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A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term girl has other meanings, including young woman,Dictionary.com, "Girl". Retrieved January 2, 2008. daughter or girlfriend regardless of age, the first meaning is the most common one.
The treatment and status of girls in any society is usually closely related to the status of women in that culture. In cultures where women have or had a low social position, girls may be unwanted by their parents, and society may invest less in girls. The difference in girls' and boys' upbringing ranges from slight to completely different. Mixing of the sexes may vary by age, and from totally mixed to total sex segregation.
In a casual context, the word has positive uses, as evidenced by its use in titles of popular music. It has been used playfully for people acting in an energetic fashion (Canadian singer Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous Girl") or as a way of unifying women of all ages on the basis of their once having been girls (American country singer Martina McBride's "This One's for the Girls").
By the eighteenth century, Europeans recognized the value of literacy, and schools were opened to educate the public in growing numbers. Education in the Age of Enlightenment in France led to up to a third of women becoming literate by the time of the French Revolution, contrasting with roughly half of men by that time. However, education was still not considered as important for girls as for boys, who were being trained for professions that remained closed to women, and girls were not admitted to secondary level schools in France until the late 19th century. Girls were not entitled to receive a Baccalaureate diploma in France until the reforms of 1924 under education minister Léon Bérard. Schools were segregated in France until the end of World War II. Since then, compulsory education laws have raised the education of girls and young women throughout Europe. In many European countries, girls' education was restricted until the 1970s, especially at higher levels. This was often done by teaching different subjects to each sex, especially since tertiary education was considered primarily for males, particularly with regard to technical education. For example, prestigious engineering schools, such as École Polytechnique, did not allow women until the 1970s.
Japan has a coming-of-age ritual called Shichi-Go-San (七五三), which literally means "Seven-Five-Three". This is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for three- and seven-year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys, held annually on November 15. It is generally observed on the nearest weekend. On this day, the girl will be dressed in a traditional kimono, and will be taken to a temple by her family for a blessing ceremony. Nowadays, the occasion is also marked with a formal photo portrait.
Many coming-of-age ceremonies are to acknowledge the passing of a girl through puberty, when she experiences menarche, or her first menstruation. The traditional Apache coming-of-age ceremony for girls is called the na'ii'ees (Sunrise Ceremony), and takes place over four days. The girls are painted with clay and pollen, which they must not wash off until the end of the rituals, which involve dancing and rituals that challenge physical strength. Girls are taught aspects of sexuality, confidence, and healing ability. The girls pray in the direction of the east at dawn, and in the four cardinal directions, which represent the four stages of life. This ceremony was banned by the U.S. government for many decades; after being decriminalized by the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, it has seen a revival.
Some coming-of-age ceremonies are religious rituals to recognize a girl's maturity with respect to her understanding of religious beliefs, and her changing role in her religious community. Confirmation is a ceremony common to many Christian denominations for both boys and girls, usually taking place when the child is in their teen years. In Roman Catholic communities, Confirmation is considered one of seven sacraments that a Catholic may receive. In many countries, it is traditional for Catholics children to receive another sacrament, First Communion, at the age of seven. The sacrament is usually performed in a church once a year, with children who are of age receive a blessing from a bishop in a special ceremony. It is traditional in many countries for Catholic girls to wear white dresses and possibly a small veil or wreath of flowers in their hair to their First Communion. The white dress symbolizes spiritual purity.
A traditional coming-of-age ritual for daughters of college age (17 to 21 years old) from high society and well-connected upper-class and White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) families in North America and Europe has historically been their debut, known as "coming out," at a Debutante, such as the International Debutante Ball in New York City. Traditionally, debutantes wear Haute couture white gowns and gloves symbolising purity and wealth.
Across Latin America, the fiesta de quince años is a celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday. The girl celebrating the birthday is called a Quinceañera. This birthday is celebrated differently from any other birthday, as it marks the transition from childhood to womanhood.
While completely secular in nature, a girl’s first bra is sometimes seen as an important next step in her life. Unlike many more traditional coming of age customs, the event has no set date in a girl’s life and can occur when she is a teenager and in other times can occur when she is a preteen.
