Empowering women and girls to gain access to resources is necessary to close the gender asset gap and reduce poverty. I bring together how the gender and development (GAD) approach conceptualizes the inclusion of men and boys in development programming with an analysis of a ‘Girl Effect’ intervention seeking to empower adolescent girls through land. This analysis adds to scholarship on the Nike Foundation’s ‘Girl Effect’ campaign and reveals the structural, gendered relations of power that girls must contend with and how such empowerment includes boys and men. Modes of their inclusion indicate that the ‘Girl Effect’ has not always overcome previous GAD critiques.
AgarwalB.2003: Gender and land rights revisited: Exploring new prospects via the state, family and market. Journal of Agrarian Change, 3, 184–224.
2.
BentE.2013: A different Girl Effect: Producing political girlhoods in the ‘invest in girls’ climate. In NengaSandi Kawecka, TaftJessica K. (eds.), Youth engagement: The civic-political lives of children and youth. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 3–20.
3.
BojinK.2013: Feminist solidarity: No boys allowed? Views of profeminist men on collaboration and alliance-building with women’s movements. Gender and Development, 21(2), 363–379.
4.
CalkinS.2015: Post-feminist spectatorship and the Girl Effect: ‘Go ahead, really imagine her.’Third World Quarterly, 36(4), 654–669.
5.
CaronC. and MargolinS.2015: Rescuing girls, investing in girls: A critique of development fantasies. Journal of International Development, 27, 881–897.
6.
ChandranR.2016: Forced by tradition to give up inheritance, Indian women embrace property ownership, http://www.thisisplace.org/i/?id=88d3f4f0-acfa-43be-8cc1-1690bb83d3e0 (last accessed on 10June2017).
7.
ChantS.2000: From ‘Woman-blind’ to ‘Man-kind’ should men have more space in gender and development?IDS Bulletin, 31, 7–17.
8.
ChantS.2016a: Women, girls and world poverty: Empowerment, equality or essentialism?International Development Planning Review, 38, 1–24.
9.
ChantS.2016b: Galvanizing girls for development? Critiquing the shift from ‘smart’ to ‘smarter economics’. Progress in Development Studies, 16, 314–328.
10.
ChantS. and GutmannM.C.2002: ‘Men-streaming gender’? Questions for gender and development policy in the twenty-first century. Progress in Development Studies, 2, 269–282.
11.
ChantS. and SweetmanC.2012: Fixing women or fixing the world? ‘Smart economics’, efficiency approaches, and gender equality in development. Gender and Development, 20, 517–529.
12.
ChowdhryP.2012: Reduction of violence against women: Property ownership and economic independence in rural Haryana. UN Women.
13.
CobbettM.2014: Beyond ‘victims’ and ‘heroines’: Constructing ‘girlhood’ in international development. Progress in Development Studies, 14, 309–320.
14.
ConnellR.W.2005: Change among the gatekeepers: Men, masculinities, and gender equality in the global arena. Signs, 30, 1801–1825.
15.
CornwallA.1997: Men, masculinity and ‘gender in development’. Gender and Development, 5, 8–13.
16.
CornwallA.2000: Missing men? Reflections on men, masculinities and gender in GAD. IDS Bulletin, 31, 18–27.
17.
CornwallA.2016: Women’s empowerment: What works?Journal of International Development, 28, 342–359.
18.
CornwallA. and AnyidohoN.A.2010: Introduction: Women’s empowerment: Contentions and contestations. Development, 53(2), 144–149.
19.
CornwallA., HarrisonE. and WhiteheadA.2007: Gender myths and feminist fables: The struggle for interpretive power in gender and development. Development and Change, 38, 1–20.
20.
Da CostaD.2008: ‘Spoiled Sons’ and ‘Sincere Daughters’: Schooling, security, and empowerment in rural West Bengal, India. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 33, 283–308.
21.
DeereC.D. and LeonM.2001: Empowering women: Land and property in Latin America. University of Pittsburgh Press.
22.
DossC., DeereC.D., OduroA.D. and SuchitraJ.Y.2012: The rural gender asset and wealth gaps: Evidence from Ghana, Ecuador, Uganda and Karnataka, India. Bangalore: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
23.
Friedemann-SanchezG.2006: Assets in intrahousehold bargaining among women workers in Colombia’s Cut-Flower Industry. Feminist Economics, 12, 247–269.
24.
GervaisC.2012: Boys meet girls’ rights: Bolivian adolescent males’ claims of commitment to gender equality. Children and Society, 26, 356–367.
25.
GiovarelliR.2009: Gender and land tenure reform. In ProstermanR., MitchellR. and HanstadT., editors, One billion rising: Law, land and alleviation of global poverty. Leiden University Press, 195–233.
26.
