- For Email Marketing you can trust
Gunther Girls in Action
photo by Gabriela Ramirez, 2008 Fellow and photojournalist.
Jena Perry, Diversity Works participant.
Sahara is a gifted writer, dancer, musician, and student. She is a multi-year Eva Gunther Fellow.
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, “The Girl Effect,” or the idea that investing in girls internationally is the key to economic empowerment and social change, is really gaining momentum in international development talks and in the media, especially because of national best sellers like Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn’s “Half of the Sky”. Today, I was reading a blog on the Huffington Post written by Maria Eitel, the President of the Nike Foundation, about the sense of enthusiasm at a recent workshop called, “Setting the Stage for the Girl Effect” at the current World Economic Forum. They outline the top three priorities for girls internationally as the following:
Let Girls Be Girls
• Changing the economic equation from girls being a burden and something to be used to girls being a powerful force for change
• Calling out the highly influential and often damaging role that culture and religion play, and
• Other barriers, including the absence of role models, early marriage, social protection, and safety.
But what are our priorities in the States? The highly influential nature of the media on girls body image and self esteem? Other barriers, such as racism, classism, and the education system? Let’s start our own movement building dialogue around “the girl effect” in the Bay Area and nationally!