Education
What can Barbie teach us about girls’ education? Children Believe addresses systemic barriers through learning
for girls and boys to support girls' learning outcomes from the start. Providing early childhood education to disadvantaged children increases the likelihood that they will complete more years of schooling. Then there is Ethiopia, where we enable girls displaced by armed conflict in the Amhara region to resume education and reduce the risk of later dropout. In Nicaragua, Children Believe provides youth with training in entrepreneurial skills and business practices to enable women to exercise greater financial independence. Achieving gender equality in education is part of the intergenerational struggle for women’s rights, which includes removing other systemic barriers to health care, credit, labour markets, equal pay, and protection under the law. In supporting our local partners, women’s groups and expanding girls' access to education, Children Believe challenges barriers to educational access, academic learning, and employment in tangible and measurable ways. Our work seeks to enable women and girls to exercise their agency, release their imagination, and take ownership of their lives and decisions.
After school learning in India.
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income. Third, we provide a platform for women and girls to share their lived experiences and for readers to reflect on our collective responsibilities that come with a shared humanity. Fourth, we choose to love. As the Black feminist scholar and activist bell hooks writes, “There can be no love without justice…abuse and neglect negate love. Care and affirmation, the opposite of abuse and humiliation, are the foundation of love.” In this edition of ChildVoice , we explore girls’ education and its positive impacts, through stories. In reality, there is no escape to a mythical Barbie Land. But in the ongoing and reversible struggle for gender equality, addressing conflict—and climate-induced displacement and migration, child labour, and human trafficking, education is both a shield and a gateway to address systemic barriers for women and girls everywhere. Girls deserve equal opportunities Children Believe helps girls and boys enjoy equal opportunities to learn, lead and pursue their dreams. We support training and awareness campaigns on gender equality; promote the benefits of education for girls; and boost girls’ knowledge and confidence through girls’ clubs and youth groups. We also boost income-generating activities for women’s economic empowerment and engage boys and men as champions for change. Your donations help champion equality between girls and boys.
Children Believe intervening to make education accessible to girls.
The real world represented in the film shows patriarchy from a narrow lens of male-female relations. Left out are the complex, intersecting relationships and barriers that women and girls from diverse backgrounds experience daily, based on race, class, ethnicity, caste, abilities and other forms of difference. While Barbie the film was never intended to be a sociological study, it allows us the opportunity to think about the linkages between education and gender – an issue of primary concern for Children Believe. Take, for example, Ghana. Here, our Centre of Excellence research and advocacy focuses on early childhood education
By Mona Ghali
T
his summer entertainment news was awash in pink as Barbie hit screens worldwide. The movie invited explorations of gendered relations of power that hit close to home for Children Believe. Since Mattel released the iconic doll in 1959, Barbie and dolls like it have been a constant feature in toy boxes globally. While she had no backstory then, she was well known for her slim body, blue eyes and blonde hair. Partly because of this blank slate, children could imagine who the doll was to them, her life and activities, although it was always harder for girls who did not look like Barbie to share fully in that experience. Over the years, Mattel released new versions to better reflect racial and ethnic diversity, evolving social norms and roles of women in the workplace, from the farm to the operating room. From this fluffy world, movie director Greta Gerwig’s interpretation explored the serious issue of patriarchy and gender discrimination against women and girls. So, what can be learned from Barbie’s adventures in Barbie Land and the real world, when it comes to girls’ education?
Teacher Wendy Ruiz during a Nicaragua virtual learning session.
Young girls in Ghana carrying water.
First, we embody social values of gender equity and protect the right to education for girls and boys, engaging both women and men, girls and boys. Second, we model action by removing or mitigating barriers to education with infrastructure building, teacher training, learning materials and raising awareness among parents and communities. By doing so, we reduce the social and economic harms that result from gender disparities, including child marriage, poor health outcomes and low
6 ChildVoice 2023 ANNUAL REPORT ISSUE
ChildVoice 2023 ANNUAL REPORT ISSUE 7
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