Calls for educating girls in the Third World: futurity, girls and the ‘Third World Woman’

Abstract

In this article I examine three calls for Western support for girls' education in the ‘developing world’. Using transnational feminist theory and discourse analysis I look at three examples of these calls; Three Cups of Tea, ‘Because I Am a Girl’ and the United National Girls Education Initiative. I suggest that what Mohanty (1988) terms the ‘Third World Woman’ – a homogeneous, static image of women in the third world – is the spectre used to motivate Western support. Through representations of girls, Western viewers/readers are hailed to invest in order to save the girl-child from the haunting ‘Third World Woman’. The girl-child, through her particularity as a girl, her future womanhood as motherhood and her neoliberal potential, becomes presented as emblems of a better future with the investment of Westerners.

Llamados para educar a las niñas en el tercer mundo: vida futura, niñas y la “mujer del tercer mundo”

En este artículo analizo tres llamados para el apoyo occidental a la educación de las niñas en el “mundo en desarrollo”. Utilizando teoría transnacional feminista y análisis del discurso, analizo tres ejemplos de estos llamados; Tres tazas de té, “Porque soy una niña” y la Iniciativa de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación de las Niñas. Sugiero que lo que Mohanty (1988) denomina “Mujer del Tercer Mundo” – una imagen homogénea, estática de la mujer en el tercer mundo – es el espectro utilizado para motivar el apoyo occidental. A través de representaciones de niñas, lxs observadorx/lectorxs occidentales son llamadxs a invertir para salvar a la niña de la preocupante “Mujer del Tercer Mundo”. La niña, a través de su particularidad como tal, su futura condición de mujer como madre, y su potencial neoliberal, son presentadas como emblemas de un futuro mejor con las inversiones de lxs occidentales.

教育第三世界女孩的呼吁：未来性、女孩与“第三世界女性”

我在本文中，检视三个期盼西方世界支持“发展中世界”女孩教育的呼吁。我运用跨国女性主义理论与论述分析，检视这些呼吁中的三个案例；《三杯茶》、“因为我是个女孩”运动，以及《联合国女孩教育倡议》 。我主张，莫汉蒂（Mohanty 1988）称之为“第三世界女性”这个来自第三世界的同质性、静态的女性形象，是个用来刺激西方支持的幽灵。透过女孩的再现，西方观众／读者被招揽资助将女孩—儿童从挥之不去的“第三世界女性”阴影中拯救出来。此般女孩—儿童，透过其作为女孩的特殊性、其未来身为母亲的女性特质，以及其所拥有的新自由主义潜能，被呈现为透过西方投资者获致更美好的未来之象徵。

Keywords:

• transnational feminism
• girls' education
• international development
• Third World Woman
• representation
• futurity

Palabras claves:

• feminismo transnacional
• educación de las niñas
• desarrollo internacional
• Mujer del Tercer Mundo
• representación
• vida futura

关键词::

• 跨国女性主义；女孩的教育；国际发展；第三世界女性；再现；未来性

Acknowledgements

I thank Amy Kaler, Cressida Heyes and Malinda Smith for their feedback on earlier drafts of this article. I am also grateful for the thoughtful and engaged feedback from those who reviewed the article for Gender, Place and Culture. I thank Sara Dorow for her mentorship and feedback on earlier drafts of this paper and ongoing support of my research. Finally, I thank the Women and Gender Studies Department at the University of Alberta for creating a strong and vibrant community of feminist thinking in which I have been fortunate to participate.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. In this article I used ‘Third World’ and ‘Western’ to indicate discursive constructions of the world. I do not point to the actual realities of these places. While there are many other terms to choose from – East/West, North/South, First/Third – I use West and Third World to follow Mohanty's (1988) arguments in particular, about how these spaces are constructed in relation to one another.

^2. The focus on Mortenson's love life reads, to me, as a signal that the book is not solely about a campaign fundraiser, but rather as a novel wherein readers become invested in and interpolated by Mortenson's story.

^3. Madrassa is commonly thought in the Western world to indicate schools that train people for terrorism and in fundamentalist Islam, but Ali (2010) argues that this is a limited understanding as the translation of madrassa is simply ‘school’.

^4. These packages contain sanitary napkins, clothing, soap, water, toothbrushes, etc., and are often distributed post-disaster.

^5. ‘Because I Am a Girl’ has an increasing presence in schools as curriculum fulfillment for global citizenship requirements in Canada. They also employ young people to solicit for funding in urban centres.

^6. UNGEI's vision is for education parity between boys and girls, and this vision de-emphasizes the struggles girls in particular face to achieve this vision. It elides how all of these struggles work to produce girls and boys rather than simply affect them as they are.

^7. Although one girl quoted in their executive summary, Elizabeth, does suggest that girls deserve education as human beings.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Notes on contributors

Katie MacDonald

Katie MacDonald is a Vanier Scholar and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alberta in the Department of Sociology. Her research interests are in encounters between Canadian volunteers in Nicaragua and those who work and live with them. She has written about postcolonialism, transnational feminism and the desires of privileged folks to help others. She is also an Honorary Izaak Killam Memorial scholar.