Girl Trouble Panic and Progress in the History of Young Women

Horror, scandal and moral panic! The popular fascination with the moral decline of young women has permeated society for over a hundred years. Be it flappers, beat girls, dolly birds or ladettes, public outrage at girls' perceived permissiveness has been a mass-media staple with each changing generation. Eminent social historian Carol Dyhouse examines what it really means and has meant to be a girl growing up in the swirl of twentieth-century social change in this detailed, factual and empathetic history. Dyhouse uses studies, interviews, articles and news items to piece together the story of girlhood, clearly demonstrating the value of feminism and other liberating cultural shifts in expanding girls' aspirations and opportunities, in spite of the negative press that has accompanied these freedoms. This is a sparkling, panoramic account of the ever-evolving opportunities and challenges for girls, the new ways they have able to present and speak up for themselves, and the popular hysteria that has frequently accompanied their progress.

Carol Dyhouse is a social historian and currently a research professor of history at the University of Sussex. Her most recent book, Glamour: Women, History, Feminism, was published by Zed Books in 2010.

Introduction1: White Slavery and the Seduction of Innocents2: Unwomanly Types: New Women, Revolting Daughters and Rebel Girls3: Brazen Flappers, Bright Young Things and 'Miss Modern'4: Good-Time Girls, Baby Dolls and Teenage Brides5: Coming of Age in the 1960s: Beatgirls and Dollybirds 6: Taking Liberties: Panic over Permissiveness and Women's Liberation7: Body Anxieties, Depressives, Ladettes and Living Dolls: What happened to Girlpower?8: Looking Back