Rescuing Girls, Investing in Girls: A Critique of Development Fantasies

The girl child increasingly is at the centre of development programming. We draw on Slavoj Žižek's notion of fantasy to show how and, more importantly, why girl‐centred initiatives reproduce the shortcomings of women and gender‐focused programmes before them. Through an analysis of three girl‐centred campaigns, we illustrate how experts identify and diagnose girls' problems and prescribe solutions that not only circumscribe girls' futures, but are also counterproductive. We argue that even as campaigns try to integrate lessons learned from earlier gender and development initiatives, the critical reflection that a Žižekian approach promotes would better enable development actors to reformulate campaigns and fundamental campaign assumptions.