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‘The Girl Effect’: Exploring Narratives of Gendered Impacts and Opportunities in Neoliberal Development

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  • Farzana Shain

Abstract

This paper explores representations of girls in current discourses of neoliberal development through an analysis of a range of texts that promote the global Girl Effect movement. These representations are situated in the context of theoretical debates about gender mainstreaming and policy developments that construct girls and women's ‘empowerment’ as ‘smart economics’. The paper draws on postcolonial and transnational feminist analyses that critique market-led approaches to development and their complicities in the dynamics of neo-colonialism and uneven development, to contextualise the Girl Effect movement. It is argued that the Girl Effect movement draws on colonial stereotypes of girls as sexually and culturally constrained, but reworks these through the discourses of neoliberal development to construct girls as good investment potential. In doing so, it reproduces a dominant narrative that highlights the cultural causes of poverty but obscures structural relations of exploitation and privilege.

Suggested Citation

  • Farzana Shain, 2013. "‘The Girl Effect’: Exploring Narratives of Gendered Impacts and Opportunities in Neoliberal Development," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(2), pages 181-191, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:18:y:2013:i:2:p:181-191
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.2962
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Goetz, Anne Marie & Gupta, Rina Sen, 1996. "Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 45-63, January.
    2. World Bank, 2006. "Gender Equality as Smart Economics: A World Bank Group Gender Action Plan (Fiscal Years 2007-10)," Working Papers id:685, eSocialSciences.
    3. Lyndsay Hayhurst, 2011. "Corporatising Sport, Gender and Development: postcolonial IR feminisms, transnational private governance and global corporate social engagement," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 531-549.
    4. repec:wbk:wbpubs:4391 is not listed on IDEAS
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    2. Mathilde Maîtrot, 2022. "The Moral Economy of Microfinance in Rural Bangladesh: Dharma, Gender and Social Change," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(2), pages 335-355, March.

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