Accessed. the custom of foot binding was associated with upper-class women who were worthy of a life of leisure, and husbands who could afford to spare them the necessity of work (which would require the ability to be mobile and spend the day on their feet). Because of this belief, parents hoping to ensure a good marriage for their daughters would begin binding their feet from about the age of 5–8 to achieve the ideal appearance. The tinier the feet, the better the social rank of a future husband. The practice started seriously to decline in the early years of the twentieth century, and was all but extinct by 1950.
China has had many customs relating to girls and their roles as future wives and mothers.
Traditionally an unmarried girl would wear her hair in two pigtails, and once married, in one.
China and India have a very strong son preference. In China, the one-child policy was largely responsible for an unbalanced sex ratio. Sex-selective abortion, as well as rejection of girl children is common. The Dying Rooms is a 1995 television documentary film about Chinese state orphanages, which documented how parents abandoned their newborn girls into orphanages, where the staff would leave the children in rooms to die of thirst, or starvation. In India, the practice of dowry is partly responsible for a strong son preference. Another manifestation of son preference is the violence inflicted against mothers who give birth to girls. Afghan woman is killed 'for giving birth to a girl' - BBC News 23-year-old woman killed for giving birth to twin daughters | Bareilly News - Times of India 56 killed for giving birth to girl child in Pakistan
In India, by 2011, there were 91 girls younger than 6 for every 100 boys. Its 2011 census showed CHILD SEX RATIO IN INDIA Dr C Chandramouli, Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (2011) that the ratio of girls to boys under the age of 6 years old has dropped even during the past decade, from 927 girls for every 1000 boys in 2001 to 918 girls for every 1000 boys in 2011. In China, scholars report 794 baby girls for every 1000 baby boys in rural regions. In Azerbaijan, last 20 years of birth data suggests 862 girls were born for every 1000 boys, on average every year. Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute in Washington, D.C., has said: "Twenty-five million men in China currently can't find brides because there is a shortage of women ... young men emigrate overseas to find brides." The gender imbalance in these regions is also blamed for spurring growth in the commercial sex trade; the UN's 2005 report states that up to 800,000 people being trafficked across borders each year, and as many as 80 percent are women and girls.
About one in a thousand girls have a 47,XXX karyotype, and one in 2500 have a 45,X one.
Girls typically have a female reproductive system. Some intersex children with ambiguous genitals may be classified as girls, while some Transgender youth have a gender identity as girls. Ethics And Intersex Sharon E. Sytsma
Girls' bodies undergo gradual changes during puberty. Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's Human body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction to enable fertilization. It is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the . In response to the signals, the gonads produce hormones that stimulate libido and the growth, function, and transformation of the brain, , muscle, blood, skin, hair, , and sex organ. Physical growth—height and weight—accelerates in the first half of puberty and is completed when the child has developed an adult body. Until the maturation of their reproductive capabilities, the pre-pubertal, physical differences between boys and girls are the Human genitals. Puberty is a process that usually takes place between 10 and 16 years, but these ages differ from person to person. The major landmark of female puberty is menarche, the onset of menstruation, which occurs on average between 12 and 13.(Tanner, 1990). According to a 2010 Canadian study, the variation of age in which menstruation begins had a "statistically significant" relation to where the child was living, household income, and family type.
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviours, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Femininity is socially constructed, but made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors. This makes it distinct from the definition of the Female, Gender, Women and Health: What do we mean by "sex" and "gender"?' The World Health Organization as both males and females can exhibit feminine traits. Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity,Vetterling-Braggin, Mary "Femininity," "masculinity," and "androgyny": a modern philosophical discussionWorell, Judith, Encyclopedia of women and gender: sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender, Volume 1 Elsevier, 2001, , though traits associated with femininity vary depending on location and context, and are influenced by a variety of social and cultural factors.
Gender neutrality describes the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from rigid gender roles. Unisex refers to things that are considered appropriate for any sex. Campaigns for unisex toys include Let Toys Be Toys.
In developed countries, teenage pregnancy is usually associated with social issues, including lower educational levels, poverty, and other negative life outcomes; and often carries a social stigma. By contrast, teenage girls in developing countries are often married, and their pregnancies welcomed by family and society. However, in these societies, child marriage and early pregnancy often combine with malnutrition and poor health care and create medical problems.
Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has asserted "primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all" girls are slightly less likely to be enrolled as students in primary and secondary schools (70%:74% and 59%:65%). Worldwide efforts have been made to end this disparity (such as through the Millennium Development Goals) and the gap has closed since 1990. The State of the World's Children 2004 - Girls, Education and Development , UNICEF, 2004
In England, studies by the National Literacy Trust have shown girls score consistently higher than boys in all scholastic areas from the ages of 7 through 16, with the most striking differences noted in reading and writing skills.literacytrust.org, Literacy achievement in England, including gender split , 2007, retrieved 7 December 2008 In the United States, historically, girls lagged on standardized tests. In 1996 the average score of 503 for US girls from all races on the SAT verbal test was 4 points lower than boys. In math, the average for girls was 492, which was 35 points lower than boys. "When girls take the exact same courses," commented Wayne Camara, a research scientist with the College Board, "that 35-point gap dissipates quite a bit." At the time Leslie R. Wolfe, president of the Center for Women Policy Studies said girls scored differently on the math tests because they tend to work the problems out while boys use "test-taking tricks" such as immediately checking the answers already given in multiple-choice questions. Wolfe said girls are steady and thorough while "boys play this test like a pin-ball machine." Wolfe also said although girls had lower SAT scores they consistently get higher grades than boys across all courses in their first year in college.New York Times,
Katherine Q Seelye, Group Seeks to Alter S.A.T. to Raise Girls' Scores, 14 March 1997, retrieved 2 January 2008 By 2006 girls were outscoring boys on the verbal portion of the United States' nationwide SAT exam by 11 points.ABC News, John Berman, Girls Achieve Rare SAT Scores, 30 August 2006, retrieved 2 January 2008 A 2005 University of Chicago study showed that a majority presence of girls in the classroom tends to enhance the academic performance of boys.harrisschool.uchicago.edu, Girl-Dominated Classrooms Can Improve Boys’ Early School Performance , retrieved 2 January 2008
In parts of the world, especially in East Asia, South Asia and some Western world countries' girls are sometimes seen as unwanted; in some cases, girls are selectively aborted, abused, mistreated or abandoned by their parents or relatives.A. Gettis, J. Getis, and J. D. Fellmann (2004). Introduction to Geography, Ninth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 200. In China, boys exceed girls by more than 30 million, suggesting over a million excess boys are born every year than expected for normal human sex ratio at birth.Wei Xing Zhu, Li Lu, Therese Hesketh, China's Excess Males, Sex Selective Abortion, and One Child Policy: Analysis of Data from 2005 National Intercensus Survey, BMJ: British Medical Journal, Vol. 338, No. 7700 (Apr. 18, 2009), pp. 920-923 In India, scholars estimate from boy to girl ratio at birth that sex-selective abortions cause a loss of about 1.5%, or 100,000 female births per year. Abnormal boy to girl ratio at birth is also seen in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, suggesting possible sex-selective abortions against girls.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons." "Female genital mutilation", World Health Organization, February 2013. It is practiced mainly in 28 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, particularly Egypt and Ethiopia, and in parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East. "An update on WHO's work on female genital mutilation (FGM)", World Health Organization, 2011, p. 2: "Most women who have experienced FGM live in one of the 28 countries in Africa and the Middle East – nearly half of them in just two countries: Egypt and Ethiopia. Countries in which FGM has been documented include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen. The prevalence of FGM ranges from 0.6% to 98% of the female population."
Child marriages, where girls are married at young ages (often forced and often to much older husbands) remain common in many parts of the world. They are fairly widespread in parts of the world, especially in Africa, Child brides die young ANTHONY KAMBA, Africa in Fact Journal (1 AUGUST 2013) Marrying too young, End child marriage United Nations Population Fund (2012), See page 23 South Asia, Early Marriage, Child Spouses UNICEF, See section on Asia, page 4 (2001) Southeast and East Asia, Southeast Asia's big dilemma: what to do about child marriage? August 20, 2013 PHILIPPINES: Early marriage puts girls at risk IRIN, United Nations News Service (January 26, 2010) the Middle East, "How Come You Allow Little Girls to Get Married?" - Child Marriage in Yemen Human Rights Watch, (2011); pages 15-23 Child marriage still an issue in Saudi Arabia Joel Brinkley, San Francisco Chronicle (March 14, 2010) Latin America, Child Marriage - What we know? Public Broadcasting Service (United States), 2010 and Oceania. Early Marriage, Child Spouses UNICEF, See section on Oceania, page 5 The ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage are: Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, and Malawi. WHO | Child marriages: 39,000 every day. Who.int (2013-03-07). Retrieved on 2013-04-06.
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. In Western countries CSA is considered a serious crime, but in many parts of the world there is a tacit tolerance of the practice. CSA can take many forms, one of which is child prostitution. Child prostitution is the commercial sexual exploitation of children in which a child performs the services of prostitution, for financial benefit. It is estimated that each year at least one million children, mostly girls, become prostitutes. Child prostitution is common in many parts of the world, especially in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia), and many adults from wealthy countries travel to these regions to engage in child sex tourism.
In many parts of the world, girls who are deemed to have tarnished the 'honor' of their families by refusing arranged marriages, having premarital sex, dressing in ways deemed inappropriate or even becoming the victims of rape, are at risk of honor killing by their families.
Girls during adolescence to early adulthood are often to have eating disorders than boys.
Risk factors includes family history, high-level athletics, bullying, social media, modeling, substance use disorder, being a dancer or gymnast
A number of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have created programs focusing on addressing disparities in girls' access to such necessities as food, healthcare and education. CAMFED is one organization active in providing education to girls in sub-Saharan Africa. PLAN International's "Because I am a Girl" campaign is a high-profile example of such initiatives. PLAN's research has shown that educating girls can have a powerful ripple effect, boosting the economies of their towns and villages; providing girls with access to education has also been demonstrated to improve community understanding of health matters, reducing HIV rates, improving nutritional awareness, reducing birthrates and improving infant health. Research demonstrates that a girl who has received an education will:
Plan International also created a campaign to establish an International Day of the Girl. The goals of this initiative are to raise global awareness of the unique challenges facing girls, as well as the key role they have in addressing larger poverty and development challenges. A delegation of girls from Plan Canada introduced the idea to Rona Ambrose, Canada's Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, at the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters in February 2011. In March 2011, Canada's Parliament unanimously adopted a motion requesting that Canada take the lead at the United Nations in the initiative to proclaim an International Day of the Girl. The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted an International Day of the Girl Child on December 19, 2011. The first International Day of the Girl Child is October 11, 2012.
Its most recent research has led PLAN International to identify a need to coordinate projects that address boys' roles in their communities, as well as finding ways of including boys in activities that reduce gender discrimination. Since political, religious and local community leaders are most often men, men and boys have great influence over any effort to improve girls' lives and achieve gender equality. PLAN International's 2011 Annual Report points out that men have more influence and may be able to convince communities to curb early marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) more effectively than women. Egyptian religious leader Sheikh Saad, who has campaigned against the practice, is quoted in the report: “We have decided that our daughter will not go through this bad, inhumane experience ... I am part of the change.”
Mary Cassatt painted many famous Impressionist works that idealize the innocence of girls and the mother-daughter bond, for example her 1884 work . During the same era, Whistler's Harmony in Gray and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander and The White Girl depict girls in the same light.
Beginning in the late Victorian era, more nuanced depictions of girl protagonists became popular. Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, and other tales featured themes that ventured into tragedy. Published in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll featured a widely noted female protagonist, Alice, confronting eccentric characters and intellectual puzzles in surreal settings. The character of the plucky, yet proper, Alice has proven immensely popular and inspired similar in literature and pop culture. Literature followed different cultural currents, sometimes romanticizing and idealizing girlhood, and at other times developing under the influence of the growing literary realism movement. Many Victorian novels begin with the childhood of their heroine, such as Jane Eyre, an orphan who suffers ill treatment from her guardians and then at a girls' boarding school. The character Natasha in War and Peace, on the other hand, is sentimentalized.
By the twentieth century, the portrayal of girls in fiction had for the most part abandoned idealized portrayals of girls. Popular literary novels include Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in which a young girl, Scout, is faced with the awareness of the forces of bigotry in her community. Vladimir Nabokov's controversial book Lolita (1955) is about a doomed relationship between a 12-year-old girl and an adult scholar as they travel across the United States. Zazie dans le métro ( Zazie in the Metro) (1959) by Raymond Queneau is a popular French novel that humorously celebrates the innocence and precocity of Zazie, who ventures off on her own to explore Paris, escaping from her uncle (a professional female impersonator) and her mother (who is preoccupied by a meeting with her lover). Zazie was also made into a popular movie in 1960 ( Zazie dans le Métro) by French director Louis Malle.
