A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood

'A Girl Can Do' features a myriad of fascinating chapters that complicate and expand our understandings of girlhood. While scholars often marginalize the history of girlhood, this book demonstrates that the study of girlhood cannot be ignored and illustrates how taking girls’ perspectives and experiences into consideration enriches our views of historical events, people, and places. Studying girlhood is not without its challenges, but the authors demonstrate how employing innovative methodologies—including Indigenous folklore and descendant knowledge and biographical approaches—and sources—including scrapbooks and spatial analysis of archaeological sites—can help uncover girls’ lives and experiences. One of the unique aspects and great strengths of the book is that it brings together two areas of history often discussed separately: studying and researching girlhood and interpreting and representing girlhood for the public. The chapters on incorporating girlhood narratives in museums, historic sites, exhibits, and public history programs raise important questions about making institutions more inclusive and negotiating sexism and racism in public spaces.

Another key strength of the collection is its interdisciplinarity and how it brings together scholars and historians working on girlhood in a variety of settings. The chapters are written in a clear and accessible way that will appeal to a wide audience. 'A Girl Can Do' will interest readers, students, and scholars engaged in various fields, from public history and museum studies to gender and childhood studies.

Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Dillenburg

Department of History

The Ohio State University at Newark