For a long time, few historical studies have focused on the life of girls, especially rural, working class girls’ experiences. Within the field of Swedish educational history, scholars have tended to delve into the lives of the daughters of the bourgeoisie rather than the girls in the public elementary schools (folkskolan). Because of this, the dominant image that comes to mind when thinking of a turn of the century schoolgirl is someone from the upper class attending an all girls’ school. This master’s thesis aims to widen both the field of girlhood studies and that of educational history by looking at the “process of girling” taking place in the Swedish public elementary school between 1900 and 1930. A starting point is the notion explored by Judith Butler and Fanny Ambjörnsson: that gender is a result of repeated actions, such as running in a certain way, playing with your friends, or wearing specific clothes – or the absence of these actions. This thesis explores these actions, in addition to the reaction of the worlds around them. Utilizing data collected from nine school related questionnaires sent out between the 1950s and 1990s by The Institute for Language and Folklore, it compares the experience of an average schoolgirl with the dominant bourgeoisie ideal and the ideal taken from a dominant periodical for public elementary school teachers. Actions of resistance, queer or “skeva” acts and how they play a part in the process of girling, will also be explored. The primary conclusion drawn from the analysis of this material is that the situation for working class girls differs somewhat from that of more privileged peers, as well as the ideal constructed in the periodical. While girls from the bourgeoisie were also expected to fulfill the role of wife and mother, the conditions differed. One example is the kind of rural crafts or handicraft made by the working class girls from an early age. This activity was an important contribution the economy of the family and definitely not a past time as it was in the upper class. Even though a ban on child labor had been passed, it seemed as though children working was a very normalized part of life in rural areas as more often than not, it was children that were responsible for bringing water into the classroom and tending the iron stove. The possibilities for working class girls appears to have been limited continuing into the 1920s as the only secondary education available for a majority of the girls was in domestic skills for the purpose of managing a private household. Although young women from the upper class were shut out from many professions, they still had greater access to higher education. On the contrary, most working class women did not even attend secondary school as evidenced by the source material report showing women staying on the home farm, or starting work somewhere else. Firmness and austerity of mind can be identified among the girls at a time where the everyday work at home and in school needed to be done and sulking simply was not an option. The many reports of actions of resistance to the social norm show that the limits of girlhood were constantly being challenged by the schoolgirls in the study.

The “Girl Effect” is becoming a growing global movement that assumes young women are catalysts capable of bringing social and economic change to their families, communities and countries, particularly in the Two-Thirds World. The evolving discourse associated with the Girl Effect movement holds implications for sport, gender and development (SGD) programs. Increasingly, SGD interventions are funded and implemented by transnational corporations (TNCs) as part of the mounting portfolio of global corporate social engagement (GCSE) initiatives in development. Drawing on postcolonial feminist international relations theory, cultural studies of girlhood, sociology of sport and governmentality studies, the purpose of this study was to explore: a) how young women in Eastern Uganda experience SGD programs; and b) how constellations of aid relations among a sport transnational corporation (STNC), international non-governmental organization (INGO), and southern non-governmental organization (SNGO) impacted and influenced the ways that SGD programs are executed, implemented and “taken up” by young women. This study used qualitative methods, including 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with organizational staff members and young women, participant observation and document analysis in order to investigate how a SGD program in Eastern Uganda that is funded by a STNC and INGO used martial arts to build young women’s self-defence skills to help address gender-based, sexual and domestic violence. Results revealed martial arts programming increased confidence, challenged gender norms, augmented social networks and provided social entrepreneurial opportunities. At the same time, the program also attempted to govern young women’s sexuality and health, but did so while ignoring culturally distinct gender relations. Findings also highlighted the colonial residue and power of aid relations, STNC’s brand authority over SGD programming, the involvement of Western actors in locating “authentic” subaltern stories about social entrepreneurial work in SGD, and how the politics of the “global” sisterhood is enmeshed in saving “distant others” in gender and development work. Overall, this study found that the drive for GCSE, when entangled with neo-liberal globalization, impels actors working in SGD to look to social innovation and entrepreneurship as strategies for survival in an increasingly competitive international development climate.

The “Girl Effect” is becoming a growing global movement that assumes young women are catalysts capable of bringing social and economic change to their families, communities and countries, particularly in the Two-Thirds World. The evolving discourse associated with the Girl Effect movement holds implications for sport, gender and development (SGD) programs. Increasingly, SGD interventions are funded and implemented by transnational corporations (TNCs) as part of the mounting portfolio of global corporate social engagement (GCSE) initiatives in development. Drawing on postcolonial feminist international relations theory, cultural studies of girlhood, sociology of sport and governmentality studies, the purpose of this study was to explore: a) how young women in Eastern Uganda experience SGD programs; and b) how constellations of aid relations among a sport transnational corporation (STNC), international non-governmental organization (INGO), and southern non-governmental organization (SNGO) impacted and influenced the ways that SGD programs are executed, implemented and “taken up” by young women. This study used qualitative methods, including 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with organizational staff members and young women, participant observation and document analysis in order to investigate how a SGD program in Eastern Uganda that is funded by a STNC and INGO used martial arts to build young women’s self-defence skills to help address gender-based, sexual and domestic violence. Results revealed martial arts programming increased confidence, challenged gender norms, augmented social networks and provided social entrepreneurial opportunities. At the same time, the program also attempted to govern young women’s sexuality and health, but did so while ignoring culturally distinct gender relations. Findings also highlighted the colonial residue and power of aid relations, STNC’s brand authority over SGD programming, the involvement of Western actors in locating “authentic” subaltern stories about social entrepreneurial work in SGD, and how the politics of the “global” sisterhood is enmeshed in saving “distant others” in gender and development work. Overall, this study found that the drive for GCSE, when entangled with neo-liberal globalization, impels actors working in SGD to look to social innovation and entrepreneurship as strategies for survival in an increasingly competitive international development climate.

Through Close reading of the two trilogies The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and The Engelsfors trilogy by Sara Elf Bergsmark and Mats Strandberg this thesis aim is to examine the popular literary theme with a young girl who saves the world.  This thesis approach this through Michel Foucault’s theories of both discourse theory and analysis of power. By using discourse theory this thesis first examines what it means to be a girl, in both the literary worlds and our own. The result shows that the girls have very different approaches to what it means to be a girl. What they do have in common is that they all relate to an understanding of a concept of the right way to be a girl, as if there was a blueprint version of the true girl. In the second part the girls approach to power and how they find ways to show resistance is studied. Foucault argues that power is a part of all human relationships and that power always is possible to change. By exanimating everyday life experiences where power and control is exercised, different ways in which the girls lives that were shaped by this power was revealed. The analysis show that the power influences their lives in even the smallest ways and affect what they say, their dreams and their thoughts. By becoming more aware of how their societies are constructed they find ways to fight back and show resistance. Collaborations between people of different background and class is an important element in both trilogies and through the girls commitment they become aware of how they can be a part of and lead their societies to change. In both books, the worlds the girls live in is changed for the better.

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