Books which have both boy and girl protagonists have tended to focus more on the boys, but important girl characters appear in Knight's Castle, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Book of Three and the Harry Potter series.
In anime and manga girls are often protagonists. Most of Hayao Miyazaki's animated films feature a young girl heroine, as in ( Kiki's Delivery Service). There are many other girl protagonists in the shōjo style of manga, which is targeted at girls as an audience. Among these are The Wallflower, Ceres, Celestial Legend, Tokyo Mew Mew and Full Moon o Sagashite. Meanwhile, some genres of Japanese cartoons may feature sexualized and objectified portrayals of girls.
The term girl is widely heard in the lyrics of popular music (such as with the song "American Girl"), most often meaning a young adult or teenaged female.
Biology
Embryos that inherit two (XX), one from each parent, are generally identified as girls when born.
Gender and environment
Biological sex interacts with environment in ways not fully understood.Salon.com, Kurt Kleiner, A mind of their own (book review of Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley), 19 June 2003, retrieved 2 January 2008 Identical twin girls separated at birth and reunited decades later have shown both startling similarities and differences.BBC, Jane Beresford, Twins reunited, after 35 years apart, 31 December 2007, retrieved 2 January 2008 In 2005, professor Kim Wallen of Emory University noted, "I think the 'nature versus nurture' question is not meaningful, because it treats them as independent factors, whereas in fact everything is nature and nurture."
(2026). 9789048137824, Springer. ISBN 9789048137824
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy in an adolescent girl. A female can become pregnant from sexual intercourse after she has begun to ovulate. Pregnant teenagers face many of the same pregnancy related issues as other women. There are, however, additional concerns for young adolescents as they are less likely to be physically developed enough to sustain a healthy pregnancy or to give birth.
Girls' education
Girls' equal access to education has been achieved in some countries, but there are significant disparities in the majority. There are gaps in access between different regions and countries and even within countries. Girls account for 60 percent of children out of school in Arab countries and 66 percent of non-attendees in South and West Asia; however, more girls than boys attend schools in many countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and Western Europe. Research has measured the economic cost of this inequality to developing countries: Plan International's analysis shows that a total of 65 low, middle income and transition countries fail to offer girls the same secondary school opportunities as boys, and in total, these countries are missing out on annual economic growth of an estimated $92 billion.
Educational environment and expectations
According to Kim Wallen, expectations will nonetheless play a role in how girls perform academically. For example, if females skilled in math are told a test is "gender neutral" they achieve high scores, but if they are told males outperformed females in the past, the females will do much worse. "What's strange is," Wallen observed, "according to the research, all one apparently has to do is tell a woman who has a lifetime of socialization of being poor in math that a math test is gender neutral, and all effects of that socialization go away."Emory University website, Women's work? , September 2005, retrieved 2 January 2008 Author Judith Harris has said that aside from their genetic contribution, the nurturing provided by parents likely has less long-term influence over their offspring than other environmental aspects such as the children's peer group.PBS.org, Nature vs. nurture , 20 October 1998, retrieved 2 January 2008
Obstacles to girls' access to education
In many parts of the world, girls face significant obstacles to accessing proper education. These obstacles include: child marriage and ; early pregnancy; prejudice based on gender stereotypes at home, at school and in the community; violence on the way to school, or in and around schools; long distances to schools; vulnerability to the HIV epidemic; school fees, which often lead to parents sending only their sons to school; lack of gender sensitive approaches and materials in classrooms.
Sex segregation
Sex segregation is the physical, legal, and cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. It is practiced in many societies, especially starting when children attain puberty. In certain circumstances, sex segregation is controversial.Salomone, Rosemary C. "Are Single-Sex Schools Inherently Unequal? Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling." "Michigan Law Review." 102(6):1219-1244 Some critics contend that it is a violation of capabilities and human rights and can create economic inefficiencies and discrimination, while some supporters argue that it is central to certain religious laws and social and cultural histories and traditions.The World Bank. 2012. "Gender Equality and Development: World Development Report 2012." Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.Nussbaum, Martha C. 2003. "Women's Education: A Global Challenge." "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society" 29(2): 325–355 Purdah is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that women cover almost entirely their bodies. The ages from which this practice is enforced vary by community. Such practices are most common in cultures where the concept of family honor is very strong. In cultures where sex segregation is common, the predominant form of education in single sex education, but in countries such as the United Kingdom, the extent of single sex education has declined significantly over the last 30 years.Lombard, No boys allowed? Girls’ schools adapt to changing times, published on 27 November 2020, accessed on 17 May 2025
Violence against girls
In many parts of the world, girls are at risk of specific forms of violence and abuse, such as sex-selective abortion, female genital mutilation, child marriage, child sexual abuse, honor killings.
