A History of the Girl ― Formation, Education and Identity

This book is centered on the history of the girl from the medieval period through to the early twenty-first century. Authored by an international team of scholars, the volume explores the transition from adolescent girlhood to young womanhood, the formation and education of girls in the home and in school, and paid work undertaken by girls in different parts of the world and at different times. It highlights the value of a comparative approach to the history of the girl, as the contributors point to shared attitudes to girlhood and the similarity of the experiences of girls in workplaces across the world. Contributions to the volume also emphasise the central role of girls in the global economy, from their participation in the textile industry in the eighteenth century, through to the migration of girls to urban centres in twentieth-century Africa and China.

Mary O’Dowd is Professor of Gender History at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Her publications include A History of Women in Ireland, 1500-1800 (2005) and Reading the Irish Woman Case Studies in Cultural Encounters and Exchange (co-authored with Gerardine Meaney and Bernadette Whelan, 2014). She has recently completed a co-authored study of the history of marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925.

June Purvis is Emeritus Professor of Women's and Gender History at Portsmouth University, UK. She is Founding and Managing Editor of the journal Women’s History Review and author of Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography (2002) and Christabel Pankhurst: A Biography (2018), as well as co-editor of thirteen edited book collections. She is Chair of the Women’s History Network and Treasurer and Secretary of the International Federation for Research in Women’s History.