Leaning In, Peace Corps Style

Lean In. You’re Not Pretty Enough. Women Still Can’t Have it All. Second Wave Feminism. Poststructuralist Feminism. Funny Feminism. I am not a heavy hitter when it comes to commenting on the progress or erosion of women’s equality. My response to a misogynistic comment is usually something like Tina Fey’s, “Suck my [male part that I don’t actually have]!” A modern-day Betty Friedan I am not.

But I am a returned Peace Corps Volunteer. And I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I also ran a Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) camp in Uzbekistan. The camp lasted just one week, but the planning took months and involved many grant applications (which, I realized after I sent them all started out with “Dear So and So, I am Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan.” Way to make a great impression...an overseas volunteer English teacher with terrible grammar. And who thinks everyone’s name is “So and So”). The highlight of my Peace Corps experience, the camp imparted leadership and self-confidence skills to Uzbekistani girls through sports and half-day classroom seminars.

The first GLOW camp was held in 1995 in Romania by PCVs and their Romanian counterparts who saw a major lack of positive female role models in politics and other positions of power. The camp was a huge success and PCVs have replicated it from the Philippines to Jordan to Guyana. While each camp is unique and tailored to meet the needs of the participants, they share several general principles: developing leadership skills, improving self-esteem, increasing knowledge of women’s health issues, respecting and caring for the environment, and promoting the belief that every young woman can make a difference in her community. They are fun, supportive, safe environments for girls to explore their potential. And learn how to be heard.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the closing ceremony of a GLOW camp in Gashora, in eastern Rwanda. About 30 girls from around the country spent a week at the technology-themed camp, where they learned everything from how to send an email to how to pursue a career in software development. The girls clearly bonded in the short time they spent there, and opened the ceremony with a progressive cheer, which went from a whisper to a scream (well, a scream by Rwandan standards, where people are very soft-spoken):

We’re Camp Tech Kobwa, read all about it!

We love computers and we want to shout it!

What struck me most was how many girls acknowledged that they might not have the chance to go back to their villages and continue regularly practicing typing on a computer or even be able to send occasional e-mails. But, they said, they knew that wasn’t the point of the camp. They understood the purpose of the camp was to teach them to dream bigger and not to be afraid to pursue what they are really interested in, no matter how few resources they might have. That sounds like a total cliché, but it was striking how many girls said it and how well they understand the challenges involved in pursuing their paths. It was the same way in Uzbekistan.

So, almost 20 years later, PCVs are still running these GLOW camps together with their local counterparts, likely unbeknownst to Sheryl Sandberg, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Liz Phair. Are they making a difference? I’m not on the M&E side of things, but as long as people don’t confuse them with Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling camps, then I think we have achieved success!

It’s funny, but I didn’t ask the PCVs running the camp in Gashora if they considered themselves feminists. Looking back on my 22-year old self, I think I considered myself a feminist the way I consider myself 5’4”. I still do. For me, whether we’re dealing with garden-variety chauvinism or entrenched discrimination, I’m opting out of the snarky columns, feminist manifestos, and paint-by-numbers punditry and going for old-fashioned empowerment by action. And reading Tina Fey.