ABSTRACT
In her study of girlhood in late Victorian and Edwardian England, Carol Dyhouse demonstrates the significance of both social class and gender for girls' experiences of family and education. 1 Such cross-cutting of gender-specific experiences was also characteristic of the conditions of girlhood between 1920 and 1950. Some historians of the interwar period have claimed that social class differences diminished, largely as a result of the experiences of war. 2 As this chapter demonstrates, whilst experiences of girlhood were influenced by wider social and economic changes, social class remained significant for girls' experiences of home, family, education and employment throughout the period. The conditions of girlhood were also shaped by race although little is yet known about the details of ‘black’ girls growing up in England at this time, or indeed before. Nevertheless, the ‘whiteness’ of the girls discussed in this chapter was clearly significant for their experience of girlhood. 3 Age was also key to girlhood experience; indeed adolescence was a period characterised by transitions. Whilst English girlhood between 1920 and 1950 was differentiated along a number of axes it remained a specifically feminine experience; girlhood remained quite distinct in important ways from boyhood.
