Girl studies, also known as girlhood studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field of study that is focused on girlhood and girls' culture that combines advocacy and the direct perspectives and thoughts of girls themselves. The field officially emerged in the 1990s after decades of falling under the broader field of women's studies. Scholars within girl studies examine social and cultural elements of girlhood and move away from an adult-centered focus. Those working in the field of girl studies have studied it primarily in relation to other fields that include sociology, psychology, education, history, literary studies, media studies, and communication studies. Girl studies seeks to work directly with girls themselves in order to analyze their lives and understand the large societal forces at play within them. Scholars in girl studies also explore the connection the field has to women's studies, boyhood studies, and masculinity studies. There are many different definitions of what a girl is. Some may say that a girl is under the age of 18 (a minor). Catherine Driscoll discusses how in the nineteenth century, girls were traditionally defined as younger than the age of consent. Claudia Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh discuss girlhood beginning from birth to late twenties. Girlhood is often designated by age and consists of imitating observed and learned adult behavior.
History and development
Girl studies officially became a field in the 1990s, after the increase in conversation about getting more girls into science, math, and technology fields in the 1980s, though scholars and researchers were studying girls prior to this decade. In the 1970s, some feminist scholars brought to attention the unbalanced focus of boyhood in comparison to girlhood in youth research. Angela McRobbie, Meda Chesney-Lind, and Christine Griffin were some of the few scholars studying and critiquing the lack of study on girlhood and girl culture in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1990s, the Harvard Project on Women's Psychology and Girls' Development conducted a study on the social development of relationships of girls. This study found that when they approach adolescence, girls begin to hide their honest feelings and desires from those they are in close relationships with, making it hard for them to express their feelings later in life. In 1992, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) published How Schools Shortchange Girls, "the first national survey to assert a link between girls' psychosocial experience and schooling". Girls often associate school with being unsafe due to sexual harassment and rape. Dress code is an example of the control of girls and the message of how what they wear is more valuable than their education. The term ‘daddy’s girl’ is used popularly as an example of how girls are subordinates. Gender roles are a social institution in attempt to control girls.
Girl studies emerged in the 1990s, a time when there was an increased interest from the media and fashion and beauty industries in young women. Advertisers and retailers marketed towards girls by "promising female youth agency and social value" from purchasing the products. Jackie Kirk et al, discuss how terms that are meant for unity and empowerment such as ‘girl power’ are often used for marketing purposes rather than considered in policy making. Consumerism defines who a girl is and companies market towards girls in efforts to spark their attention. Companies would target products towards young girls that would subliminally send them messages about society’s expectations of girls which includes toys and dolls such as Bratz dolls, Barbie dolls, my scene dolls. Companies target these types of girls when selling products such as dolls, music, hair, or clothes. This phenomenon is referred to as tween culture and usually correlates to girls who are between nine and thirteen years old. The term tween usually denotes a young girl rather than a boy. This age period is important because it is a time of fundamental development of an adolescent concerning their identity. There are many studies that focus on how gender roles are imposed onto children and children are socialized to behave that way rather than gender roles having a biological element.