Welcome to Girl Museum’s interview series, Why We Need Girls’ Studies, for 2024. We have many exciting interviews this year with important scholars in the field to get insights about what we are all doing in this space to further our understanding of girlhood and girls’ experiences.
This month’s interview is with Elizabeth Dillenberg, an assistant professor of history at Ohio State University. She specializes in the history of modern Europe with a particular focus on the history of Britain and the British Empire and teaches courses on European and global history, gender history, the history of childhood, and the history of colonialism. Elizabeth is a resident scholar at Girl Museum and the co-chair of the Girls’ History and Culture Network.
Why do you consider it important to study girlhood?
I was first drawn to the study of girls and girlhood because I wanted to learn more about the lives, experiences, and voices of figures who have been marginalized throughout history. Girls have long been overlooked and not regarded as significant figures in history, but it is imperative that we bring girls out from the shadows of history and explore how girls acted as agents with their own views and voices who actively shaped their environment. Centring girls can expand and challenge traditional narratives of history. To paraphrase two girlhood scholars, Michelle Smith and Kristine Moruzi, stories of girls can help us see aspects of history that might not otherwise be visible. We cannot understand the nature of power and constructions of gender, age, class, and race without attention to girls and girlhood.
Girlhood studies is a relatively new field, yet is rapidly changing. What are the biggest opportunities for those interested in studying girlhood?
Girlhood studies is a dynamic and expanding field that offers countless avenues for further exploration. As a historian, one of the greatest challenges I face in researching girlhood lies in the nature of the archive, which continues to privilege male and adult voices over female and youth voices and thus renders girls silent. While I used to be frustrated by the difficulties of finding information about girls’ lives and experiences in the archive, I now view these challenges as opportunities. Scholars of girlhood have demonstrated the need to rethink and expand the very definition of the archive and apply innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies to uncover the lives of girls. They analyze a range of interesting and nontraditional sources from clothing and fashion to art and photographs to toys and popular media to better understand experiences and constructions of girlhood. These approaches have been especially valuable in the burgeoning and exciting field of Black girlhood studies.
What is the biggest challenge facing girlhood studies? Do you have ideas on how we can address it?
Perhaps the greatest challenge I experience as a historian of girlhood is that it is still a topic that is marginalized and dismissed as not important or as relevant as other historical fields. I frequently find myself having to justify why girls is a “serious” research topic and explain why people should care about the history and lives of girls.
Moreover, although girlhood studies is inherently interdisciplinary, meaningful conversations across disciplines remain relatively limited as do opportunities for scholars to connect with activists and professionals working with girls and on issues related to girlhood. Nevertheless, fostering greater dialogue among different disciplines and professions is vital to the growth of girlhood studies. Because many of the challenges facing girls today have historical roots, it is important to integrate historical perspectives with contemporary analysis about girlhood and girls’ experiences. Conversations with scholars working in disciplines like education, public policy, and feminist studies have deepened my understanding of girlhood and been formative to my research.
Addressing these challenges requires broader systemic changes that will take time, but Girl Museum plays a pivotal role in demonstrating the importance of girls throughout history and today and provides a crucial space for interdisciplinary collaboration. Through my work with Girl Museum, I have had opportunities to work with scholars, educators, and activists from different parts of the world and have experienced first-hand the value of these collaborations. Girl Museum provides an important way to redress the long marginalization of girls by elevating their stories and voices.
Finally, please feel free to plug any current projects or publications that you want to highlight.
My book—Empire’s daughters: Girlhood, whiteness, and the colonial project—was recently published. It uncovers the ways in which girls and ideas of girlhood were central to the construction of identities and societies and ideas of whiteness in the British Empire. Girls were heralded as empire builders and, especially during times of imperial uncertainty, were crucial to the creation and maintenance of class, gender, and racial hierarchies. Yet girls’ involvement in the empire was anything but straightforward. They not only supported—directly and indirectly—systems of colonial power but also resisted them.
To explore these complexities of girls’ participation in the empire, Empire’s daughters examines the Girls’ Friendly Society, an organization that emerged in late Victorian Britain and developed into a global society with branches throughout the empire. The book charts the society’s origins and growth and its later decline in the interwar era. It also explores how, through its multifaceted imperial education and emigration programs, the society constructed ideas of girlhood, race, and empire that then circulated globally. It employs a multi-sited framework that examines girlhood in different areas of the empire, including Britain, India, South Africa, and Australia, and utilizes a range of sources, including correspondences, scrapbooks, photographs, and newsletters, to provide new insights into girls’ experiences of and engagement with colonialism. Through this study of the Girls’ Friendly Society, Empire’s daughters argues that understandings of colonialism remain incomplete without considerations of girls and girlhood.
More information about the book can be found here. A link to the open access version of the book can be found here.