Engendering hope: youth and the gendering of development discourse

On 12 July 2013 then sixteen year-old Malala Yousafzai addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Youth Takeover Day. She called on 'the developed nations to support the expansion of educational opportunities for girls in the developing world'.

On 23 September 2019 then sixteen year-old Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations Climate Summit, embodying the hopes and fears of a global movement of climate strikes by young people.

The prominence of Malala Yousafsai and Greta Thunberg arguably reflects a shift from seeing young people as the objects of protection to seeing them as actors in their own right. In this project I will trace the way that the institutions of global governance have dealt with young people. I am interested in the intersection of the axes of youth and gender, and how these intersect with other dimensions of difference.

Presenter

Professor Vera Mackie is Honorary Senior Professor of Asian and International Studies - School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong

Professor Mackie is a current Visiting Fellow with the HRC