Girls Get Schooled

"Girls and education" was a recent seminar topic, and it got me thinking about our roles as feminist activists and academics who value access to education on a global scale. What might it mean to preach the secular education gospel and champion the right for girls to learn in classroom settings?

I didn't have to look much further than the UN for some insight as to the current status of global education implementation, especially as it relates to girls. The United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI) is a program that touts the following in its mission statement: "UNGEI partners mobilize resources for targeted project interventions, country programmes and large-scale systematic interventions designed to affect the education system as a whole." The rhetoric of intervention is simultaneously telling of the urgency with which the UN wants to attend to the educational needs of girls worldwide and reminiscent of Western imperialist tendencies. The UNGEI is not necessarily a feminist project, yet it names gender as a central tenet that shapes and drives its objectives. If we were to agree on meanings for "education" and "feminism(s)," how might we conceptualize and implement a more thoroughgoing feminist approach to global education for girls? Especially considering that the UNGEI works in conjunction with the UN's Millennium Development Goals, what qualifies as "development," who benefits from that development, and how are girls affected in particular?