Abstract
This article focuses on change and continuity in the meanings of girlhood and adolescence in Finland during the twentieth century. There is an emphasis on the time period from the 1960s to the 1990s, but the article also includes a historical summary of early twentieth-century debates on girlhood and education, based on earlier research.
In the article, public, normative views of girlhood are contrasted with the private experiences of girls and linked with an overview of the changing social and cultural ideals of femininity.
Two main data sets will be drawn from: firstly, advice books for girls from the 1960s to the 1990s, and secondly, autobiographical stories written by girls and women of different ages in the mid-1990s. The analysis of the texts has been inspired by feminist poststructuralist theory, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis.
In the course of the article, it is shown that Finnish girls’ position as individuals and citizens has constantly been questioned. Their sexuality has been seen as particularly vulnerable, and their relationship to parents has often been full of tension. However, towards the end of the twentieth century, positions invested with more agency were gradually opening up for girls and young women in Finland, especially in relation to the neo-liberal individualist discourses that had become more and more prominent during that time.
