Call me a “nerd”, if you will, but I go nowhere without a book by my side. A trip to a bookstore has never been a short affair, and my backpack has never been light. The boundless, immeasurable world of fiction has given me the tools to understand the importance of culture and knowledge, risk taking, walking me through harsh decisions and never failing to provide me with a plethora of role models. Because I read, I am avidly interested in general knowledge, conversation can be as engaging to me whether i’m discussing Jean Paul Sarte or the weather. I have no doubt that I am who I am because I read.
However, Books can only work their magic where they are welcome, and they cease to be allowed into the lives of millions of girls. Currently, there are over 65 million girls out of school, and women make up more than 2/3 of the world’s illiterate population. Social norms and economic situations make it so that a family with limited resources is more likely to send their sons to school than their daughters. Today 33 million fewer girls attend primary school than boys. Moreover, girls choosing to attend school in precarious situations are more likely to face discrimination and violence in the classrooms. A girl’s education doesn’t only teach her to read: according to UNESCO, educated women are less likely to die at childbirth, less likely to have children at an early age and will narrow pay gaps between men and women. If a country enrolled just 10% more of their girls in school, their GDP would increase by 3%. These girls not only deserve their right to education because of what they will learn, but also because it will save their lives and improve their countries’ economic condition. It’s a win-win situation for all.
Nonetheless, the impact of reading and education extended’s its claws into the lives of girl’s like me, who do in fact have the privilege of education. The problem which reading battles in this case, has nothing to do with illiteracy: its a case of representation and role-modeling.
There comes a day in which every little girl opens her history or science book in school to find only a handful of female names written on it. Marie Curie, Joan D’arc, Hellen Keller, Rosa Parks, Michelle Obama; all worthy of the mention, yet nonetheless an amount so minute when compared to the bounty of male role models available. Historically speaking, women are really seen to take on the roles of leaders, explorers, writers, inventors, entrepreneurs and scientists. It is not our job to judge history by the standards of our own time, or to condemn men nowadays for this disaster in female representation, but the fact is still there:
Young girls are exposed to fewer empowering role models (especially in STEM subjects) than boys are.
This is where books pitch in. Literature is the biggest outlet for empowering female role models out there, and with the rise of teenage dystopian literature, even more so. We have Daenerys Targaryen, Matilda, Hestern Pryne, Violet Beaudelaire, Annabeth Chase, among the thousands, each one a feminine heroine of her own kind. As a book-obsessed child these girls became my idols, my inspiration and role models when the real world gave me very few girls to look up to. I strived (and still do) to be as smart and thoughtful as Hermione, as brave as Jo March, as curious and adventure seeking as Nancy Drew.
What I never knew, however, was the all-powerful force and impact these role models were having into my own formation as a woman.
I wanted to become the kind of girl I read books about, and through this, I was unconsciously tearing down gender barriers put forth to me.
Through their representation in literature, girls can grow up without a doubt of their potential and capacity to take on roles of leadership, discovery and impact in the modern world. She is empowered to create her story (pun on “history”). There is no obstacle Tris prior or Katniss Everdeen face that they cannot push through, and whilst this isn’t necessarily a mirror of reality (you can’t always get what you want), their successes become little girl’s hopes. A girl will only believe she can be whatever she desires when she experiences that she can indeed be a leader, explorer, inventor, entrepreneur or scientist, a fact that ceases to be stressed through the underrepresentation of girls in history and science text books. Without books, her role models are almost limited to Barbies and Celebrities (nothing against it, but hey, options are limited). And whilst the impact on boys who read is defnitiely extensive, they also have incredible literature role models inspiring both boys and girls, literature is the only are of knowledge in which girls are not underrepresented to an extensive degree.
The impact of literacy in and books in the lives of women, of all women is therefore evident, as literacy is an outlet for economic growth and political empowerment, but also a door for outstanding role models. Don’t forget:
If you give her a book, you will empower her story.