Girl Effect2010: The clock is ticking, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg (last accessed on 18July2018).
27.
GouthamiM. and RajgorM.2008: Women’s perceptions of land ownership: A case study from Kutch district, Gujarat, India. Gender and Development, 16, 41–54.
28.
Government of India (GoI). 1961: The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 (Act 28 of 1961), http://wcd.nic.in/act/dowry-prohibition-act-1961 (last accessed on 5January2017).
29.
Government of India (GoI). 2005: The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 (Act 39 of 2005), http://www.hrln.org/admin/issue/subpdf/HSA_Amendment_2005.pdf
30.
GrosserK. and van der GaagN.2013: Can girls save the world? In WallaceT. and PorterF., editors, Aid, NGOs and the realities of women’s lives: A perfect storm. Practical Action Publishing, 73–87.
31.
HalderP.2014: Empowering adolescent girls through land: A public-private partnership in West Bengal, India. Paper presented at the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty. March 24–27, Washington, DC.
32.
HalderD. and JaishankarK.2008–2009: Property rights of Hindu women: A feminist review of succession laws of ancient, medieval, and modern India. Journal of Law and Religion, 24, 663–687.
33.
HillardS., BukusiE., GrabeS., LuT., HatcherA., KwenaZ., Mwaura-MuiruE. and DworkinS.2016: Perceived impact of a land and property rights program on violence against women in rural Kenya: A qualitative investigation. Violence Against Women, 22, 1682–1703.
34.
JohnsonN.L., KovariskC., Meinzen-DickR., et al. 2016: Gender, assets, and agricultural development: Lessons from eight projects. World Development, 83, 295–311.
35.
KabeerN.1999: Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment. Development and Change, 30, 435–464.
36.
KabeerN.2011: Between affiliation and autonomy: Navigating pathways of women’s empowerment and gender justice in RURAL Bangladesh. Development and Change, 42, 499–528.
37.
KelkarG.2014: The fog of entitlement: Women’s inheritance and land rights. Economic & Political WeeklyXLIX(33), 51–58.
38.
Landesa (The Rural Development Institute). 2013a: Annual report for the Nike Foundation. Seattle, WA: Landesa.
39.
Landesa (The Rural Development Institute). 2013b: Security for girls through land: Pilot evaluation (2012–2013). Seattle, WAhttp://www.landesa.org/wp-content/uploads/Landesa-Girls-Poject-Baseline-Study.pdf (last accessed on 1June2016).
40.
Landesa2014: Girls project: Creating opportunities for girls through land rights. Seattle, WA: Landesa, http://www.landesa.org/wp-content/uploads/Girls-Project-Fact-Sheet-April-2014.pdf (last accessed on 17January2017).
41.
MaertensA. and ChariA.2012: Learning your child’s price: Evidence from anticipated dowry payments in rural India. RAND Working Paper, https://www.dartmouth.edu/~neudc2012/docs/paper_50.pdf (last accessed on 15February2017).
42.
MitchellR. and CaronC.2011: Impact assessment in GlobalWA 2011 Annual Report. Global Washington, http://globalwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GlobalWA-Annual-Report_for-web2.pdf (last accessed on 17February2017).
43.
MoellerK. 2013: Proving ‘the girl effect’: Corporate knowledge production and educational intervention. International Journal of Educational Development, 33, 612–621.
44.
MoellerK.2014: Searching for adolescent girls in Brazil: The transnational politics of poverty in ‘The Girl Effect’. Feminist Studies, 40, 575–601.
45.
MylanM.2014: After my garden grows. Principle Productions (film). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A655AYdyXyM&list=PLkGyhCwp93E6RjZI3m66FDHC-OWHTvqSt (last accessed on 1February2017).
46.
Oxfam and Landesa. 2013: A land of my own: Facts about property rights of women in India. New Delhi: Oxfam.
47.
PandaP. and AgarwalB.2005: Marital violence, human development and women’s property status in India. World Development, 33, 823–850.
48.
PeacockD. and BarkerG.2014: Working with men and boys to prevent gender-based violence: Principles, lessons learned, and ways forward. Men and Masculinity, 17, 578–599.
49.
SircarA. and PalS.2014: What is preventing women from inheriting land?A study of the implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 in three states in India. Paper presented at the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, March 24–27, Washington, DC.
50.
SwitzerH.2013: (Post)Feminist development fables: The Girl Effect and the production of sexual subjects. Feminist Theory, 14, 345–360.
51.
TripathyJ.2010: How gendered is gender and development? Culture, masculinity and gender difference. Development in Practice, 20(1), 113–121.
52.
WadleyS.2002: One straw from a broom cannot sweep: The ideology and practice of the joint family in rural North India. In MinesD.P. and LambS., editors, Everyday life in South Asia. Indiana University Press, 11–22.
