Plan International's Digital Empowerment Campaign

Abstract

In this article, we examine how postfeminist Girl Effect discourse is deployed and extended in Plan International's Digital Empowerment for Girls campaign. Based on critical discourse analysis of campaign texts, we outline how the campaign situates digital empowerment as a way of building girls’ capacity to overcome barriers of poverty and gender equality by allowing them to pursue careers, manage their health, and advocate for governmental change. Drawing on the theory of healthism, we argue that the campaign's discourses of economic empowerment are intertwined with, and scaffolded upon, girls’ perceived ability to manage their reproduction. We problematize how these constructions responsibilize girls for solving social and economic problems, even as the campaign acknowledges ongoing systems of oppression.