ABSTRACT
Girlhood is a cultural construct, one which embodies the cross-cutting of gender by age. As with other social categories, girlhood is the product of social processes and is historically and also regionally variable. The cultural construction of girlhood between 1920 to 1950 has been the subject of this study. Focusing on popular girls' magazines and key themes which they addressed – school, work, relationships, the body and sexuality – we have explored some of the ways in which these papers mapped out what it was to be a ‘girl’ in this period, how this varied for different groups by age and social class, and how this changed over time. Editorial negotiation of the interests of readers, of patriarchy, and of capital, was central to this process of constructing ‘girlhood’.
