The Girl Factor and the (In)Security of Coloniality

Abstract

This article examines the politics, economics, and ethics shaping the recent focus on the adolescent girl from developing countries. It examines discourses and ideals about girlhood that have been produced and mobilized, by whom and for what purposes, how different girls are positioned within these discourses and within the related policies and interventions, and the racial dimensions of these interventions. It responds to these questions through what I call the girl factor: an unprecedented interest of the international development community, policy circles, and corporate sectors in the power and potential of young women from developing countries. Drawing on postcolonial feminist theories, the girl factor is examined within the larger contexts of neoliberal rationality, corporatization of development, and historical continuities in instrumentalizing women for larger political interests. Particular attention is paid to the case of Middle Eastern girls.