Michelle Obama Tells Global Educators To Let Girls Learn

First Lady Michelle Obama recently published a piece in The Atlantic, making the case for the White House’s Let Girls Learn initiative. She wrote, “Right now, 62 million girls worldwide are not in school. They’re receiving no formal education at all—no reading, no writing, no math—none of the basic skills they need to provide for themselves and their families, and contribute fully to their countries.” She reminded readers that addressing gender inequality in education involves more than just investing financial resources; it also involves working toward social change. “We cannot address our girls’ education crisis until we address the broader cultural beliefs and practices that can help cause and perpetuate this crisis.”

The First Lady also delivered the same message this week in Qatar during her keynote address at the annual WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) event. WISE is one of the most significant annual events that focuses on global education. Each year, the three-day summit brings educators, thought leaders, and decision makers together “to explore groundbreaking innovations and take concrete steps to make significant improvements to worldwide education.”

While it is normal to see former world leaders at these kinds of conferences, a visit from the First Lady is unique—reminding us that the Obamas can take risks during the homestretch of a second term. Sitting heads of state and their families usually need to be careful of the political mine field that accompanies efforts around “global education.” Public reaction is rarely favorable. Domestically, for example, some people may wonder why Michelle Obama would expend energy on children in other nations when the education system at home is in such disarray. Internationally, folks may interpret US intervention in foreign education, especially when it addresses “cultural beliefs and practices,” as intellectual or epistemological imperialism.

Kudos to the First Lady for her willingness to leverage her status in this critical area despite the potential for backlash.  She clearly understands the importance. Toward the end of her speech in Doha, Qatar she said, “the research is crystal clear:  girls who are educated marry later, have lower rates of infant mortality.  They’re more likely to immunize their children; less likely to contract malaria and HIV.” And she emphasized not only the quality-of-life and health benefits, but also the economic ones. “Girls who are educated also earn higher salaries—15 to 25 percent for each additional year of secondary school.  And studies have shown that sending more girls to school and into the workforce can boost an entire country’s GDP.”

I was already in Doha, participating in WISE. So I arranged to hop into the White House press pool. I wanted to get a closer look at how FLOTUS was spreading her message.

Imagine the Qatar National Convention Center.  It is a massive structure—wide, high ceilings, and spread out. It is big and somewhat hyperbolic, the way many things are in Doha. The theater itself holds 2000 people, all of whom lined up to hear not only First Lady Michelle Obama, but also Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser, Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation.

HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser has been an inspirational force supporting women’s and girl’s rights around the world, and especially in the Middle East. As First Lady Obama explained, “The fact that two-thirds of university students in Qatar and nearly 40 percent of the Qatari workforce are women is no accident—it is due in large part to her leadership.” By way of comparison, women make up 47 percent of the U.S. workforce.

As the chairperson of the Qatar Foundation, HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser provided WISE’s opening plenary. She focused on education in conflict zones. Where schools seem to be most essential, they also seem to be under attack. Girls in war zones and refugee camps face a particularly high level of threat. The political unrest in many parts of the Middle East is wreaking havoc on the lives of school children. Her Highness’s remarks were full of concern, but also disapproval, implicitly urging the the First Lady to consider the human ramifications of U.S. military presence in Islamic countries. Perhaps she was also subtly negotiating for more U.S. support and aid.

Michelle Obama also seemed to be tactfully challenging conceptions of gender equality in Islamic nations that see themselves as progressive. “Yes, we need to provide school bathrooms and feminine hygiene products for our girls, but we also need to confront the taboos that say menstruation is harmful or shameful.” She was pushing the boundaries of acceptable discourse; consider how rare it is to discuss menstruation anywhere, let alone among religious audiences. She continued, “We need to confront the myths about women’s sexuality that are used to justify horrific practices like genital mutilation and cutting.  Because if we truly want to empower girls to learn, then we need to ensure that their bodies are a source of pride, not pain or shame.”

The way we approach the female body is a big issue, as present in the U.S. as it is in other places. “I would argue that we cannot address our girls’ education crisis until we address the cultural norms and practices that devalue women’s intelligence, that silence their voices, that limit their ambitions,” the First Lady said. “I don’t think it’s an accident that we’ve reached gender parity in primary but not secondary education,” she said, speaking about a problem that’s still widespread in the U.S. “Because when girls are young, they’re often seen simply as children.  But when they hit adolescence and start to develop into women, and are suddenly subject to all of their societies’ biases around gender, that is precisely when they start to fall behind in their education.”

After her speech, we headed down to the main exhibition hall. There, I was happy to find some of the activities involved video games for learning. Qatari kids were playing with Makey Makey, a product that allows kids to turn anything into a video game controller. They were building contraptions out of Play-Doh and aluminum foil that they would use to control classic games through a modified version of the MIT Media Lab's Scratch software. When they kids showed her how it worked, the First Lady smiled enthusiastically. “Space Invaders?! Everyone played this game when I was in school.”