Through the lens of America's first and most popular girls' organization, Jennifer Helgren traces the role and changing meaning of American girls' citizenship across critical intersections of gender, race, class, and disability in the twentieth-century United States.
Focusing on the significance of girlhood, this collection of essays explores how age, gender, and diverse identities shape women's historical experiences. Covering a wide time frame from 1750 to the present, the thematically-arranged studies reveal both continuities and differences in girls' lives across various cultures and regions, offering a nuanced understanding of their impact on women's lives throughout history.