(2026). 9782910053291, Committee for International Cooperation in National Research in Demography. ISBN 9782910053291
FGM is most often carried out on girls aged between infancy and 15 years.
Health
Girls' health suffers in cultures where girls are valued less than boys, and families allocate most resources to boys. A major threat to girls' health is early marriage, which often leads to early pregnancy. Girls forced into child marriage often become pregnant quickly after marriage, increasing their risk of complications and maternal mortality. Such complications resulting from pregnancy and birth at young ages are a leading cause of death among teenage girls in developing countries. Child marriage | UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund Female genital mutilation (FGM) practiced in many parts of the world is another leading cause of ill health for girls. Female genital mutilation
Girls and child labor
Gender influences the pattern of child labor. Girls tend to be asked by their families to perform more domestic work in their parental home than boys are, and often at younger ages than boys. Employment as a paid domestic worker is the most common form of child labor for girls. In some places, such as East Asia and Southeast Asia, parents often see work as a domestic servant as a good preparation for marriage. Domestic service, however, is among the least regulated of all professions, and exposes workers to serious risks, such as violence, exploitation and abuse by the employers, because the workers are often isolated from the outside world. Child labor has a very negative effect on education. Girls either stop their education, or, when they continue it, they are often subjected to a double burden, or a triple burden of work outside the home, housework in the parental home, and schoolwork. This situation is common in places such as parts of Asia and Latin America.
International initiatives for girls' rights
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1988) and Millennium Development Goals (2000) promoted better access to education for all girls and boys and to eliminate gender disparities at both primary and secondary level. Worldwide school enrolment and literacy rates for girls have improved continuously. In 2005, global primary net enrolment rates were 85 percent for girls, up from 78 percent 15 years earlier; at the secondary level, girls' enrolment increased 10 percentage points to 57 percent over the same period.
Art and literature
Historically, art and literature in Western culture has portrayed girls as symbols of innocence, purity, virtue and hope. Egyptian murals included sympathetic portraits of young girls who were daughters of royalty. Sappho's poetry carries love poems addressed to girls.
Painting
In Europe, some early paintings featuring girls were Petrus Christus' Portrait of a Young Girl (about 1460), Juan de Flandes' Portrait of a Young Girl (about 1505), Frans Hals' in 1620, Diego Velázquez' Las Meninas in 1656, Jan Steen's The Feast of St. Nicolas (about 1660) and Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring along with . Later paintings of girls include Albert Anker's portrait of a and Camille Pissarro's 1883 .
Children's literature about and for girls
The European children's literature canon includes many notable works with young female protagonists. Traditional have preserved memorable stories about girls. Among these are Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rapunzel, The Princess and the Pea and the Brothers Grimm's Little Red Riding Hood. Well-known children's books about girls include Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Nancy Drew series, Little House on the Prairie, Madeline, Pippi Longstocking, A Wrinkle in Time, Dragonsong, and Little Women.
Adult literature featuring girls
Recent novels with an adult audience have included reflections on girlhood experiences. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden begins as the female main character and her sister are dropped off in the pleasure district after being separated from their family in nineteenth-century Japan. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See traces the laotong (old sames) bond of friendship between a pair of childhood friends in modern Beijing, and the parallel friendship of their ancestors in nineteenth-century Hunan, China.
Girls' studies
Since the 1970s, under the influence of feminist criticism of the Androcentrism approach in scientific studies of childhood and adolescence, a special scientific discipline studying girls, girls' studies, has gradually emerged.Kearney, Mary Celeste. "Coalescing: The Development of Girls' Studies." NWSA journal (2009): p. 1-28.
Popular culture
There have been many comic books and comic strips featuring a girl as the main character such as Little Lulu and Little Orphan Annie from the US, and Minnie the Minx from the UK. In superhero comic books an early girl character was Etta Candy, one of Wonder Woman's . In the Peanuts series (by Charles Schulz) girl characters include Peppermint Patty, Lucy van Pelt and Sally Brown.
See also
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