The Girl Effect Movement: Impact of Social Communications Platforms in the Empowerment of Adolescent Girls

Abstract

190 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of International Studies and Spanish and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Winter 2015.

The 'Girl Effect' is a movement and theory of change launched by the Nike
 Foundation based on the idea that investing in the empowerment of adolescent girls is
 the key to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. This thesis explores the logic
 of this discourse and investigates notions of agency, empowerment, and development
 through girl-centered social communications platforms in the Girl Effect movement. I
 seek to answer the following research question: How does the Girl Effect movement
 position adolescent girls to increase their own agency through the use of social
 communication platforms, and does this strategy have the potential to empower girls
 and, through this effect, transform society? This line of research is situated within a
 larger debate that questions the motives of corporations to promote the social good
 based on principles of smart economics.
 Within this debate I focus on the impact of three social communications
 platforms in the Girl Effect movement, Ni Nyaminga magazine in Rwanda, Yegna radio
 drama show in Ethiopia, and a participatory video program called Video Girls for
 Change in Guatemala. I argue that while the Girl Effect acknowledges the intrinsic value of increasing girls’ voice and agency, their discourse overwhelmingly revolves
 around girls’ instrumental value in achieving socioeconomic change. Furthermore, I
 postulate that transformative development, in the sense that positive change occurs for
 society at large, cannot be achieved by girls alone and must involve a more holistic
 approach that engages the wider community, including boys and men, and must be
 accompanied by complementary policies and infrastructure projects that help girls and
 women to overcome structural constraints that actively disempower them.