Conceptualizing Girlhoods and Girlhood Studies in Africa

Milka Nyariro ()
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Milka Nyariro: McGill University

Chapter Chapter 3 in African Feminist Girlhood Studies and Development, 2025, pp 39-61 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Nyariro provides a much-needed definition of girl and girlhoods in Africa. African girls and African girlhood continue to be underrepresented in scholarship, yet girlhood is context specific. Nyariro’s chapter perspicuously notes that girlhood has been and continues to be determined by adults. Analyzing how girlhood overlaps with other disenfranchised statuses and understudied lifestages like childhood, youthhood and womanhood, the chapter raises questions and approaches for the nascent field of Girlhood Studies in Africa. Drawing evidence from a wide array of literature in the fields of Girlhood, Childhood and Youth studies, the chapter creates a context and deeper understanding of African Girlhood Studies relative to Girlhood Studies globally. The work challenges the popularly touted idea that education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has given girls agency and voices and attempts to problematize the complex impacts of education in extending the phase known as girlhood in sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Black-African girlhood; Development; Kenya; Sub-Saharan Africa; Transnational girlhood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:gdechp:978-3-031-91561-1_3

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-91561-1_3

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