We know what the birth of a revolution looks like: A student stands
before a tank. A fruit seller sets himself on fire. A line of monks link
arms in a human chain. Crowds surge, soldiers fire, gusts of rage pull
down the monuments of tyrants, and maybe, sometimes, justice rises from
the flames.
But sometimes freedom and opportunity slip in through
the back door, when a quieter subversion of the status quo unleashes
change that is just as revolutionary. This is the tantalizing idea for
activists concerned with poverty, with disease, with the rise of violent
extremism: if you want to change the world, invest in girls.
In
recent years, more development aid than ever before has been directed
at women — but that doesn't mean it is reaching the girls who need it.
Across much of the developing world, by the time she is 12, a girl is
tending house, cooking, cleaning. She eats what's left after the men and
boys have eaten; she is less likely to be vaccinated, to see a doctor,
to attend school. "If only I can get educated, I will surely be the
President," a teenager in rural Malawi tells a researcher, but the odds
are against her: Why educate a daughter who will end up working for her
in-laws rather than a son who will support you? In sub-Saharan Africa,
fewer than 1 in 5 girls make it to secondary school. Nearly half are
married by the time they are 18; 1 in 7 across the developing world
marries before she is 15. Then she gets pregnant. The leading cause of
death for girls 15 to 19 worldwide is not accident or violence or
disease; it is complications from pregnancy. Girls under 15 are up to
five times as likely to die while having children than are women in
their 20s, and their babies are more likely to die as well.
There are countless reasons rescuing girls is the right thing to
do. It's also the smart thing to do. Consider the virtuous circle: An
extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10% to 20%.
An extra year of secondary school adds 15% to 25%. Girls who stay in
school for seven or more years typically marry four years later and have
two fewer children than girls who drop out. Fewer dependents per worker
allows for greater economic growth. And the World Food Programme has
found that when girls and women earn income, they reinvest 90% of it in
their families. They buy books, medicine, bed nets. For men, that figure
is more like 30% to 40%. "Investment in girls' education may well be
the highest-return investment available in the developing world," Larry
Summers wrote when he was chief economist at the World Bank. Of such
cycles are real revolutions born.
The
benefits are so obvious, you have to wonder why we haven't paid
attention. Less than 2¢ of every development dollar goes to girls — and
that is a victory compared with a few years ago, when it was more like
half a cent. Roughly 9 of 10 youth programs are aimed at boys. One
reason for this is that when it comes to lifting up girls, we don't know
as much about how to do it. We have to start by listening to girls,
which much of the world is not culturally disposed to do. Development
experts say the solutions need to be holistic, providing access to safe
spaces, schools and health clinics with programs designed specifically
for girls' needs. Success depends on infrastructure, on making fuel and
water more available so girls don't have to spend as many as 15 hours a
day fetching them. It requires enlisting whole communities — mothers,
fathers, teachers, religious leaders — in helping girls realize their
potential instead of seeing them as dispensable or, worse, as prey.
A more surprising army is being enlisted as well. A new initiative called Girl Up
aims to mobilize 100,000 American girls to raise money and awareness to
fight poverty, sexual violence and child marriage. "This generation of
12-to-18-year-olds are all givers," says executive director Elizabeth
Gore, the force of nature behind the ingeniously simple Nothing but Nets
campaign to fight malaria, about her new United Nations Foundation
enterprise. "They gave after Katrina. They gave after the tsunami and
Haiti. More than any earlier generation, they feel they know girls
around the world."
And so the word goes out, by text, by tweet,
on Facebook, that coming soon to a high school gym near you may be a
Girl Up pep rally, where kids can learn what it feels like to carry a
jerrican of water for a long distance, or how sending $5 to Malawi can
stock a health clinic with girl-friendly materials or buy school
supplies. Or how $5 to Ethiopia can make the difference in a girl's not
being married when she's 10. And one at a time, a rising generation of
American girls helps create the next generation of leaders, for the
coming quiet revolutions.
