The Girl Problem": Female Sexual Delinquency in New York, 1900-1930 - Hardcover

Alexander, Ruth M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801428211 ISBN 13: 9780801428210

Verlag: Cornell University Press, 1995

Inhaltsangabe

During the Progressive Era, young working-class women were sometimes jailed for engaging in social and sexual activities that signaled their rejection of Victorian moral standards. These disadvantaged "delinquents" were subject to legal sanctions that were rarely applied to rebellious middle-class girls. As she traces the history of a social crisis that came to be known as the "girl problem," Ruth M. Alexander reconstructs the stories of individual women incarcerated in reformatories who helped redefine female adolescence in the United States.
Alexander draws on the rich case files of reformatories at Bedford Hills and Albion, New York. Bringing together writings by the young inmates, letters from their parents, and institutional records, she follows the histories of a hundred girls as they run afoul of the law, are incarcerated, and struggle to reenter society. From the interplay among girls, families, courts, and penal institutions emerges a fascinating picture of class inequality and culture conflict. Alexander finds that most delinquent young women eventually accepted the idea that freedom was best won by conformity and accommodation.
In showing how a new social problem was identified and tackled, Alexander also documents the emergence of the modern professions of social work and mental hygiene. Reenacting a key chapter in the transformation of adolescence, The "Girl Problem" contributes to the history of sexuality and social reform through the Progressive Era and beyond.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ruth M. Alexander is Associate Professor of History at Colorado State University.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Cornell University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0801428211
• ISBN 13: 9780801428210
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 232
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar