It鈥檚 International Women鈥檚 Day, and many commentators take this opportunity to look back on the history of women to gauge how far we have come over the years. But it is often what is yet to be written that is most interesting, which made my mind turn to the history of girlhood.
Modern women鈥檚 history, as a separate branch of history, developed at the same time as the second wave of the women鈥檚 movement, starting in the 1960s. It began at the same time as social history, with its goal of giving voice to the silenced in history. Since then, it has gained traction to become an established area of study. There have been many methodological and philosophical debates within women鈥檚 history over the past half century, including important distinctions between feminist women鈥檚 history and gender history.
Many ages and stages of women鈥檚 lives have been studied: widows, mothers, married women and even single women have various journal articles and monographs to their credit.
But one stage of a woman鈥檚 life is still vastly under-researched, and that stage is the earlier years of girlhood. Although some work has been done on the history of childhood, gender is still not highlighted in many works. And the intersection of ethnicity, race, sexuality, disability and class for girls is even less well understood.
Both the academic journals Girlhood Studies (co-edited by McGill鈥檚 Claudia Mitchell) and the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth were launched only five years ago, in 2008. It鈥檚 fair to say that the history of girls is yet to be written, and that even their present is less well-researched than that of older women.
It鈥檚 interesting, then, to see that girls are fast becoming a focus of interest for some charities. International non-governmental organizations in particular seem to have 鈥渄iscovered鈥� girls. Plan sa国际传媒 has launched its Because I am a Girl project, and Care sa国际传媒 is explicitly focusing on girls and women as agents of community change.
In sa国际传媒, a number of national organizations are also focusing on girls, including the Canadian Women鈥檚 Foundation, the Belinda Stronach Foundation and the YWCA of sa国际传媒.
One of the only charities to focus solely on girls is Girls Action Foundation, founded in 1995 and based in Montreal. In the foundations鈥檚 own words, it exists to 鈥渓ead and seed girls鈥� programs across sa国际传媒.鈥� This foundation has just released a brief commissioned by Status of Women sa国际传媒 on the main issues facing girls in sa国际传媒, of which I am one of the co-authors.
I鈥檓 happy to say there is some good news to celebrate. Girls in sa国际传媒 are gaining ground in education, with more graduating from high school and often on time. They are also smoking less and there is a decline in teen pregnancies. Each of these improvements helps set girls up for success in the future.
Unfortunately, Canadian girls are still facing some serious challenges, especially when it comes to mental health and everyday violence and abuse that can touch their lives. Too many girls suffer from problems related to negative body image, depression or self-destructive behaviour, and too many also suffer from bullying, unwanted sexual attention or dating violence.
Girls who are indigenous, racialized, immigrant or live in rural areas face even more challenges and barriers than others, although it is encouraging to see that they also often show some signs of heightened resiliency. There is still much work to be done to ensure all Canadian girls can reach their best potential.
On this International Women鈥檚 Day, it鈥檚 important to realize that our girls today will all too soon become women in the future. And as important as the future generation of women is, remember, we can still learn from the past. If the history of girlhood is indeed waiting to be written, I sincerely hope the wait is not too long.
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Lee Tunstall has a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge. She is an adjunct assistant professor in the faculty of arts at the University of Calgary and co-author of the recently released Beyond Appearances: Brief on the Main Issues Facing Girls in sa国际传媒.
