GirlSpeak

Happy belated International Day of the Girl Child! This holiday, celebrated every year on October 11, focuses on galvanizing worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for girls to show leadership and reach their full potential. Around the world, groups came together to highlight, discuss, and take action to advance the rights and opportunities for girls everywhere.

Here at Girl Museum headquarters, we have long used International Day of the Girl to highlight an issue that many of us find integral to advancing girls’ rights: how girls are represented in museums. Throughout the years, we’ve found that some museums get it right - and others get it painfully wrong. For too long, girls have been the silent subjects of artworks - shown throughout museums yet never present in their own right. Their stories have been sidelined by technical art history or discussions of how the artists portraying them impacted history. Including girls’ voice

Devon explores the complex world of female deities in Egyptian mythology.  In Part 2, discover Ma’at, Mut, Nephthys and Taweret.

How did the Classical world view the female body? Join Lucy Bickley to explore the philosophical and real world examples of how girls and women could - or could not - control their bodies, and how this led to their status in Classical society.

Researched, written, and recorded by Lucy Bickley. Featured in our exhibition, Classical Girls, launching September 2017.

Do you know the tale of the "stolen girls" of the Civil Rights Movement? Join Emily Chandler to explore the story of the Leesburg Stockade, an event in the history of the African-American civil rights movement in which a group of girls, aged eleven to fifteen, were abducted by the police and unlawfully imprisoned in a condemned stockade for taking part in a peaceful protest. The girls were subjected to inhumane conditions and unable to contact their families for rescue. Yet their courage and tenacity helped them to navigate this life-changing experience. Many of the stolen girls, still alive today, are dedicated to making the world a better and fairer place for African-American people.

Researched, written, and recorded by Emily Chandler.

Discover three of the most powerful figures in Greek mythology: Medusa, Hera, and Themis.  All three wielded considerable power over the gods and mortals...as told by the myths they left behind.

Researched, written, and recorded by Junior Girl Devon Allen.

Think Anne Bonny, Mary Reed, Grace O'Malley were awesome? Wait until you hear about Ching Shih, the female Chinese pirate who rose from the lowliest class to become the fiercest (and most successful) pirate ever. This is her story.

Researched, written, and recorded by Emily Chandler.

What was life like for a girl in Ancient China? Join Devon Allen to explore girls' lives during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which reigned from 1675 to 256 BCE.

From convict to business mogul, uncover the life and times of Mary Haydock Reibey, a Lancashire girl who, in 1791, was arrested for stealing a horse and sent to a penal colony in Australia. Against the odds, this tough and intelligent teenager not only survived two squalid and violent English prisons and the dangerous sea voyage to Australia, but rose to become one of Australia’s first entrepreneurs.

Devon explores the complex world of female deities in Egyptian mythology.  In Part 1, discover Sekhmet, Isis, Hathor and Wadjet.

What was life like for a girl in ancient Mesopotamia? Journey with us to discover the lives of girls during the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian periods in celebration of our latest exhibition, Ancient Girls.