{"id":6664,"date":"2013-10-10T20:32:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/?p=6664"},"modified":"2013-10-11T05:18:08","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T10:18:08","slug":"global-girl-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2013\/10\/10\/global-girl-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Girl Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

October 11 is the second International Day of the Girl Child<\/a>. At my daughter\u2019s school, it\u2019s a half day (that bane of working parents everywhere), so we\u2019re going to the United Nations for the Day of the Girl Speak Out, sponsored by the Working Group on Girls<\/a>. The summit will be live-streamed at the Day of the Summit<\/a> website, which explains the event as follows:<\/p>\n

This event will give girls the chance to speak with governments and UN Agencies about how they are making strides for girls in their community. Girls selected for the Girls Speak Out will share information about their strategies for creating change and they will talk about how the international community can support their efforts. Approximately half of the girls at the Speak Out will present on issues related to the International Day of the Girl 2013 theme, \u201cInnovating for Girls\u2019 Education.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the Speak Out, we\u2019re heading over to Times Square to dance and celebrate with the Brave Girls Take Back Media campaign<\/a>, organized by The Brave Girls Alliance. They\u2019ve rented a billboard in Times Square that will feature tweets from girls, parents, educators, and other adults about what girls want and need. (What do brave girls want? My daughter listed the following: \u201cClothes that girls can be active in! Legos with \u2018regular\u2019 girls! Legos with girls who wear clothes they can be active in!\u201d)<\/p>\n

You can tell my daughter loves Legos. And not the pink variety, either. The \u201cregular\u201d kind.<\/p>\n

\"\"Needless to say, I\u2019m very excited about tomorrow. I feel hugely privileged to be able to take my daughter to the UN and Times Square and listen to girl activists from around the world. (My daughter is a kid who loved the movie Lincoln<\/em> and whose list of Fun Things To Do includes reciting the names of the U.S. presidents and several of the Constitutional Amendments, so this stuff is right up her alley.) I\u2019m most excited about the fact that the main purpose of the Speak Out is to listen to other girls. I have no idea what they\u2019ll say, of course, so I\u2019m a bit nervous. My daughter is only ten. But the vibe around the event is positive, and though she might not understand everything, I\u2019m hoping we\u2019ll both learn from listening. And frankly, I can\u2019t think of a time when we\u2019ve ever had an opportunity to do something like this.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I have some questions about the global girls\u2019 movement. How to ensure that the missionary zeal that has characterized so much global feminism coming from Western feminists will not also inflect the global girls\u2019 movement? How to make sure that a diverse range of girls from around the world will have an equal voice in this movement?<\/p>\n

As a parent, I also wonder: How can parents teach our kids about global inequities and being empowered as activists without disempowering less-privileged girls?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know the answers to these questions. I\u2019m hoping that listening will be a good place to start. And then, of course, talking about what we hear.<\/p>\n

Another challenge for the girls\u2019 movement revolves around this question: How to ensure that girls of all ages are included, and that adult women don\u2019t wield too much power in what should be a movement of<\/em> and for<\/em> girls\u2014a movement that enables girls to be its leaders?<\/p>\n

I write that last sentence having just seen the film Wadjda<\/em>, which features the most fabulous girl protagonist I\u2019ve seen in a long time. Ten-year-old Wadjda lives in Riyadh, wears high tops, loves mixtapes, and sells homemade bracelets sporting popular soccer colors. She is fiercely independent and determined. What does this brave girl want? A bike.<\/p>\n