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‘I Matter and so Does She’: Girl Power, (Post)feminism and the Girl Effect

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Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media

Part of the book series: Studies in Childhood and Youth ((SCY))

Abstract

This chapter looks critically at the ‘Girl Effect’, a new trend in global development policy and practice that involves a focus on and address to young women. The idea of the Girl Effect was coined by the corporate giant Nike in the mid-noughties, and had at its heart a bold claim: that girls hold the key to ending world poverty and transforming health and life expectancy in the developing world. It was proposed that a radical new approach was needed to problems of poverty and ill health that seemed intractable, foregrounding the simple injunction to ‘invest in a girl and she’ll do the rest’.

’Girl Effect, noun. The unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.’

(Nike Foundation, 2011)

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Authors
  1. Ofra Koffman
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  2. Rosalind Gill
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Loughborough University, UK

    David Buckingham (Professor of Communications and Media Studies) (Professor of Communications and Media Studies)

  2. University of Brighton, UK

    Sara Bragg (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

  3. The Open University, UK

    Mary Jane Kehily (Professor of Childhood and Youth Studies) (Professor of Childhood and Youth Studies)

Copyright information

© 2014 Ofra Koffman and Rosalind Gill

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Koffman, O., Gill, R. (2014). ‘I Matter and so Does She’: Girl Power, (Post)feminism and the Girl Effect. In: Buckingham, D., Bragg, S., Kehily, M.J. (eds) Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008152_15

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