Analysis of Nike Foundations

The Girl Effect

by
Laura Lora

WS 266
Gender, Race & Class

Dr. Emily Bent

November 1st, 2014

Laura Lora
Paper #2 The Girl Effect

The Girl Effect is a campaign funded by the Nike Foundation that seeks to spread
awareness about the benefits that come from investing in a girl. Created in 2008, the campaign
consists of a website, a YouTube site and two short films promoting the message that girl
empowerment is the solution to many world problems including, but not limited to, poverty,
aids, hunger, [and] war. (The Girl Effect 0:06-0:18). Although successful in creating
awareness about girls issues across the globe, The Girl Effect is problematic in three particular
ways: 1) It provides a packaged, generalized and very narrow depiction of girls in the global
south. 2) It presents the unique potential of adolescent girls (FAQ: What is the girl effect?
2008, para. 1) as the simple and singular solution to a myriad of complex problems the world has
been battling for decades. 3) It reinforces western superiority, strongly highlighting on the divide
between the west and the rest. In this piece, a specific focus on the two films supporting the
Girl Effect movement will be taken as further analysis and elaboration of the previously listed
issues are offered.
The Girl Effect films present girl empowerment as the ultimate solution to the most
persistent development problems we face in the world today (FAQ: What is the girl effect?
2008, para. 2). The videos emphasize on how investing in girls can make an enormous economic
impact across the globe. The first video released, The Girl Effect, shows viewers the trickledown effect of what investing in a girl looks like without the aid of pictures and exclusively
utilizing words. From going to school to becoming a business owner to being invited to the
village council, we see this imaginary girl overcome poverty and become the new voice of girls
in the developing world. In the second video, The Clock is Ticking, we then see cartoons and a
timeline to get a better idea of the many difficulties that girls living in poverty face, such as early
marriage, child birth, sexual violence, HIV. Despite including several truths and being helpful in

Laura Lora
Paper #2 The Girl Effect

raising consciousness about girls rights, these videos are significantly flawed and do more to
hurt girls than to help them.
Film No. 1 asks the audience to imagine a girl living in poverty. Next, we see small
words that say flies fluttering around the word girl. Although there are no pictures involved
in this video, an image is clearly being drawn here. The viewer is forced to make a connection
between the noun poverty and the adjective dirty. The action of imagining this girl in a
distant third world country pushes stereotypes even further. The audience is left with no choice
but to pull from the limited and generalized versions of poverty they have gathered in their
minds from years of being exposed to a single story of misery in the global south.
This girl that the Nike Foundation wants us to envision is a poor unhappy little soul who
has nothing and no one to help her. In film no. 2, we see the cartoon of a 12 year old girl going
through adolescence while facing a number of tragedies. At no point do we hear mention of her
family or the specific situation of her country. No reasoning is provided as to why this girl is
living under such terrible conditions. And yet, we are guilt-tripped and urged to donate and save
this girl because the clock is ticking. (The Clock is Ticking 2:55-2:59)
Professor Emily Bent perfectly describes the situation. She explains that the lack of
details makes the story of poverty, sexual violence, and child marriage the singular story of
third world girlhood, and in turn, problematically [defines] [girls] lives against the backdrop of
an ahistorical and apolitical message of Western investment. (Bent, 2014) The marketing goal
of The Girl Effect films is to captivate the audience in a way that they are motivated enough to
donate. However, in doing this the campaign has packaged a clichd image of poverty into two
videos that by no means capture the underlying problems and solutions related to girlhood in the
developing world. In her chapter The Political Lives of Girls, Jessica Taft explains how the

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Paper #2 The Girl Effect

discursive homogenization of the Third World girl that can be observed in this campaign,
erases local variation and avoids addressing the global economic and political structures of
imperialism and colonialism that produce and reinforce poverty. (Taft, 2014)
Not only are these films promoting a package picture of culture (Bent, 2014), but they
are also supporting a message that is entirely based on neoliberal ideologies. In critiquing the
acclaimed documentary Girl Rising, Professor Bent explains that this erasure of structural
systems propels a narrative of Western benevolence [which] both drives [a] philanthropic
agenda and problematically reinforces neoliberal paradigms based on individual girl power
(Bent, 2014). The exclusion of socio-cultural, geo-political, and historical complexities from
the stories of these girls plus the recognition of girl empowerment makes the solution presented
by The Girl Effect movement impossible.
From putting on a uniform to getting a cow and becoming a business owner, The Girl
Effect videos implement a very idealistic, and not at all practical, approach to solving the worlds
problems. Not only do the films present a sequence of unrealistic events taking place as the result
of a simple donation, but the movement itself puts so much pressure and responsibility on these
children. The Girl Effect campaign suggests that if you invest in a girlshe will do the rest
(The Girl Effect 2:05-2:09). This assumption carries an enormous burden and completely
obliterates the different intersections of gender, race, class and nation by choosing to exclusively
focus on neoliberal girl power. Although providing certain resources could make somewhat of a
difference for girls in the developing world, the Nike Foundation fails to recognize that the
problem is far more complex than a resource shortage.
According to a statement found under the FAQ section of the Girleffect.org website, by
investing in [girls] economic potential through education and by delaying child marriage and

Laura Lora
Paper #2 The Girl Effect

teen pregnancy, issues such as HIV and AIDS can be resolved and the cycle of poverty can be
broken (FAQ: What is the girl effect? 2008, para. 2). Investing in girls potential might just
be part of the solution. However, if we do not challenge our social values and examine why this
is happening, why these girls are not thriving, and why they are seen as less, we might as well do
nothing.
Once we have looked beyond what is on the surface a girl living a difficult reality and
we have analyzed what practices and ideals confine these girls to such vulnerable positions, then,
we will have the solution. In doing this, we must not ignore the West in the way that campaigns
like The Girl Effect tend to do. The reminder that its no big deal Just the future of humanity
encourages Western viewers to donate and save the third world girl. In the article Do Muslim
Women Really Need Saving, author Lila Abu-Lughod argues that projects of saving other
women depend on and reinforce a sense of superiority by Westerners. (Abu-Lughod, 2002) Not
only does this campaign establish dominance of the global north over the global south but it also
attempts to sweep Western problems under the rug, making issues in the global north invisible.
Professor Bent refers to the insinuation that only girls in the developing world need saving as a
hypocritical practice that lacks consideration for similar acts of violence and injustice
experienced in the West. (Bent, 2014).
In conclusion, this piece evaluated the three main problems associated with the Girl
Effect movement. It took a specific focus on the campaigns short films analyzing the messages
and images at display in such videos to recognize that The Girl Effect campaign is problematic
because: it exposes viewers to a package picture of culture, it promotes neoliberal ideologies
that exclude all sort of social, political and historical background, and it reinforces western
superiority creating deeper separation between the so-called west and the rest.

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Paper #2 The Girl Effect

SOURCES
Abu-Lughod, L. (2002) Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? American Anthropologist, 104
(3), 783-90.

Bent, Emily. (2004) Girl Rising and the Problematic Other: Celebritizing Third World Girlhoods

Taft, J. (2014) The Political Lives of Girls Sociology Compass. Davidson College, 2014. 259
267

The Girl Effect. (2008) Retrieved from http://www.girleffect.org

--- FAQ Retrieved from http://www.girleffect.org/about/
--- The Simple Case for Investing in Girls Retrieved from http://www.girleffect.org/why-girls