An accomplished scholar, advocate, and now published author, Sally Nuamah, CCAS BA ’11, sheds light on the inequitable realities girls face throughout their education in her new book, How Girls Achieve (Harvard University Press).
The book rounds out Nuamah’s extensive and meaningful work in Ghana, which started during her time at GW – visiting the country for the first time as an adult during a study abroad program, and then again through a grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research.
Nuamah’s work includes an award-winning documentary film, HerStory, which dives into disadvantaged girls’ education, and a subsequent nonprofit, TWII Foundation, which provides scholarships to Ghanaian girls striving to be the first in their families to go to college.
“I see How Girls Achieve as the follow up of this work,” Nuamah explains. “I provided these scholarships to girls…however, that work, the scholarship itself, did not actually change the fact that institutions that they attended never really had them in mind to begin with. The schools weren’t built with girls in mind.”
This concept of schools not being “built with girls in mind” is the foundation for the book—Nuamah looked at schools in Ghana, South Africa and the U.S. The research focuses on how school operations affect young girls, and how even something unassuming, like a school-wide bathroom policy for younger grades, can affect girls of color differently.
“A policy such as this can indirectly impact black girls specifically in a way that it wouldn’t others, because they actually experience their menstrual cycles and puberty at an earlier age,” elaborates Nuamah. “A lot of people see these issues as really impacting just girls in developing countries, but we can actually see, from a policy perspective…similar impacts for girls, especially those of color, who are marginalized in the U.S.”
Nuamah’s research covers everything from sexual abuse to lack of funding, all connected to how these issues disadvantage young women and make education an inequitable experience.
“How Girls Achieve is thinking about how achievement shouldn’t just be about academic success, it should be about the ability to attain academic success in a safe and equitable environment – in a school where you don’t have to bear a different set of costs to attend as compared to others,” says Nuamah.
While her research uncovers hard truths about school-aged girls and their education, Nuamah also notes that the confidence and spirit from the girls she observed inspires her to continue her mission.
“One thing I noticed…was this sense of belief in their ability to achieve, despite their objective conditions – which were poor. From a statistical standpoint, it was unlikely that they would achieve the outcomes that they had in mind – but they all had a really strong sense that they could,” Nuamah reflects. “I found that really inspiring as a student at GW.”
As the child of Ghanaian parents growing up in a low-income, African American neighborhood in Chicago, Nuamah’s research hits close to home. She has seen firsthand how education can transform lives like her own and strives to make it possible for others, particularly girls, in similar situations. Now a PhD, post-doctoral fellow and tenure track professor, she credits GW with helping kick start her life’s work.
“GW literally took me to Ghana, funded this project initially, and helped me learn how to edit my film. And since I’ve left, which is almost ten years ago now, they have continued to be extremely supportive of this work. So it really represents the foundation of the documentary film, which turned into a scholarship and has now evolved into this book.”
-Carli Halper
Nuamah will have two readings and book signings in D.C. on April 25. The first at GW’s Marvin Center at 12pm and the second at Politics and Prose at The Wharf at 7pm. Her book, How Girls Achieve, is now available anywhere books are sold.
