and media strategy is reaching crowds, raising awareness, and empowering women and girls both at home and abroad. And they are not alone. As a domino effect, in 2008, the Girl Effect campaign was launched by the NIKE Foundation in partnership with the NoVo Foundation. The campaign, with its sophisticated, innovative and appealing videos, went viral, quickly spreading the same idea “…by investing in girls, you can stop poverty before it starts.”

Under the same framework and at a grassroots level, in December 2012 the InternationalCoalition of Sites of Conscience launched Girl Ambassadors for Human Rights (GAHR), a new venture for girls’ empowerment. “Women and girls are more likely than men and boys to be poor, uneducated, or victims of violence. Women’s empowerment and full participation in society is key to combating these very social problems,” said Elizabeth Silkes, Executive Director at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. 

During its first year, GAHR has engaged fifty 15 to 17 year-old girls from Sri Lanka, Chile and the USA, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and perspective to serve as future global ambassadors and local activists for human rights and gender equality.  “Increasing women’s civic engagement not only responds to their rights as citizens; it also enriches political discourse, decision-making and inclusiveness,” Ms. Silkes said.

“There has always been a special place in my heart for women's rights, primarily from my mother. So, of course, I jumped at the chance to be part of a program that brought together not only that, but also human rights in general,” said Mikayla Cleary-Hammarstedt, a 2013 US Girl Ambassador. 

“I wanted to begin the process of expanding my horizons, learning about new cultures and meeting new people. I’ve learned that there is so much around you that you don't know. You just have to open your eyes and want to see it.”

The Girl Power movement is witnessing an interesting, yet unexpected turn of events, in which female empowerment is closely connected to larger, global social issues. 

“Investing in girls is a return investment” said Mr. Reeves.  “People are catching on. Investing in girls is an argument that makes sense to people and it’s easy to support.” And it must be making sense when corporations such as INTEL and NIKE are investing in and attaching their brands to the plight for girls’ rights around the world. 

“The philanthropic world is picking up,” agreed Dr. Swagner. “If you want to fund ‘smart,’ you fund girls and women. Investing in women and girls is investing in the future.”

The multiplier effects of this new notion of female empowerment are proving to be extraordinary. The outspoken commitment to girls’ advancement is awakening initiatives, forums, women and girls around the globe. Women and girls are embracing their place and role in society and are demanding it both at home and abroad.  Women and girls are joining forces and raising their voices to show and prove that keeping ‘the other half of the world’ involved is key in making the world a sustainable living place. 

Ten years have passed since the Spice Girls mainstreamed the concept of Girl Power, and whether we call it Girl Power, Girl Rising, Girl Effect, or Girl Ambassadors, the fact is that “GIRL” is on the forefront of the global agenda. As Mr. Reeves stated, “people are catching on.” This very much might be the time to truly stop violence, discrimination and inequality towards women.  

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[1] Quote by Tina Brown. Luisita Lopez Torregrosa. “Progress, Once Conference at a Time.” The New York Times 2 April, 2013. Print.

[2] Luisita Lopez Torregrosa. “Progress, Once Conference at a Time.” The New York Times 2 April, 2013. Print.